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With a penchant for creating world-class drugs, George Yancopoulos, 55, has gone from doing research at Columbia to superstar status in his industry, and made himself a billionaire doing it.

Pushed by his father,  a first-generation Greek immigrant who complained how little the university life paid, Yancopoulos in 1988 jumped ship to a small Tarrytown, NY Biotech firm called Regeneron and helped its worth rocket 2,240 percent in the past five years.

His career, featured in Forbes magazine, showed how his scientific ability and humility combined to help him develop drugs for patients with illnesses from asthma to cancer and made the company a force to be reckoned with in its field.

“We were a tiny company, but we had the most powerful technology,” he says. “And sometimes that’s what counts,” he told the magazine.

Sanofi , Regeneron’s partner on most of its drugs, just re-upped on the value of the technologies Yancopoulos has created. On July 28 it announced it would pay $640 million to kick off a new partnership in which Regeneron will invent cancer drugs that harness the immune system.

“George  sees and feels biology in ways very few scientists really can,” said Elias Zerhouni, the President of Global R&D at Sanofi. “It is this creative intuition combined with scientific rigor that makes him special in my view.”

Yancopoulos defers to his team of scientists and the man who hired him, fellow billionaire Leonard Schleifer, who said his find has “immense talent and genius.”

Yancopoulos’ fourth drug, Praluent (for lowering cholesterol in people already maxed-out on statins), was approved on July 24 and expected to be a big seller.

He’s also working on a big project to sequence patients’ DNA and Deutsche Bank estimates that his experimental drug for allergic conditions could generate $10 billion in annual sales by 2025.

Yancopoulos said he wanted to be in R & D what his role model, Regeneron’s Chairman, Roy Vagelos created.

Yancopoulos works at his science like a scientist, not a man interested in the money it brings and is deeply involved in Regeneron’s drug discovery, as well as a principal inventor on all the technology patents that underlie the invention of all of Regeneron’s drugs.

It hasn’t gone to his head. He drives an eight-year-old Honda Pilot, does his kids’ laundry and dresses in the worn Oxfords and khakis of an academic scientist, Forbes wrote.

He is uncomfortable discussing his wealth but hopes that the very thought of it, generated by lifesaving drugs, might serve “as an inspiration to kids who (might) otherwise become hedge fund managers.”

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Nudity is everywhere these days in the Internet age but Americans were first introduced to it in the arts more than 170 years ago through the sculpture of a woman called Greek Slave.

The work by Hiram Powers was the first nude sculpture of a woman widely seen by the American public and is now on exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, explores the artistic processes behind one of the most provocative pieces of the 19th Century.

“If you had access to private collections or went on a Grand Tour, you might have seen this kind of artwork, but not if you were an average American,” Karen Lemmey, curator of sculpture and organizer of the exhibition, told Hyperallergic.

Powers replicated his work in marble several times due to its huge success, although it so shocked some Americans in the age before the Civil War it also became an abolitionist icon.

“He’s referencing multiple eras of enslavement, and within a short time this piece becomes identified by abolitionists as having the potential to address slavery more broadly, global slavery, slavery in the United States,” Lemmey said.

“Even in today’s day and age, human trafficking is still a crisis. Young women and children are at the crux of the crisis, and Powers is deeply concerned about the fact that she’s a young woman, she’s fragile. The sculpture takes on new meaning as time goes on.”

She said that long run of Measured Perfection through February of 2017 allows the museum to intensely explore Powers’ craft and the evolution of technology in sculpture.

“It’s getting people to be in a museum, but to understand where objects were made,” Lemmey said. “When you come into a museum you expect to see everything finished; this is in a moment of making.”

Powers, who had patrons in the South, tried to skirt the issue of American slavery but did it indirectly by referring to the Greek War of Independence in the 1820’s, looking back to a history of enslavement through to ancient Greece.

Powers grew up in Vermont and it was Greek Slave, introduced in 1843 and which drew more than 100,000 visitors on a tour of the U.S. in 1847 which established his reputation. The woman, a classical beauty, is seen with chains on her wrists.

“He’s not going out on a limb and directly accusing the American slavery institution as wrong, he’s talking about it in the abstract in the perspective of Greek independence, and complicating it with a Christian woman who is white,” Lemmey said.

After five editions, he made a second version following the Civil War. Only sculpted in full-scale marble once, it had a major contextual alteration, the 1869 result of which is on view at the Brooklyn Museum.

“In that example he changes the very Neoclassical linked chains into a straight bar manacle which very unequivocally associates it with the American slave industry,” Lemmey said. “The piece does evolve from being something about slavery in the abstract, to about American slavery.”

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NEW YORK – If nobody knows the truth, is it still the truth? Beneath the Olive Tree, the remarkable documentary about the concentration camps for women during and after the Greek Civil War, is provoking thought and tears across America.

Narrated by Olympia Dukakis, who was the Executive Produder, and directed by Stavroula Toska, the movie, decades after the fall of the Greek junta, is shattering some taboos about “the junta before the junta” – the repression under post WWII rightwing governments which used the Cold War as cover to crack down on their non-communist opposition.

The Truth, which is healing and liberating for societies and individuals, is often inaccessible and buried, sometimes literally.

Seven journals found beneath an olive tree on the island of Trikiri, near Volos, became the basis for Eleni Fourtouni ‘s book Greek Women in Resistance.
Trikiri was a concentration camp for women and children who were relatives of members of the EAM-ELAS, the communist WWII resistance movement, and Toska told TNH the notebooks were kept by young women under the guidance of educator Rosa Imbrioti.

“They did not know if they were going to get out there alive or not…their hope was at some point someone would discover them and learn what happened on those islands – the torture, the executions, everything,” she said.

Toska was inspired to turn the stories into a movie, and Dukakis opened the door to the hearts and memories the women who have been conditioned by their life experiences to distrust.

“Oh, if Olympia Dukakis is involved, we’ll talk to you,” they told her.

Their stories are not merely political; they have humanitarian power.

“I will never forget the story of the 60-year-old woman who in the mountains finally learned to read,” Dukakis said.

Once Toska gets the distribution deal her dream is for her team to go to Greece for a screening with the women and their families. In the meantime, she is thrilled to convey to them how people are inspired by their lives.

PLEASING WHOM?

“It all started the moment Olympia handed a book to me in 2010.”

Toska came into Dukakis’ apartment brimming with excitement about a project that just wasn’t appetizing to Olympia.

We had an honest, tough conversation,” Toska said, “I was writing scripts I thought I could sell to television and get me to the next level of success, but I was not expressing myself…Olympia changed my life with two simple questions: why are you writing this and whom are you trying to please?”

The Oscar-winning actress who loves the role of mentor, told her “Forget everybody. Whatever you do, do it for yourself, do it because you have no other choice…If you are going to write, write what you know, or stories that strike a chord with you.”

Toska said “I could tell her anything without be afraid of being judged and I know she has my best interests in mind…whatever she says to me, whether I want to hear it or not, it’s always for the best.”

But on that day the disappointment was too great, and Toska was in tears as she walked out of the light and plant-filled home of the renowned actress and teacher.

Dukakis ran out to her and shouted “wait!” – and handed her the book.
“Something compelled me…To find the book and give it to her…I wanted her to have something she could be passionate about…I did not spend my career looking for success. I was searching for things that grabbed me,” Dukakis told TNH.

After Toska read the book, she came back “a different person” Dukakis said.

“Olympia, who are these women? I went to school in Greece but I never heard of them.”

Dukakis, impressed with the response, told her “If you want to do something about this, even if you don’t know yet was it is, I will support you any way I can.”

Greeks say everything happens for a reason, but there are also accidents.

