A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Second Editor's Letter

Dear Readers,

The world of Serbica Americana is a captivating place — the more you know about it, the more interesting it gets. Never has it been so vital to understand how issues in the Old or New Country impact our lives and business. (...and never has information and dialogue about both Old and New been so easily accessible.)

As you already know, only Serbica Americana links the events around the world and brings you all you need to know, plus other stories which are just too good to miss -- thus aspiring to contribute to this dialogue.

Serbian interest in the history of the Diaspora, the search for its puzzles and the will of God in it, reveals a faith in the future, in God’s providential presence and labor throughout history.

The life of the Serbian community in the USA unfolds on the field of dramatic history which is interwoven with God’s providence. A great number of Serbs who find themselves for longer or shorter periods of time spread out throughout the world – often departing after difficult deliberation – remain connected to the land of their birth or ancestry, living a 'double consciousness'...

Departing into the Diaspora could be compared to leaving to a “monastery,” as a type of alienation followed by deprivation, fasting, prayer… (forms of a struggle or podvig that balances a person's aspirations against his inclinations.) It appears that the lone institution which can today sustain the continuation and connection of Serbs throughout the world is the Serbian Orthodox Church, more than anything else because of the quality which we call togetherness ("sabornost"). This in itself brings an enormous responsibility. It is our deepest conviction that the Church plays this uniting role among the Serbian people thanks to her eschatological dimension and ability to accept history on account of her children.

You are invited to once again join the many curious readers of Serbica Americana around the world who rely on the in-depth analysis and insightful commentary that only Serbica Americana delivers.

.


SA

 

People Directory

Jelena Stupljanin

While in high school, Jelena ended up in a drama studio where she was trained and tutored by the late legendary acting professor Milenko Maricic. Then, a year later she was accepted at the prestigious National Academy of Dramatic Arts of Serbia, after auditioning with nearly 1000 candidates, in the class of the renown professor Gordana Maric. She completed the four years endeavor ahead of time with excellence and an award 'Branivoj Djordjevic' for best student in diction.

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Publishing

The Hagia Sophia

The Mystical Light of the Great Church and its Architectural Dress

by Charalambos P. Stathakis

Dear reader, as you run like the rest of us along the dizzy main road, stop, stay aside for a while. Let the others be dizzy, and take the secret underground trail, which will lead you through the dewdrops of the leaves, the crystal smile of the sun, the city’s underground galler- ies, your knowledge, and your feelings, to the doorstep of the Hagia Sophia. Because all dew- drops, all sunrays, and all beauty lead there. That is what you will be told by my friend, the author, whom I am fond of and whom I send you to, Charalambos Stathakis: the doctor, the warm and humane researcher, the scientist devoted to his work and his patients, who has given a series of scientific papers, who, nevertheless, retains a nest of beauty untouched in his heart, which makes him outstanding—even though he is not a specialist in architecture, nor a historian, nor a theologian, nor a Byzantinist—it makes him stand out in all these together and in entirety.

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