Drew University Remembers Armenian Genocide

The Drew University Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study is presenting a program commemorating the Armenian Genocide, which took place 100 years ago at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

The program will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 27, at the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts on the Drew University campus. The program is free and open to the public.

The event will include guest speakers, music and a poster display. Those speaking at the program include Susan Vartanian Barba, a New Jersey resident who plans to share her father’s testimonial of witnessing the death of his father, brother and other family members when he was a child during the genocide, Drew University said. Barba said her father survived a fire and a shooting, and hid in a river and in a village to escape soldiers.

In addition to Barba, Neery Melkonian, an independent art writer, researcher and curator, will be sharing a visual history of the genocide over the last 100 years at the free program. Melkonian will also show how visual records of the genocide have changed over the decades along with public opinion, Drew University said.

A number of organizations are partnering with Drew University’s Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study to promote the program, including Kean University, The Holocaust Council of Greater MetroWest, New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, Temple B’nai Or and Church of the Redeemer in Morristown, Chatham United Methodist Church and St. Mary’s Armenian Church in Livingston.

For more information regarding the event, contact the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study at 973-408-3600 or ctrholst@drew.edu.