“I think I may have just stumbled onto the book, and I wanted to do what Stavroula did, but I ended up running a theater and I always felt bad because I dissuaded someone from doing it.”

It was obviously meant to come to life through Toska, but her connection Greek Women in Resistance ran deeper than the two women could imagine.

After pressuring her mother about, “I discovered that my maternal grandmother was one of those women…She was imprisoned for 3 ½ years.”

Dukakis became excited , pounded her fist as exclaimed “Can you believe that!”

IF THEY CRY IN DUBUQUE…

The film was completed in April “after five years of incredible patience…but Olympia kept me going and she has been the biggest cheerleader.”

Dukakis praised Toska’s fortitude – “And she is not even from Mani” – where Dukakis’ mother is from – she said.

The movie had its world premiere at the prestigious Sarasota Film Festival. At the International Film Festival in Dubuque, IA Toska said she had an amazing experience “It didn’t think that people in Iowa of all places… would come to us with tears in their eyes.”

Their first award came from The First Time Film Festival in New York in March and at the Los Angelos Greek Film Festival she won the inaugural Van Vlahakis award for the Most Innovative Film Maker.”

The East Coast premiere is coming up, which her team is very excited about.

“I was blessed with talented people willing to work hard for little or no money. They said I want to be a part of it.”

Sophia Antonini, Toska’s business partner with Orama Pictures, produced and co-wrote it, and Greek-American film maker Nick Efteriades also co-produced. Lauren Jackson made a significant contribution as editor, Tao Zervas wrote the haunting score, Paulina Zaitseva did the animation sequences, and Eleni Drivas was the historical consultant.

Toska has just launched Living the Dream, a web series about film makers trying to make it in New York – which Toska plans to turn in a network comedy series, and she is developing projects dealing with domestic violence, which Dukakis is also passionate about.

“It’s very exciting stuff,” Dukakis said.

They are also looking forward to the documentary Olympia Dukakis Undefined, directed by Harry Mavromichalis.

He filmed her with her family and at work, including arts and social activism projects, but part of the movies magic is scenes from a special trip.

“I had the feeling take the female members of my family, my daughter and my two granddaughters – the matrilineal line – to my mother’s village in Mani.”

She is deeply grateful that a prominent Greek-American producer who admires her work made it happen. “He paid for the transportation – plane fare, helicopters to the village and places like Mycenae and Epidaurus, which is so moving to me – and my granddaughters could not get enough.”

All of Dukakis’ children – she has been married to Serbian-American actor Lou Zorich for 53 years – have a touch of the artist, if not the teacher in them. Among the family treasures in her Manhattan apartment – the Lowell native loves New York – are framed drawings made by her children and grandchildren.

Without even mentioning politics, one learns of genes for many talents in the Dukakis family – Dukakis is also a remarkable athlete and her brother Apollo is also an actor – but their source is beloved Hellas, and the Greek crisis came up often in the discussion.

It was noted that societies, like individuals, are damaged by repressed truths, and they are pleased the movie illuminates the current crisis. They pointed to the rise of the far left despite the decades of suppression, and also to the fascist elements in Greece, and interference from outside powers, the timing is amazing.

It can be argued that there was a double taboo, in Greece, first against talking about rightwing persecution of the left, and also the resistance within the left, perhaps because they provoked persecution, to a reexamination of treasured principles and policies. Across the spectrum parties must “Adapt or die,” Toska said, but sclerosis in Greece comes in all political colors.

Dukakis pointed out the far left should be supporting reforms that fight corruption and tax evasion among the rich, but in Greece, the supposedly progressive far left seems opposed to change of any kind.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras they agreed, however, is showing signs he can distinguish the necessary structural reforms necessary to build a New Greece from the Troika’s other demands.

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Long over her marriage to Brad Pitt, actress Jennifer Aniston has wedded again, this time to actor and long-time beau Justin Theroux.

The couple exchanged vows Aug. 6 of their Bel Air estate, sources confirmed to the New York Daily News.

Photos started appearing on TMZ.com showing a pastor entering the property and a woman holding a cake topper with male and female figures dressed in wedding garb.

Celebrity pals, including Ellen DeGeneres, Howard Stern, Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Ken Marino, Lake Bell and jewelry designer Jen Meyer, were photographed arriving at the swank soiree.

Aniston’s Friends castmates Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox also attended the exchange of vows — with Cox being the last to leave around 3 a.m., People.com reported.

Not long after, the newlyweds were seen boarding a private jet out of Los Angeles and said to he heading off – no, not to a Greek island – but to Bora Bora, People magazine reported.

Theroux and Greek-America’s sweetheart Aniston met during the writing of the 2008 Ben Stiller flick Tropic Thunder and got engaged on his birthday in 2012.

“There’s a big discussion in our house right now: Do you just do it and say screw it? Or do you try desperately to get away with (a secret ceremony) where you don’t have any fun because you’re hiding in a cave somewhere?” she told InStyle magazine for its February cover.

Theroux, who plays an edgy police chief on HBO’s apocalyptic drama “The Leftovers,” told the Daily News last year that Aniston was the one he’d want by his side after the rapture.

“That’s who I would want to bring with me,” he said.

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BALTIMORE, MD – Everyone loves a small plate of delicious food. Long time Greek-American friends opened up a Cava Mezze in Baltimore, reported the Baltimore Sun. Mezze is not a new concept in the Baltimore dining scene but it is definitely not overplayed, wrote the Sun. Cava Mezze opened in late June in Harbor East. It is “a welcome addition to the city and already feels familiar. Its Greek-inspired small plates are mostly well-conceived and nicely prepared, and service is friendly and knowledgeable, though not perfectly paced.” This is the fourth location for Cava Mezze. The other restaurants are located around the DC area. The owners have national plans for Cava Mezze and her sister Cava Grill.

The Sun reported that the “Baltimore restaurant’s newly built space is loud, dimly lit and modern, with dark fixtures and metal and wood accents. On a recent Monday night, ’90s rap gave the space an upbeat, chatty vibe that felt appropriate for the crowd — couples and small groups of friends, mostly in their 30s — though the space could skew sexier (or younger) with nothing more than a change in music.” Cava Mezze adds a little flair by frying happens tableside; where waiters ignite saganaki and flames shoot into the air. “Flaming dishes are dramatic and fun.” Although Cava Mezze has a solid list of local beers and gamely offers a few Greek beverage selections, the cocktail menu branches out a bit. Some suggestions from the Sun about what to eat: “Groups should consider the dip sampler, which includes small scoops of Cava Mezze’s five dips, served with pita triangles. Tzatziki, hummus and roasted eggplant spreads, all well-seasoned, were familiar takes on the classic Greek dips. Taramosalata, is a bright pink spread made with salmon roe, was subtly fishy and dressed up with truffle oil and a sprinkling of salty caviar. Our favorite of the dips was the “crazy” feta. It is Whipped and infused with jalapeno, the feta was spicy, salty and very likable.”
And for dessert: “Challah bread French toast served with berries, and loukoumades, fried doughnuts drizzled with honey and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. Both were fluffy and sweet but not too sugary. The loukoumades were better – crispier on the outside and more interesting all around.”

PITTSBURGH, PA – This week writer Gabe Rosenberg wrote an article on Carrie Weaver, a lecturer and recent Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Weaver analyzed 258 burials and skeletons from the Passo Marinaro necropolis in Kamarina, which were excavated in the 1980s by Italian archaeologist Giovanni Di Stefano but never analyzed. Rosenberg says, “Sometime between 500 B.C. and 200 B.C., residents of the Greek colony of Kamarina in Sicily dug two graves for two bodies. They pinned down each body with large rocks or pottery; if the bodies awoke from the dead, they could not escape. Reanimated corpses did not, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, ravage the Greek Empire then, but ancient Greeks certainly believed they could. Instances of both necrophobia (fear of the dead) and necromancy (the practice of communicating with the dead) are common in ancient Greek culture, and are the focus of new research by Weaver.”

