Jews and Armenians: The transformations of historical perceptions
May 31-June 5, 2010, Yerevan State University, Department ofArabic Studies
From May 31 till June 5 2010 a seminar on Jewish-Armenian interrelations took place at the Department of Arabic Studies, Yerevan State University. The project was developed in “Paideia Project-Incubator 2009” at the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden (Stockholm, August 2009). More than 20 participants and guests, including Rima Vardzapetyan, the head of the Jewish community in Armenia and Adelina Lifshitz, the editor of the community newspaper, were present at the seminar. One of the main speakers of the seminar was Harutyun Marutyan, leading researcher of the Department of Contemporary Anthropological Studies, Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia. During the seminar he gave lectures comparing the historical memory of the Armenian Genocide with that of the Holocaust. The senior research fellow of the Center of Civilization and Cultural Studies, Yerevan State University Tigran Matosyan devoted his lectures to the historical parallels between Armenian Genocide and Jewish Holocaust. Program tutor Alvina Hovhannisyan, lecturer at the Department of Arabic Studies, spoke about the Armenian and Jewish interrelations and the Jewish tradition. Seminar coordinatorArusyak Tarloyan represented to the participants the main holidays of the Jewish calendar putting emphasis on their prehistory and traditional characteristics.