L | A
By Professor Alexander Kitroeff
The graduating students of the kindergarten
There are a number of sayings linking the knowledge of history with an ability to anticipate the future. One often quoted is: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Historians themselves oddly enough are the least likely to repeat such adages. Historians are trained to consider all knowledge coming only after the event, not before it. The German philosopher Hegel put it much more grandiosely with a metaphoric reference to the owl of wisdom associated with the goddess Athena. He wrote “the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk” meaning that true understanding and wisdom come only in retrospect, after events have unfolded not before.
Given the pedigree of such a notion, most historians shy away from predicting the future. But there are notable exceptions, such as the internationally known Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari. In one of his several best-selling books, titled ‘Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow’, he sets out to examine the future of the human race and considers how humans will seek to increase their happiness and yes, even their immortality.
Last week I finished teaching a course titled ‘Greek America: Past, Present and Future’. As the title implies, and with apologies to Hegel, I abandoned the historian’s reluctance to predict the future and instead I accessed my inner Harari for the last session. Sponsored by College Year in Athens (CYA) in collaboration with the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) the course consisted of six weekly one-hour-and-a-half zoom sessions. The topic was the evolution of Greek-American identity from the 1920s to the present. There was an additional session on Greek-Canadian identity presented by Professor Sakis Gekas of York University in Toronto. The participants included several Greek-American young professionals who during their university career had spent a semester abroad at College Year in Athens. The program, the first to host American undergraduates on a semester abroad in Greece, has been traditionally strong in the fields of Archaeology and the Classics. This ironically has meant it has attracted only a small number of Greek-American undergraduates who tend to major in subjects such as business, economics, and the natural sciences.
I began by discussing the Americanization and assimilation of the Greek immigrants in the 1920s and the 1930s, then the era of acceptance respectability in the 1940s and the 1950s, followed by the revival of ethnicity in the 1970s and the subsequent shift from ethnic identity to a sense of Greek ancestry and heritage from the 1990s onwards and ended up with the final session addressing the present and future possibilities of Greek-American identity.
For shorthand purposes, I suggested there were four pillars of Greek-American identity: language, religion, connections with Greece (and Cyprus), and even if none of the above applied one could also count, a general affinity with Greece and interest in things Greek, something akin to philhellenism. While an identity based on only one of those pillars might sound too narrow, it can always lead to an embrace of one or more of the others.
In our present, the decade of the 2020s, there is both continuity with the past and, more interestingly, new features in the way Greek-American identity is expressed. The Greek language continues to be taught in the parochial and afternoon schools of the Archdiocese, and its instruction has been invigorated by the establishment of charter schools over the past two decades. Our language lives on, at least for now. On religion, we hear that Christianity in the United States is in decline, but this concerns Protestantism and Catholicism. I would venture that Greek Orthodoxy is more than holding its own thanks to the work of our Archdiocese and local parishes. I would also suggest the identity of many Greek-Americans is currently expressed primarily through their affiliation with the Greek Orthodox church.
By connections to Greece I mean organized, educational travel rather than tourism. There are several Greek-American organizations that sponsor organized visits to Greece by young Americans, although I am not sure what the actual numbers are and how much more can be done. This is not to discount tourist visits, but their value would from stays with relatives in the ancestral village or island rather than partying on Mykonos or Santorini.
With regard to the fourth pillar, the affinity with and interest in Greece and Cyprus, this is something generated by all Greek-American institutions including this newspaper and especially the more recently formed organizations which bring new ideas to the table. They include, to mention just a few, Capital Link, the Eastern Mediterranean Business Cultural Association, The Greek America Foundation, the Gabby Awards and the Pappas Post, The Hellenic Initiative (THI), the Hellenic Innovation Network, the National Hellenic Society, and the Washington ‘OXI’ Day Foundation. I don’t know if all this can lead to a Harari-envisioned immortality, but it certainly bodes well for Greek America’s future.
@CallmeCicada @Admiral Throbnelius any thoughts?