Rosenberg laughably says that “The zombies of Ancient Greece would put the zombies of American pop culture to shame — if only because they were really, truly feared.” Weaver, a classical archaeologist who specializes in human osteology and funerary archaeology, was working in Sicily when she found these skeletons had been left unexamined in a museum. Two burials stood out to her. Weaver said that, “Any time that a body is buried differently from the rest of the members of the cemetery, it’s termed a deviant burial,” the Gazette reported. Weaver found that ancient Greeks belief in the supernatural extended to convictions that certain individuals were predisposed, predestined or compelled to become “revenants,” or the undead. “Illegitimate offspring, victims of suicide, mothers who died in childbirth and victims of murder, drowning, stroke or plague could all become revenants. Improper treatment of a body, such as not providing proper burial rites or allowing animals or insects to leap or fly over a body, could cause it to transform.” Weaver’s examination of the Kamarina cemetery will appear in her book, “The Bioarchaeology of Classical Kamarina: Life and Death in Greek Sicily.”

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The Camarinos brothers were among the first Greeks to settle in Hawaii in the 1880s. Originally from the village of Tsintzina near Sparta the Camarinos family relocated to nearby Goritsa. What might seem a minor point of family history becomes a prominent factor in this clan’s future business interests. Three Camarinos brothers eventually traveled to Hawaii, Demetrius (1856-1903), Panayiotis (later Peter) (1862-1942) and John.

Understanding the collective actions of these brothers can serve several historical purposes. First, given the leadership role of the Camarinos brothers we learn more about the collective impact of the Greeks in Hawaii. Next, the Camarinos brothers’ business advancements inform the success of many Greek immigrant confectioners in North America that until very recently was not known. And finally even a causal review of the experiences of the Camarinos brother’s lives confronts the reader with a case study in the manner by which American history can gloss over terrible crimes.

Demetrios Camarinos is credited with attending the Universty of Athens where he was studying to be a priest.

However, by 1877, Demetrios abandoned his theological studies and traveled to New York City looking for work. Displeased with the city, Camarinos moved westward, ending up in San Francisco. Like the vast majority of Greek immigrants Camarinos’ first job was a dishwasher. In 1879, using savings and money sent by his father Camarinos purchased a fruit store on East Street near Clay. In 1887, Peter Camarinos joined his brother. Once together the brothers decided to start a fruit company in Hawaii and from there to export fruit to California markets.

In 1884, the twenty-two year old Peter Camarinos traveled to Hawaii to establish just such a business, the California Fruit Market. While this move would only seem logical, today, it must be recalled that the first commercial Hawaiian pineapple plantation was only established in 1886. With Peter in Hawaii and Demetrios in San Francisco the brother’s business interests grew with incredible leaps and bounds. Each brother began to take advantage of the local business situations to increase their collective interests. By March 25, 1890, Demetrios Camarinos purchased the Emerson, Butler, and Co. Fruit Company in San Francisco. Focusing on farmers and wholesalers in California and Mexico Demetrios secured store fronts and packing houses. Peter focused on fruit available from Hawaiian growers as well as those from Australia and New Zealand which he saw shipped to his San Francisco offices.

Critical to our understanding of the role the Camarinos brothers played in the history of Greeks in North America is their complex association with Christos Tsakonas. Tsakonas helped establish literally hundreds of Greek immigrants in the fruit and confectionery businesses. Tsakonas like the Camarinos clan was born in Tsintzina and it was from that village and those in the immediate area from which Tsakonas drew his work force.

Tsakonas arrived in Chicago not long after the Great Fire of 1871. Moving to Milwaukee Tsakonas by 1882 he started a fruit and confectionery store with a handful of young men from Tsintzina and/or the Tsintzina area. Once the store was established Tsakonas moved on to start yet another store only to hand it over (sometimes completely/sometimes retaining a partnership) to yet another group of young male immigrants from his village and/or district (such as the villages of Vasara, Goritza, Arahova and others). Tsakonas continued moving eastward founding one store after another until his retirement in upstate New York.

Speaking about Demetrios Camarinos historian Peter W. Dickson writes in his article The Greek Pilgrims: Tsakonas and Tsintzinians: “There can be little doubt that Camarinos was in close contact with the Tsintzinians in Chicago because he supplied them with bananas and pineapples from Hawaii through his own export –import firm—the California Fruit Market—based in Honolulu. This enterprise in Honolulu was managed by Camarinos’ brother and nephews, several of whom worked for Tsakonas in Chicago in the early 1880s before heading to the West Coast.” In the spirit of the Greek proverb of “one hand washes the other,” Camarinos had a ready market for his goods and his fellow Tsintzinians scattered across the United States had a bulk wholesaler from which they could collective purchase goods at a discount.

By the 1880s, Hawaii was the center of trade in the Pacific. By 1892, at the latest, the Camarinos brothers owned one of the two largest pineapple plantations in Hawaii. As we read in the Hawaiian Planter’s Monthly November 1892, “Mr. Camarinos of the California Fruit Market has a plantation at Kalihi-kai of 50,000 plants, all of imported varieties, and intends to put in 100,000 plants during 1893.” Augmenting this plantation was the fact that the Camarinos brothers had built the first refrigerator storage compartments aboard ship capable of transporting 2,000 lbs. of fresh fruit exports per shipment. It is roughly at this point that politics and personalities enter the lives of everyone on the Hawaiian Islands.

Two political factions existed on the islands at this time the European and the Missionary. As their names suggest these two groups were formed of European immigrants on the one hand and the other by descendants of the Protestant missionaries and later other Anglo-Saxon arrivals. From 1810 onwards Hawaii was recognized as an independent kingdom. Nonetheless, the Missionary class wanted annexation of the islands to the United States while the native Hawaiians (backed by the Europeans) maintained their right to independence. The result of this conflict was gunboat diplomacy.

“The 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii was a legal document by anti-monarchists to strip the Hawaiian monarchy of much of its authority, initiating a transfer of power to American, European, and native Hawaiian elites. It became known as the Bayonet Constitution for the use of intimidation by the armed militia which forced King Kalākaua to sign it or be deposed. The document denied the King most of his personal authority, empowering the legislature and cabinet of the government. These anti-monarchists, known as the Hawaiian League, were mainly white males of American origin, and they quickly appointed themselves as government officials, providing themselves with almost complete control of the government” Omitted from this quote was the fact that an American gunship was in Honolulu port to ensure the success of this “annexation.” On January 17, 1893, the Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown and annexed to the United States.

Not only are these events cited as the beginnings of American imperialism abroad, it is credited with informing nativist attitudes that led to the Spanish-American War in 1898 and then the subsequent 7 year undeclared war in the Philippines. A long ignored aspect of American Labor history is that it was veterans from this undeclared war that would eventually serve as militia against striking workers in the United States during the 1900s. Louis Tikas and the other twelve adults and children killed by the Colorado State Militia were killed by such veterans.

From our perspective in history it is easy to agree with General Smedley’s assessment that “War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley D. Butler. In them, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit (including war profiteering) from warfare. Butler’s speech “War is a Racket” was so well received that he wrote a longer version as a small book with the same title that was published in 1935 by Round Table Press, Inc., of New York.”

Peter Camarinos and various other Greeks in Hawaii were aggressively in favor of the counterrevolution in open opposition to the Missionary class. Camarinos was a major planner and sponsor of the insurgency and he is credited with saying, “I will give half that I am worth to see the damned Missionary sons of bitches hung.”

