By Boghos Shahmelikian
Translated and abridged by Vahe H. Apelian
Boghos Shahmelikian presented the story of the founding of the Ferrahian High School in four weekly successive segments in Aztag Daily starting from March 25, 2019. He asked me if I would translate the story for him for the benefit of the English language readers. I did. But the translation was not published in the Armenian press although he claimed he submitted it. Here it is.
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| Matheos and Yevgine Ferrahian |
Fifty-five (55) years have gone by since the date when the first Armenian day school in the United States of America opened its doors to the community. It became a beacon of light. The Armenian students in the United States were thus offered an opportunity to learn their mother tongue, history and to get acquainted with the Armenian literature.
Kudos and honor to the school’s founding principal Gabriel Injejikian, its benefactor Matheos Ferrahian, its dedicated first teaching staff and to all those whose efforts made the realization of what was thought to be the difficult task of realizing the “impossible”.
I express my profound gratitude to Gabriel and Rose Injejikian and Anahid Meymarian. Based on the information provided by them, I will attempt to present the story of the founding of the first Armenian day school in the United States of America.
On a Sunday morning in 1964, a hitherto an unknown person presented himself to the meeting of the Zavarian High School Students Association. Customarily, the committee of the Zavarian University Students Association presented to us students from its rank who were a few years senior to us, to present current issues to us.
The day’s unknown guest was not a member of the Zavarian University Student’s Association.
After greeting us he occupied a chair on the last row.
Just before ending our meeting, he was invited letting us know that he was to speak to us about a very important subject.
He was a teacher who had come from the United States. His name was Gabriel Injejikian. Years ago, he had left his birthplace Kessab, emigrated to the United States to continue his higher education and, like many other students, had not returned to his birthplace.
After graduation, Gabriel had been teaching in American public schools with good pay commensurate to his higher education. But that was not what he was looking for. Having witnessed that the majority of the student age Armenian children are unaware of the alphabet Mesrob Mashdots invented, his goal was to establish an Armenian day school so that the Armenian students will get to learn the Armenian language, history, and literature.
Armenians born and raised in the Middle East have been luckier than their contemporaries in the United States because tens of Armenian schools, cultural centers, churches, and newspapers were available for them. But we, in the Middle East, remained under the impression that the Armenians in the United States were far more fortunate than us. In all probability they had better living conditions than we did but they lacked an important and a vital element, they did not have the opportunity to learn the Armenian language.
“I have decided to open an Armenian day school in Los Angeles,” revealed to us our young guest. “If we start with one student in the first year, the next year we might have a 100% growth if another student enrolled,” said the guest jokingly.
We all laughed at his “humor” but at the same time, we remained impressed by his self-confidence.
He was convinced that he will succeed and he succeeded.
He also distributed to us promissory notes, each earmarked for 10 Lebanese Pounds so that we too would bring our contribution towards his lofty goal.
I have read many accounts about the founding of the Ferrahian School, the first Armenian day school in the U.S., but I decided to get my information from the very source and hence I visited the residence of Gabriel and Rose Injejikian and got my information from them.
They recalled a lot but surely they could have forgotten important details. “I should have written, but…..” contemplated Gabriel Injejikian. Surely, had he written, it would have become an important historical book depicting the times.
Both Gabriel and Rose Injejikian recommended that I meet Anahid Meymarian, who was one of the earliest teachers of the school to obtain further and detailed information from her.
I met her. Anahid Meymarian gladly narrated how and under what circumstances the first Armenian day school in the U.S., the Ferrahian School, was founded.
There were a large number of Armenians in the United States who had immigrated from Western Armenia. Later on, an influx of Armenians arrived from Eastern European countries, such as from Roumania and Bulgaria. Unlike the Cilician Armenians who immigrated to the Middle East, the Armenian Americans had not established Armenian day schools. They were content with weekend classes and Sunday schools where a few hours of Armenian was taught. Those who attended such schools could barely read and write a few sentences in Armenian.
The Armenian Americans at that time did not have faith that they could preserve the Armenian culture in the U.S. by having a few hundred students know how to read and write in Armenian. Instead, they assisted the Armenian communities in the Middle East to make up for what they thought they could not achieve. They made a substantial financial contribution to the Armenian communities in the Middle East to establish churches and schools and generously defrayed the tuition cost of students studying in the Armenian schools. Establishing and sustaining Armenian day schools in the United States seemed impossible for them.
That was not what Matheos Ferrahian thought.
Who was Matheos Ferrahian, after whom the first Armenian day school in the United States is named, and who was the school’s founder Gabriel Injejikian?
Matheos Ferrahian was born in Ankara in 1870. He was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (A.R.F.) since his youth. He was 20 years old when he was apprehended by the Turkish authorities carrying his clandestine operation of transporting rifles for the defense of the Armenian communities in case of need. He was imprisoned, tortured but kept his silence throughout and did not reveal the names of his collaborators.
Eventually, he succeeded escaping from the prison and moved to Jerusalem where he attended the Seminary (Jarankavorats) of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. After a few years, he moved to the United States. He graduated from the USC (University of Southern California) in 1915 with a law degree. During his legal practice, he freely assisted many Armenians to immigrate to the United States
Matheos Ferrahian was married to Yevgine Shishmanian, who much like him was born in Ankara. They made a habit of inviting to their opulent residence friends from the small Armenian community of Los Angeles on Saturday evenings. They often discussed ways and means for establishing an Armenian day school in Los Angeles. Among the guests were father and son Mehrtad and Arshag Dikranian.
Matheos Ferrahian believed that Armenian day schools were the most important avenues for preserving the Armenian culture in the United States by having school-age Armenian students learn the Armenian language, culture, and history. During those years there was the Mesrobian School in Los Angeles that held classes on Saturdays. However, Matheos Ferrahian’s dream was establishing an Armenian day school whose need he felt was becoming evident by the day.
Matheos Ferrahian passed away in 1955 without witnessing the realization of his dream. The Ferrahians did not have children. They willed their house towards establishing an Armenian day school and had Arshag Dikranian as the executor of their will. The epitaph on Mr. and Mrs. Matheos and Yevgine Ferrahian’s grave reads: “Live for Learning, Loving and Serving”.
The person who became the visionary and realized Matheos Ferrahian’s “unrealizable” dream was Gabriel Injejikian.
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