By Professor Alexander Kitroeff
The graduating students of the kindergarten
There are a number of sayings linking the knowledge of history with an ability to anticipate the future. One often quoted is: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Historians themselves oddly enough are the least likely to repeat such adages. Historians are trained to consider all knowledge coming only after the event, not before it. The German philosopher Hegel put it much more grandiosely with a metaphoric reference to the owl of wisdom associated with the goddess Athena. He wrote “the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk” meaning that true understanding and wisdom come only in retrospect, after events have unfolded not before.
Given the pedigree of such a notion, most historians shy away from predicting the future. But there are notable exceptions, such as the internationally known Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari. In one of his several best-selling books, titled ‘Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow’, he sets out to examine the future of the human race and considers how humans will seek to increase their happiness and yes, even their immortality.
Last week I finished teaching a course titled ‘Greek America: Past, Present and Future’. As the title implies, and with apologies to Hegel, I abandoned the historian’s reluctance to predict the future and instead I accessed my inner Harari for the last session. Sponsored by College Year in Athens (CYA) in collaboration with the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) the course consisted of six weekly one-hour-and-a-half zoom sessions. The topic was the evolution of Greek-American identity from the 1920s to the present. There was an additional session on Greek-Canadian identity presented by Professor Sakis Gekas of York University in Toronto. The participants included several Greek-American young professionals who during their university career had spent a semester abroad at College Year in Athens. The program, the first to host American undergraduates on a semester abroad in Greece, has been traditionally strong in the fields of Archaeology and the Classics. This ironically has meant it has attracted only a small number of Greek-American undergraduates who tend to major in subjects such as business, economics, and the natural sciences.
I began by discussing the Americanization and assimilation of the Greek immigrants in the 1920s and the 1930s, then the era of acceptance respectability in the 1940s and the 1950s, followed by the revival of ethnicity in the 1970s and the subsequent shift from ethnic identity to a sense of Greek ancestry and heritage from the 1990s onwards and ended up with the final session addressing the present and future possibilities of Greek-American identity.
For shorthand purposes, I suggested there were four pillars of Greek-American identity: language, religion, connections with Greece (and Cyprus), and even if none of the above applied one could also count, a general affinity with Greece and interest in things Greek, something akin to philhellenism. While an identity based on only one of those pillars might sound too narrow, it can always lead to an embrace of one or more of the others.
In our present, the decade of the 2020s, there is both continuity with the past and, more interestingly, new features in the way Greek-American identity is expressed. The Greek language continues to be taught in the parochial and afternoon schools of the Archdiocese, and its instruction has been invigorated by the establishment of charter schools over the past two decades. Our language lives on, at least for now. On religion, we hear that Christianity in the United States is in decline, but this concerns Protestantism and Catholicism. I would venture that Greek Orthodoxy is more than holding its own thanks to the work of our Archdiocese and local parishes. I would also suggest the identity of many Greek-Americans is currently expressed primarily through their affiliation with the Greek Orthodox church.
By connections to Greece I mean organized, educational travel rather than tourism. There are several Greek-American organizations that sponsor organized visits to Greece by young Americans, although I am not sure what the actual numbers are and how much more can be done. This is not to discount tourist visits, but their value would from stays with relatives in the ancestral village or island rather than partying on Mykonos or Santorini.
With regard to the fourth pillar, the affinity with and interest in Greece and Cyprus, this is something generated by all Greek-American institutions including this newspaper and especially the more recently formed organizations which bring new ideas to the table. They include, to mention just a few, Capital Link, the Eastern Mediterranean Business Cultural Association, The Greek America Foundation, the Gabby Awards and the Pappas Post, The Hellenic Initiative (THI), the Hellenic Innovation Network, the National Hellenic Society, and the Washington ‘OXI’ Day Foundation. I don’t know if all this can lead to a Harari-envisioned immortality, but it certainly bodes well for Greek America’s future.
@CallmeCicada @Admiral Throbnelius any thoughts?