A four year lawsuit from roughly 1890 to 1893-4 between the two largest pineapple growers in Hawaii Kidwell and Camarinos ended in Camarinos’ favor but not until the long drawn out affair destroyed his business interests. After the annexation of the Islands in 1893, the entire extended Camarinos family was deported from Hawaii. While Demetrios Camarinos would later return, Peter died in California and their firm would never be reestablished.

As we can see, the American military and even unintentionally I am assuming the courts have been used for purposes well beyond what the average citizen would allow. For those who would dismiss Greek-American history as nothing more than a “ghetto literature” of little consequence, I would say the limitations they see does not exist within the literature but its interpretation(s).

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NEW YORK – John Kiriakou, the Greek-American counter-terrorism expert and former CIA employee who served 23 months in federal prison for disclosing classified information to journalists, visited Greece last week.

Kiriakou and his supporters believe he was punished for being the first U.S. government official to confirm that waterboarding was used to interrogate Al Qaeda prisoners.

Kiriakou, who has roots in Rhodes, knows Greece very well since he worked at the embassy of the United States for two years.

Kiriakou told TNH that “I had a specific purpose for this trip. I work for a think tank in Washington called The Institute for Policy Studies, which collaborates with the Australian think tank Blueprint for Free Speech. We have drawn up a plan together, which helps countries around the world make new laws against corruption and also protects whistleblowers who expose corruption.”

He told TNH he met with Panagiotis Nikoloudis, the Minister of Transparency and Anti-Corruption and other Greek officials.

“Basically we dined together for many hours deep into the night;” he said, and emphasized that “all of them, member of all parties without exception, treated me like an old friend, with respect and friendliness.” He also had meetings with Non-Governmental Organization (NG) officials.

Former PASOK Minister Anna Diamantopoulou told him he should visit Greece every two months.

Speaking about the general situation in Greece, he said: “I cannot figure out how the country will survive if Europe does not offer any plan for economic relief. There must be debt reduction or a lengthening of the payment period – something, anything.”

He said the aid Greece has received is only going for paying back previous loans, causing the country to lose “its most educated people, doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors, who are necessary for the reconstruction of Greek society, and this is a great sin.”

He said he saw “Greeks sleeping on sidewalks who were wearing good clothes – middle-class people. The only thing they had left were the clothes they were wearing, and it seems that the middle class is disappearing.

“I was struck by the fact there was no traffic in Athens. I went to a meeting in Halandri and asked the taxi driver and he said no one can afford to run his car.”

Kiriakou believes that “the austerity measures are not productive and probably will never be productive. This I can say from my experience from the Middle East and especially in Yemen.”

Kiriakou has already completed two new books. One will be released close to Christmas and other next spring called Letters from Loretto – the Federation prison where he spent most of his incarceration time – and one that describes his everyday life in prison, the state of the prisons in America, and the judicial system titled Doing Time Like A Spy: How the CIA Taught Me To Survive And Thrive In Prison.

When TNH asked him why the authorities were so strict with him yet so lenient with General David Petraeus, Kiriakou said “I am convinced that they were strict with me because I aired the dirty laundry of the CIA. I went on television in 2007 and I said three things, 1) The CIA tortured prisoners. 2) Torture is an official policy and practice of the United States Government; and 3) that this policy was endorsed and signed by the president. ”

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NEW YORK – Retired 4-Star Admiral James Stavridis, Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, will present a lecture titled, “21^st Century Security Challenges and Opportunities” at the Kimisis Church of the Hamptons on August 8.

The lecture is one of the major summertime events of a parish that does not slow down after June. Fr. Alexander Karloutsos, Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Fr. Constantine Lazarakis, and the Parish Council, led by President Gus Karpathakis, will welcome the guests.

Stavrides, who will be signing copies of his book, The Accidental Admiral, is the author of six books and hundreds of articles. He told The National Herald his presentation is “a look at the global security situation which I think we can all agree is pretty dangerous.”

“There will obviously also be a conversation about Greece and its economic challenges and the challenges in the eurozone,” he said.

“It’s important that we recognize that Greece is in an incredibly important geographic position, right on the nexus of terrorist routes, in a very contentious area for NATO, and is a willing participant in all NATO operation. It has been a very good and constructive partner from a geopolitical perspective and it affords extremely important strategic bases for the alliance and the United States,” he said.

So “Point 1 is: Greece Matters,” and not just in the financial scheme of things,” he continued.

His second point is that “Greece has an incredibly difficult time ahead and it is vitally important that the U.S., the troika, Greece, all work in a constructive way and not throw stones at each other.”

“I spent a lot of time in negotiations over the years and personality matters,” he told TNH. “How people address each other matters – whether it is with respect or lack of respect – and I think there is plenty of blame for both sides. Those negotiations were not conducted in my view in an entirely professional way on both sides. There were personal attacks and it was counterproductive,” he said.

It was noted that Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek Finance Minister, said he was running on two hours of sleep per night for months. “How it is possible for people to be making optimal decisions,” under those conditions TNH asked. “I think you answered your own question,” Stavrides replied.

“I am not an economist,” he said, shifting into that area, “but most economists agree – even the IMF says that – we will have to see some restructuring of Greek debt, and provide some means of lift to the Greek economy. We will not solve the problem simply by a series of cuts that bring more downward economic pressure… you have to use some form of expansionary policy to stimulate growth to avoid an endless downward spiral.”

He emphasized, however, that Greece must also take action on matters like reducing tax evasion and other structural reforms like raising the retirement age and reducing the bloated public sector. “Most responsible Greeks recognize this, and that’s the painful part of this, but it has to come with some kind of stimulus or the boat won’t float.”

Stavridis agreed that the opportunity dimension must be addressed, for example, making it easier for entrepreneurs, especially young people, to open businesses.”

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The presentation will include a discussion on ISIS and the massive migrations that are from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, and he will also look at cyber risk, the situation in Ukraine and China.

“It’s a walk around the world to look at the challenges, but I hate talks that suddenly stop with the message ‘there it is. It’s a pretty dangerous world. What do you think of that?”

He said he tries to then talk about opportunities, to also focus on what is going well.

A Q & A and reception will follow.

Stavrides is enjoying the summer. His only regret is that the referendum interfered with his planned trip to Greece. “It was not going to be productive to have meetings with government officials.”

He is looking forward to a vacation trip and visit to his family in Florida next week, where he grew up, his father Paul George Stavrides being stationed there as a U.S. Marine.

His paternal grandparents were refugees from the Smyrna region, and his mother, Shirley Anne, is of Pennsylvania Dutch stock.

Asked if he ever pursued genealogical research, Stavrides said his sister was more interested in that. “I am one to look forward. I’m very proud to be a Greek-American and proud of my family’s courage, coming here during difficult times,” passing through Ellis Island and settling in Allentown, PA.

Stavrides and his father have led parallel lives. After his military career “He was still a relatively young man. He earned a PhD in higher education and became the president of Allegheny Community College in the Pittsburgh area.

He acknowledged that his path was inspired by this father “his example based on patriotism and courage, and the fact that he became president of a college was very much on my mind.”

Paul George “loved to mentor young people and was a natural teacher. Throughout his time in the Marine Corps he spent a lot of time helping young people and he wanted to continue that as a civilian and the same rationale applied to me.”

“He was a fabulous father,” Stavrides said, and added he was also blessed with great mentors, including Admiral Michael Mullin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Vice Admiral Cutler Dawson, Secretary Defense Robert Gates – “the was instrumental in recommending I become an educator…he later become the president of Texas A&M.”

Among the things he learned from them are: “Never lose your temper. Stay calm at all times. Always focus on the positive – be an optimist. Optimism is a very powerful force.”

They also reinforced the value of education, and last but not least, they showed him the value of family, which means “Making sure that you put your family first in your heat, knowing that there will be times when you have to take on hard jobs and cannot always be the perfect father or husband.”

The post Stavrides: The Accidental Admiral appeared first on The National Herald.

NEW YORK – Important endeavors have a stream of causes, and the White House meeting between top administration officials and community leaders on August 6 is no exception.

While the details of the discussion were off the record, The National Herald obtained the perspectives of a number of participants.

All noted it was a beginning, not an end – more meetings are expected – and there signs an important new chapter was opened both in the community’s relations with Washington and in the way the community conducts its business.

After the phrase “first step” the words that came up most frequently were “Follow up.”

Asked about the next steps, Fr. Alex Karloutsos told TNH “That is open to the Administration. They perceive this to be a long-term relationship because they want to stand beside Greece as it goes through its difficulties. ”

A senior Obama administration official said the meeting was about “how we can work together to help the government and people of Greece emerge from the current crisis,” and everyone TNH spoke to was impressed with Vice President Joe Biden.

Real Estate Magnate George Marcus told TNH, “I was as very impressed with the administration, They are on top of it, they know all the details, they are communicating on all sides and doing everything they can to help Greece, and the Greek-Americans were very knowledgeable and engaged, who would love the chance to show young Greeks.”

Asked if anyone suggested getting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to call for a “tough love” summit of Diaspora business leaders so he could hear from them what they need to see before investing in Greece, Marcus said, “It was not discussed exactly in those terms, but people like (former California State Treasurer Phil) Angelides and I think Michael Dukakis have had hour-long telephone conversations with Tsipras,” already.

He said his contribution to the discussion was to say, “This meeting is all well and good … but the only way this is going to work is if we have a working group of three or four Greek-American leaders and a working group of administration people and we meet monthly or even weekly and we get things progressing in Greece and the EU.”

He said he will email some of the participants and urge them to form a three-person group to meet on a bi-weekly basis “to see what we can do and communicate to the Diaspora on what they can do.”

When there’s an agreement between the administration and the coordinating group of the Diaspora, they can delegate different things to different people … I am sure they are all willing to help – as long as there is some realistic movement on the Greek restructuring.” Another common refrain.

Former Ambassador Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis said the White House has been engaged and concerned from the beginning but the timing of the meeting was important because “things seem to be hitting the critical point now.”

The deal Greece is currently negotiating with the Troika remains onerous and not focused enough on economic stimulus, Kounalakis said, adding, “It’s clear … there is going to have to be some way to make that agreement sustainable … that will be in the form of debt restructuring.”

Marcus, a fellow Californian, told TNH that while everyone knows the deal is flawed, “The Greeks must show they are serious about putting their house in order.”

Kounalakis also made an appeal to the people who were not in the room but whose efforts are also crucial.

“As the crisis deepens, so does the need for people to get off the sidelines and get involved and help on the humanitarian side and help identify U.S. government programs available to stimulate the Greek economy and provide humanitarian aid,” she said.

She said Greek-Americans can help by exploring investment opportunities and donating to effective humanitarian organizations.

She noted there are State Department programs for sending out experts to train young entrepreneurs, and to show civil servants how to be more responsive to citizens’ needs.

John Galanis, AHEPA’s Supreme President, was unable to attend, but lent the organization’s full support, sending Andrew Kaffes to represent him.

“AHEPA sincerely appreciates the high level of engagement by United States government officials to address the crisis in Greece and its outreach to Capitol Hill and the community on the crisis,” said Kaffes, who offered policy suggestions that could possibly assist with tourism and humanitarian aid.

“The discussion itself was straightforward, insightful, and substantive, and I was encouraged to learn about certain issue areas the administration is looking to address, particularly migration,” Kaffes said.

Angelides said, “The meeting was very productive…it lasted more than two hours and there were high-level people, so it was very clear that the recovery and stability of Greece alliance are very important to this administration and all of us are grateful for the efforts of the President on behalf of Greece.

“The purpose of the meeting was to talk about how we can work together to assist Greece on the road to economic recovery … an important first step – not an end – a beginning of a process and we committed ourselves regularize our communications,” with the White House and among the Greek-Americans.

“It will be an ongoing dialogue and process,” he said, “a mutual commitment that we would find a practical way to work together rather than just have one meeting and to move from discussion to concrete progress.”

Angelides said with urgency, “We have to sort out in the next few days” who would be the small group interfacing with the government’s working group.

Hotelier and developer George Tsunis, who is also a top Democrat fundraiser, said that,
“Clearly the administration was seeking input from the Diaspora on what assistance the U.S. could give Greece to help them carry out economic reforms and help with the economic stability of Greece, including efforts to encourage more private investment in Greece … we must go forward now and identify five people to be a steering committee.”

Angelides summed up the participants’ feelings when he said, “The fact the Vice President of the United States, and the President’s Chief of Staff, with all they have on their plate … carved out the time for an extensive conversation shows the administration cares deeply,” is impressive.

“Greece matters to the United States, and not just on a geopolitical basis but on a historical basis – it’s a reminder that it’s a very special relationship,” and then emphasized: “It’s time to get our act together and begin to develop plans and then engage in ways that are productive for Greece and its economy.”

Imagination goes a long way, and the Diaspora’s top businessperson thrive on innovation. “A year ago the State Department asked me to go to help Greek business people,” Marcus told TNH about an event he attended. “It was really remarkable . I spoke to 25 different people in different industries.”

Let the brainstorming begin.

The post White House Meeting With Diaspora Leaders Brought Enthusiasm Tempered With Realism appeared first on The National Herald.

SOUTHAMPTON, NY – Retired 4-Star Admiral James Stavridis, Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, presented a lecture titled, “21^st Century Security Challenges and Opportunities” at the Kimisis Church of the Hamptons on August 8.

The lecture is one of the major summertime events of a parish that does not slow down after June. Fr. Alexander Karloutsos, Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Fr. Constantine Lazarakis, and the Parish Council, led by President Gus Karpathakis, welcomed the guests.

Stavrides, who signed copies of his book, The Accidental Admiral, is the author of six books and hundreds of articles. He told The National Herald his presentation is “a look at the global security situation which I think we can all agree is pretty dangerous.”

“There will obviously also be a conversation about Greece and its economic challenges and the challenges in the Eurozone,” he said.

The post Admiral Stavridis Speaks at Hamptons appeared first on The National Herald.

NEW YORK – After a century of bringing news to the Diaspora as the paper of record for the community, The National Herald in May marked its anniversary with festivities bringing together notables who lauded the paper and Publisher-Editor Antonis H. Diamataris.

A video compiled of the event showed the devotion of readers and followers as noted by participants and speakers as part of a night at the New York Public Library. Many guests were descendants of the first immigrants who arrived in New York – and became readers of the paper.

Diamataris thanked not only the newspapers’ staff and their predecessors for their contributions and members of his family for their love and support, but the 450 guests and by extension the millions they represent in America, the Diaspora and Greece for their support across four generations.

He also praised the vision and achievement of Petros Tatanis, the founder of the newspaper that was first published on April 2, 1915, and the publishers who followed him.

Warm remarks of appreciation for the newspaper and those who labor to produce it were expressed by Archbishop Demetrios of America, who offered the invocation, Amb. Loucas Tsilas, who was the event’s Emcee, and honoree Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President of the Sttavros Niarchos Foundation.

The speaking program commenced with Archbishop Demetrios reading a laudatory letter from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Special letters were also sent by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and past presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

The honorees representing numerous fields of endeavor who received striking sculptures evocative of the cultural contributions of Hellenism through the ages in the form of little olive trees, included Andreas Dracopoulos, Dr. Spiros Spireas, Dr. George Kofinas, Dr. Evangelos Gizis, Rev. Dr. Demetrios Constantellos, Philip Christopher, Stella Kokolis, Nick Andriotis, and Nicholas Tsakanikas. Ted Spiropoulos, noted businessman, philanthropist and community leader was honored posthumously.

There were many moving moments. Retired Senator Paul Sarbanes summed up the contributions of TNH when he called the newspaper “the school of the community,” and Dracopoulos’ children delighted the guests when they read sections of his speech in flawless Greek.

Guests were most touched, however, by the moving tribute to her father by Vanessa Diamataris, who just completed her first year at Fordham Law School. She and her brother Eraklis, a Senior student at American University,  also offered remarks, echoed the appreciation many Greek-Americans gain over time for the devotion to the timeless values of Hellenism and Orthodoxy that limited the time their parents could spend with them as children.

She said, however, that she would not trade for anything her childhood filled with love and devotion from Diamataris and his wife Litsa.

Calling his wife the love of his life, Diamataris expressed his appreciation for her being at his side and a partner in all his endeavors. Litsa Diamataris helped shape the historic event that was enjoyed by all.

The post The National Herald’s 100th Anniversary Celebration Classic Time appeared first on The National Herald.

[On August 2, Newsday featured an article titled “Claims of religious miracles on Long Island and in New York City,” focusing on various accounts of miracles over the decades relayed by residents of Long Island and New York City. Some of those individuals were Greek-American; we provide excerpts of those stories here.]

NORFOLK RD. MIRACLE

“In 1960, Pagora Catsounis was praying before an icon of the Virgin Mary that hung on the wall in her bedroom in Island Park,” Newsday wrote, “when she says she saw a tear emerge from the figure’s eye. The icon, given to Pagora and her husband, Panagiotis Catsounis, by a Greek nun as a wedding gift, was apparently weeping, Newsday reported at the time.

“Hundreds were drawn to the small apartment to see the lithograph, calling the event the ‘miracle of Norfolk Road.’ His Eminence Archbishop Iakovos, then primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, traveled to the home and verified reports of the apparent miracle, as did Father George Papadeas, priest of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Paul in Hempstead at the time.

“The icon reportedly teared for several days. The icon was later moved to St. Paul’s where tens of thousands of people visited to witness the event.”

 “THE ICON IS CRYING!”

Newsday also reported about a similar instance, one most recent and in the heart of the Greek-American community in Astoria: the weeping icon at St. Irene Chrysovalantou: “In the rear of St. Irene in Astoria in January 1992, Archbishop Paisios, leader of the congregation, said that in December 1989 he took the icon on tour to Chicago, to St. Athanasius church. There, following a ceremony, the archbishop says he was at a reception in the church hall when suddenly people came running up, shrieking, ‘the icon is crying!’ As St. Irene is the patroness of peace, the archbishop said that she was crying because of the outset of the Gulf War.

“This icon in Astoria is said to have performed so many miracles that people left their precious jewelry in thanks, which was placed in the frame around the icon.

According to a New York Times article in 1992, the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church cast doubts on the weeping icon. The press officer of the archdiocese issued a news release describing the saga as ‘an affront to ‘the Greek-American community.’ But not all congregants and religious leaders dismissed the claims. The Rev. Milton B. Efthimiou told the Times that he had experience with weeping icons, and he was sure the St. Irene icon had wept.

SIGHT TO THE BLIND

A former Long Islander named Michael, Newsday reported, claims that a local priest cured his blindness. “In 2013, Michael approached Father Dimitrios Moraitis, formerly of St. Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Shrine Church in Greenlawn, NY wanting to walk his guide dog around the church property, according to an interview on Ancient Faith Radio.

“Unbeknownst to Michael, in the Greek Orthodox Church, St. Paraskevi is the patron saint for health, specifically of the eyes. In the late 1960s, a family from the Church built a shrine in the Saint’s honor and brought back holy water from a natural spring that flows from a church built at the place of St. Paraskevi’s martyrdom in Asia Minor. Both St. Paraskevi and the water were thought to have healing powers. Since the shrine’s conception, hundreds of people have reported receiving miraculous cures from the holy water, Moraitis told Ancient Faith Radio.

“Moraitis invited Michael to walk the property and invited him inside the church for a prayer service and anointing. When Moraitis put his hand on his head and read a prayer, he says a vibration went through his body and Michael shuddered. They both cried, as Moraitis helped him up and led him to the shrine for another service.

“After Michael washed his face with the holy water, Moraitis says he took a step back and said, “There’s a woman here!,” pointing at the icon of St. Paraskevi. He turned to Moraitis and remarked, “I see the color of your eyes! I haven’t seen a color in seven years and I see the cross over here and I see this round icon.”

“Michael’s doctor was dumbfounded, according to Moraitis, who told him, “because they can’t tell you why you should be able to see, it tells me that every time you open your eyes, it’s a miracle. You are a walking icon.”

“SO OPEN TO MIRACLES”

“I admire the Greek Orthodox, because after all these years, and here in the United States in the twenty-first century, they are still so open and accepting of miracles,” a Lutheran minister told TNH. “I believe, too, and have laid hands [faith healing], but having been raised in the West, it is difficult for me to be as open.

“But I have to commend the Orthodox,” he continues, “because they have not wavered from their beliefs for centuries.” Not everyone is comfortable with strict church traditions and doctrine, but “there is something to be admired about that,” he said.

The post Greeks and Miracles over the Decades appeared first on The National Herald.

NEW YORK – A new global poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in which more than 10,000 residents of 19 countries around the world were asked to respond to 11 statements that the poll links to anti-Semitism. Greece finished second on the list, with 67% of the respondents deemed to be anti-Semitic. Only Turkey, at 71%, finished higher. The only other country to finish in which most of the population was found to be anti-Semitic according to the poll, was Iran (60%), whose former leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ominously declared that Iran would do anything “to destroy Israel.”

In the introduction of its 2015 report, in which it states the results of the 19 nations, comparing them to the 2014 numbers, the ADL indicates a conclusion based on a correlation found in the data: that the less satisfied respondents were with political and economic conditions in their country, the more likely they were to harbor negative stereotypes of Jews.

GREECE QUALITY OF LIFE

Before delving into Greeks’ specific references to Jews, their general responses to quality of life in Greece are telling in themselves, and important to share, accordingly.

A startling change in just a year’s time is to the question: “Do you think things in your country are headed in the right direction?” Last year, just 16% responded yes, as compared to a staggering 61% this year – even as Greece remains mired in crisis.

Conversely, 80% a year ago clearly stated things in Greece were getting worse, as compared to only 29% this year.

In a related question only 17% described the political climate as stable in 2014, but that number more than doubled, to 39% this year. Nonetheless, only 2% thought political conditions were “very stable” last year, and only 9% think they are very stable today.

The changes had very little to do with personal finances, as 0% of last year’s respondents described their financial condition as excellent, with only 1% giving it that rating in 2015. Although those who described it as poor in 2014 were 47% as compared to only 38% this year – almost a 10% drop. The disparity could mean actual economic relief, or perhaps an overblown panic last year that never materialized, without any actual economic improvement having taken place.

ANTI-SEMITIC OR XENOHOBIC?

The Greeks’ responses on questions aimed to investigate anti-Semitism yielded mixed results, with Greeks not necessarily more averse to Jews than to other non-Christian groups. In an overall favorability jump of approximately 10% as compared to last year, Greeks found the following groups favorable: Christians (94%), Buddhists (52%), Jews (50%), Hindus (48%), and Muslims (45%). These numbers basically mean that almost all Greeks have positive feelings about Christians, whereas for various non-Christians, it’s a 50-50 chance.  As the remainder of the questions were about Jews specifically, it is difficult to conclude that Greeks are specifically anti-Semitic – there is a good chance that, to a significant extent, they are more xenophobic in general.

MONEY AND POWER

Most reactions deemed as negative on the ADL anti-Semitic index to which Greeks scored high (meaning more anti-Semitic) had to do with money, power, and global influence. An overwhelming 90% of Greeks think Jews have too much power in the business world, up from 85% a year ago. In related questions, 85% think Jews have too much power in international financial markets, 72% think Jews are too powerful in global affairs, 58% think they have too much power over global media, and 65% of Greeks think Jews have too much control over the U.S. government.

GREECE v. U.S. TOWARD JEWS

There is a startling difference as to how Greeks and Americans perceive Jews. (Note: Less than 2% of the U.S. population is Jewish so, all other things being equal, over 98% of the American poll respondents are not Jews themselves.)

Do Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust? In Greece, 70% of the people seem to think so, compared to only 20% in the U.S.

Only 13% of Americans think that “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” as compared to 51% of Greeks who feel that way.

Almost half of Greeks, 44%, think that “Jews think that they’re better than other people,” but only 13% of Americans believe that.

Only a minority in both countries – 33% in Greece and only 5% in the U.S. – think that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.”

Finally, in a denial of anti-Semitism itself, 41% of Greeks, and 14% of Americans believe that “people hate Jews because of the way Jews behave,” thereby alluding that it is not because of religious or ethnic hatred, but rather that the Jews bring it upon themselves.

The post Poll Says 67% of Greeks Anti-Semitic appeared first on The National Herald.

PALOS HILLS, IL – Father Byron Papanikolaou, who served the historic parish of Sts. Constantine and Helen in Palos Hills, IL for 55 years, passed away on August 11.

In addition to being a renowned cleric, he was a great inspirer, a visionary, and a leader; a mainstay of the parish’s day school, Koraes.

Fr. Byron was one of the few priests who served spent his entire life serving one parish, and he was as faithful and devoted, and steadfast in preserving the Greek language, as anyone.

A loyal and dedicated reader of the Herald, Fr. Byron often impressed us with his knowledge and enthusiasm regarding an array of topics: Greece, our Greek-American community, pedagogy, culture, and, of course, Greek Orthodoxy.

Ten years ago (October, 2005), the Sts. Constantine and Helen community celebrated Fr. Byron’s 45 years there with a moving ceremony. At that point, as TNH reported, he had performed many thousands of sacraments, including having presided over 1891 wedding ceremonies, 3737 baptisms, and 1914 funerals. He had also made, to that point, over 65,000 visits to hospitals, retirement communities, and prisons.
The parish, founded in 1909, is one of the oldest in the United States, and Fr. Byron played a key role in keeping it united, strengthening it, and leading the school to new heights, all culminating in a deserving celebration in 2009 of its first century.

Strongly supporting him throughout his accomplishments were his Presbytera Xanthippe, and his children and grandchildren, all of whom made him proud.  His son Aristotle is co-Founder of and a Senior Fellow at Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center, where he is the Archbishop Demetrios Professor in Orthodox Theology and Culture.

Father Alexander Karloutsos, who began his career at Sts. Constantine and Helen, expressed to TNH his sorrow for the loss of his friend and mentor.

The post Fr. Papanikolaou Was Leader, Visionary appeared first on The National Herald.

BALTIMORE, MD – Everyone loves a small plate of delicious food. Long time Greek-American friends opened up a Cava Mezze in Baltimore, reported the Baltimore Sun. Mezze is not a new concept in the Baltimore dining scene but it is definitely not overplayed, wrote the Sun. Cava Mezze opened in late June in Harbor East. It is “a welcome addition to the city and already feels familiar. Its Greek-inspired small plates are mostly well-conceived and nicely prepared, and service is friendly and knowledgeable, though not perfectly paced.” This is the fourth location for Cava Mezze. The other restaurants are located around the DC area. The owners have national plans for Cava Mezze and her sister Cava Grill.

The Sun reported that the “Baltimore restaurant’s newly built space is loud, dimly lit and modern, with dark fixtures and metal and wood accents. On a recent Monday night, ’90s rap gave the space an upbeat, chatty vibe that felt appropriate for the crowd — couples and small groups of friends, mostly in their 30s — though the space could skew sexier (or younger) with nothing more than a change in music.” Cava Mezze adds a little flair by frying happens tableside; where waiters ignite saganaki and flames shoot into the air. “Flaming dishes are dramatic and fun.” Although Cava Mezze has a solid list of local beers and gamely offers a few Greek beverage selections, the cocktail menu branches out a bit. Some suggestions from the Sun about what to eat: “Groups should consider the dip sampler, which includes small scoops of Cava Mezze’s five dips, served with pita triangles. Tzatziki, hummus and roasted eggplant spreads, all well-seasoned, were familiar takes on the classic Greek dips. Taramosalata, is a bright pink spread made with salmon roe, was subtly fishy and dressed up with truffle oil and a sprinkling of salty caviar. Our favorite of the dips was the “crazy” feta. It is Whipped and infused with jalapeno, the feta was spicy, salty and very likable.”
And for dessert: “Challah bread French toast served with berries, and loukoumades, fried doughnuts drizzled with honey and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. Both were fluffy and sweet but not too sugary. The loukoumades were better – crispier on the outside and more interesting all around.”

PITTSBURGH, PA – This week writer Gabe Rosenberg wrote an article on Carrie Weaver, a lecturer and recent Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Weaver analyzed 258 burials and skeletons from the Passo Marinaro necropolis in Kamarina, which were excavated in the 1980s by Italian archaeologist Giovanni Di Stefano but never analyzed. Rosenberg says, “Sometime between 500 B.C. and 200 B.C., residents of the Greek colony of Kamarina in Sicily dug two graves for two bodies. They pinned down each body with large rocks or pottery; if the bodies awoke from the dead, they could not escape. Reanimated corpses did not, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, ravage the Greek Empire then, but ancient Greeks certainly believed they could. Instances of both necrophobia (fear of the dead) and necromancy (the practice of communicating with the dead) are common in ancient Greek culture, and are the focus of new research by Weaver.”

Rosenberg laughably says that “The zombies of Ancient Greece would put the zombies of American pop culture to shame — if only because they were really, truly feared.” Weaver, a classical archaeologist who specializes in human osteology and funerary archaeology, was working in Sicily when she found these skeletons had been left unexamined in a museum. Two burials stood out to her. Weaver said that, “Any time that a body is buried differently from the rest of the members of the cemetery, it’s termed a deviant burial,” the Gazette reported. Weaver found that ancient Greeks belief in the supernatural extended to convictions that certain individuals were predisposed, predestined or compelled to become “revenants,” or the undead. “Illegitimate offspring, victims of suicide, mothers who died in childbirth and victims of murder, drowning, stroke or plague could all become revenants. Improper treatment of a body, such as not providing proper burial rites or allowing animals or insects to leap or fly over a body, could cause it to transform.” Weaver’s examination of the Kamarina cemetery will appear in her book, “The Bioarchaeology of Classical Kamarina: Life and Death in Greek Sicily.”

The post Hellenic Happenings Coast to Coast appeared first on The National Herald.

HOUSTON, TX – Back in late April, the ice cream man came to our street. It was a quiet spring day, a reminder of why we lived in Houston while the rest of the country dug out from the previous weekend’s snowstorm.

Thoughts of an endless summer of heat, humidity and hurricane warnings did not cloud the sapphire sky. He parked his truck at the end of the block and waited. It was a blue van with a white roof, not very big, with a picture of Shrek on the side facing me and a stop sign on the door. “Caution. Children Crossing!” it announced, and cars dutifully stopped, like they are legally required to do for school buses. The only law enforced here is the law of childhood – that kids have the right of way when it comes to ice cream! A jaunty tune played on what is supposed to sound like a circus calliope but is really a synthesizer in a studio somewhere. No one cared. The endless loop of music floated on the afternoon air, and like the Pied Piper’s song, drew out the children.

The scene reminded me of the many ice cream trucks we raced to daily in Washington Heights. They would ring their bells as they came down the street, and we would stop whatever game we were playing and yell up to our mothers in the 4^th and 5^th floor apartments. “Ma!” “Ma-a!” Coins wrapped in napkins would float from the windows like a brigade of parachutes, and we were ready, waiting on the sidewalk, for the Bungalow Bar Man or the Good Humor Man to park his clean, white truck. We already knew what we wanted: red, white and blue ice rockets, sundaes in a cup, toasted almond, chocolate éclair…

The Bungalow Bar truck looked like a little house on wheels, Good Humor was a big box, and both were decorated with mouth-watering decals advertising their many treats. We didn’t care which ice cream man came because it wouldn’t be our only ice cream for the day! If we had a strawberry shortcake now, we could get a rocket later. And that didn’t count nighttime ice cream, when the grown-ups sat watching us play under the street lights, and they treated us when the trucks rang past one more time before retiring until the next day. Nor did it count the occasional walk to Mr. Solomon’s, the candy store on Broadway.

Mr. Solomon sold everything – candy, ice cream, soda, comics. He would stare down at us as we lined up in front of the counter and ordered ice cream cones with sprinkles. Vanilla fudge was an adventure! If one of us didn’t have enough money, we improvised. Everyone had bubble gum – Bazooka or Dubble Bubble. It didn’t matter. We chewed feverishly and mashed all of our gum together into a giant wad, stuck it to the bottom of a long string and someone went fishing for coins. The subway grating outside of Mr. Solomon’s store was over eight feet long. In the winter, it provided a warm respite from the cold as we walked from Broadway to Fort Washington Avenue and toward the Hudson River. But in the summer, it was a sunken Spanish galleon. People threw trash into the grating, but coins often fell out of unsuspecting pockets only to be retrieved by us months later. So one of the boys – Jimmy or Frankie or Dean – would lie on his stomach and fish for coins. We always got enough money so that everyone could have a cone.

The ice cream man would park and step out of his cab around to the back while we waited on the sidewalk, rolling our coins around in our sweaty palms. He opened a freezer door that guarded heaven and reached through the vapor cloud into paradise. He didn’t even have to look. Magically he knew where every treasure lay and out emerged a fudgesicle (we pronounced it “fudgeickle”), a vanilla pop, a coconut cream. We sat on the stoop of our apartment building or the steps to the schoolyard and carefully unwrapped our treats, pushing the paper to the base of the pop to create a makeshift cuff that caught any stray pieces of chocolate or chunks of delicious.

We each had a different way of eating our ice cream. The boys just bit into it and suffered major brain freezes in the process. The girls gingerly broke off the chocolate borders with our front teeth, then daintily lifted off the solid chocolate squares with our fingertips. The vanilla underneath had softened by then and just melted in our mouths. And everyone tasted everyone else’s ice cream, even if we had just eaten the same thing an hour or two before. No one was grossed out. No one had cooties. At least not when it came to ice cream. We all held on to the sticks long after we were done, sucking the wood dry until it splintered on our tongues.

When it came to ice cream cones, we were alike. We licked and licked until the dome of ice cream was even with the cone. Then we bit the bottom of the cone and sucked the ice cream through the hole. Finally, the paper came off and we bit the cone like feverish beavers in ever-shrinking concentric circles until it was gone. We licked off our fingers, wiped our hands on our clothes and went back to play – until the next jingle of bells.

So on that spring day two or three months ago in my Sugar Land neighborhood, what struck me as odd about the ice cream scene on my street was how quiet it was. The only sound was the music from the truck. The kids walked quietly, almost robotically toward the sound and stood patiently as the man dispensed ice cream from a freezer just behind him. He never came out of the truck, but I could see that he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, not the starched white uniform and crisp cap of a real ice cream man. The kids got their ice cream and quickly returned to their houses before it could melt. They didn’t compare choices, they didn’t unwrap their treats, they didn’t taste each other’s treasures. They didn’t speak. They just hurried back home and ate their ice cream in the air conditioning behind closed doors. The street was quiet and empty again.

The ice cream man hasn’t been back since.

The post “We all Scream for Ice Cream!” appeared first on The National Herald.

SOUTHAMPTON, NY –  The long-awaited annual Blue Dream Gala, which is held at The Muses Cultural Center and spills out beneath tents evoking the Isles of the Aegean on the grounds of the Kimisis Church of the Hamptons, will take place on August 29.

Blue Dream is the quintessential great party for a great cause – there will be music by a DJ and the band Milos International, the dress is Island Chic, and once again the chartable cause has a Greek dimension.

Refugees International (RI), this year’s honoree and fundraising beneficiary, along with Amani Global Works, was invited by the organizers to address what has become a desperate situation in Greece.

Michael Gabauda, its president, responded with a white paper that proposes an RI mission to assess a comprehensive response to Greece’s refugee crisis. It would focus on three lines of inquiry:

1) Immediate attention to refugees on the islands by boosting the capacity of local authorities to respond through financial support of international humanitarian NGOs (as the IRC is currently doing), coupled with the establishment of properly funded and staffed transit facilities on the mainland where new arrivals should be transferred as soon as possible.

2) A more generous approach to burden-sharing from European nations to the difficulties encountered by Greece, particularly at a time of serious financial constraints. A tepid response plan to the Mediterranean migration crisis prepared by the European Commission is being met with dithering attention by individual member states who essentially only agree on the “fight the smugglers” aspects of the plan, but not much on anything else, in particular on the notion of quotas to be divided among different countries.

3) A comprehensive review of the support provided to Syria’s front line neighbors, who have received refugees generously but have not received the financial resources necessary to compensate the great stress that large refugee populations have meant to their economies and services.

According to the white paper, “RI is currently working on item #3 above and could conceivably address both #1 and #2 if resources could be made available to help us wage a sustained advocacy campaign in Europe.”

GREAT CAUSES, GREAT PARTY

Matt Dillon, Honorary Chair and Rosanna Scotto, Master of Ceremonies will greet the guests at the dinner which begins at 7:30 after the 6:30 cocktail reception.

The program, which will raise awareness for the two charities, will be brief. Guests who have been coming for years know a wonderful experience will follow the warm reception they will receive as they enter the grounds from Father Alexander Karloutsos, Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Presbytera Xanthippe, Father Constantine and Presbytera Anastasia Lazarakis, the Parish Council and the army of dedicated volunteers led by chair persons Olga Paladino, Karen Mehiel, Maria Samuels, and Angela Giannopoulos, the noted event planner.

Refugees International is a leading advocacy organization which campaigns for lifesaving assistance and protection for refugees and people who have been displaced by conflict, persecution or natural disasters. RI does not accept government or UN funding, allowing the organization to work independently to obtain assistance and protection for vulnerable populations.

The Central Philosophy is to Care, Cure and Make Whole by providing healthcare to one of the most impoverished and forgotten areas of Africa, Idjwi Island. AGW works to provide accessible healthcare to all Ban’Idjwi by focusing on maternal healthcare, child healthcare, and malnutrition, as well as other factors that contribute directly to the region’s health crises such as education, agriculture, and transportation.

For more information visit kimisishamptons.org. For tickets call Sandy Tsamutalis at 201-248-7012.

The post Blue Dream Gala to Benefit Refugees International, Spotlights Greek Crisis Aid appeared first on The National Herald.