Before Hollywood was unincorporated district in the northwestern part of the city of Los Angeles, southwestern California. The Hollywood community was laid out in the late 1880s. At that time Hollywood was composed of ranches and farms. Incorporated in as a city in 1903, it merged with Los Angeles in 1910. Now Hollywood famed as a center of the motion picture industry in the United States. It is also a major center of the U.S. television industry. As a part of the city of Los Angeles, Hollywood is bounded on the north by Los Feliz Boulevard, Virgil Avenue on the east, Melrose Avenue on the south, and La Brea Avenue on the west. Because of the flow of immigrants, Hollywood became more densely occupied; Many houses were built and new communities were formed . Now the Hollywood area is a synthesis of many communities. Each community is a group of people living together and/or united by shared interests, religion, nationality, social and economic status. One of these communities is the Armenian community. According to data on the distribution of the Armenian population and its density in California, extracted from the Armenian Yellow Pages, the top ten areas for Armenian population are Burbank, Fresno, Glendale, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Montebello, Orange County, Pasadena, San Fernando Valley, and San Francisco. The Armenian population in California according to the U.S. Census Bureau (1990) was 120,000, but many Armenian sources show that the estimated number of Armenian population is about 250,000-350,000 people out of proximately 30 million total California population. I did my own calculation to find the number of the Hollywood Armenian population. From the Armenian Yellow Pages (1998) I count the number of Armenians who live in Hollywood and multiply that number by 3.6. This last number shows the mean number of people living in each household and listed under one name. To calculate the mean of each household I randomly call to 100 people and found out that how many people are living in each household. And according to my calculation, the Hollywood Armenian population is a significant part of California’s Armenian population and it is estimated at about 80,000 people. It is hard to calculate the exact number of the population because of many unlisted telephone numbers, emigration and immigration of people in and out of this area. I know about the Hollywood Armenian Community because I live, study, and work in Hollywood. I have many relatives and friends that live in this area, and every day I associate with this community. My personal knowledge helps me to better understand, describe, and analyze the culture and characteristics of the Armenian Community. I would like to show that how the Armenian community contributes to our multicultural society through its 3 important and vital institutions which are the Armenian Church, organizations, and political parties, and also emphasize the importance of the Armenian language and culture for the community. Why do Armenians chose especially this area to live in and form their community here? There are many possible answers to these questions, and I will try to discus some of them. One of the answers is possible to find by studying the natural habitat of Armenian ancestors. Because of several wars with different foreign conquerors, Armenians prefer to live on mountainous areas or close to mountains where they built their castles and protected themselves . These castles were well protected because of their high positions. They have used the advantage that was given by the Mother Nature. So, probably Armenians came to Hollywood because it is close to mountains. But maybe like other emigrants, Armenians were also carrying an “American dream” in their hearts of which the symbol was and I hope now is the Hollywood sign on Mount Hollywood. This sign reminds me about another “Armenian dream” which is known as the Armenian Issue and the sign of this dream is Mount Ararat. The first Armenian emigrants came from different countries of Asia (Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon) and Europe (Germany, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia). When the first Egyptian Armenian families came to Hollywood, the other Egyptian Armenians followed them. The same thing happened to other Armenian families who were living in other countries. So, the second reason is the “dreamer-follower” phenomena. By the opinion of other Hollywood Armenian Community members who came to Hollywood between 1960-70, it was easier to find a job in Hollywood than in other areas, and also the bus network was more developed in Hollywood than in the other nearest cities. “It was easy to travel from Hollywood to any directions”. There are no official records about the Armenian community living this area before 1950s. Perhaps just a few Armenian families were living in Hollywood. The record about this population usually is kept in churches. Usually and naturally these churches are built after the foundation of the Armenian community. As a matter of fact, the Armenian churches were first established during 1950-1960. So, I can assume that the first Hollywood Armenian community was formed before 1950. This is not only my opinion, but also other people who I have interviewed. To get the overall picture of the Hollywood Armenian Community it is very important to study the community’s culture: language, religion, art, and many other factors. The roots of the culture are going far, centuries back into ancient times. Often when we like to learn more about a person, we ask, “Who are your parents? Where they came from?” These questions help us to better understand the person, his ideology, and behavior. It is like an Armenian folk saying, “An apple will not fall far from its mother tree”. The Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European language family, and it constitutes a single-language branch of the family. Armenian is spoken by Armenians in Turkey and Republic of Armenia, and in Armenian settlements elsewhere in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. In 410 AD, according to tradition, Armenians acquired an alphabet invented by St. Mesrob, a monk and scholar. A Literature appeared by the 5th century, and the written language of that era, called Grabar or Classical Armenian, with various changes remained the literary language until the 19th century. Meanwhile, the spoken language developed independently: many dialects appeared, not all mutually intelligible. A nationalist movement in the 19th century led to the creation of two slightly different modern literary dialects that are close to the spoken language: Eastern or Yerevanian Armenian (the official language of the Republic of Armenia) and Western Armenian . The Armenian language plays important role in the community’s life. It helps Armenian children and also adults to learn English. If we compare many Indo-European languages, it is easy to find many similarities in their grammar. This is the key. When a person just starts to learn a language, it is hard for him to understand all those grammatical terms he must learn to be fluent in that language. After learning the language, it will be easier for him to learn the second language. For example, if a person is learns English grammar he or she can at once translate the word verb into his native language and will know that the verb is a word that shows an action. So, the first language or native language helps to translate and interpret the grammatical rules of the second language. For this reason some elementary public schools such as Grant Elementary School, Ramona Elementary School, besides other subjects, teach the Armenian language funded by the rich Armenians. “This helps children, parallel with English, learn their native language, too. The native language in its turn helps the children to learn English,” said Gwen Turner, principal of Grant Elementary School . In addition, knowledge of the native language helps not only children, but also adults. Hasmik Khachaturian agrees with this and she explains, “In Lebanon, where I was born of Armenian parents, I was obligated to learn Armenian, Arabic, English, and French. I have already learned Spanish as a fifth language. Spanish helps me sell better to my Spanish-speaking customers in my store.” On the other hand, the differences of these two languages create some difficulties for an Armenian who is immigrated to America and need to learn English. Most of them who are not fluent in English think in Armenian and at the same time try to speak in English. Native speakers of English may misunderstand this kind of speech. For example, when a person is telling about his wife and always is using he instead of she, one may think that the person is a gay. The same thing happened to when I was interviewing John, one of the members of the Dome Village. He asked about my family. I told him that I have a wife and he is a student like me. Then I sow that he got confused. That is why I had to explain him that he is really she and I sowed him my family photo. After this short explanation we were again mutually understood. In addition, the Armenian language has many harsh combinations of consonants and is particularly rich in affricative sounds (such as f, h, th). Both Classical Armenian and the modern spoken and literary dialects have a complicated system of noun declension, with six or seven cases (but no grammatical gender). Armenian compared with English does not have pronouns he or she. Only the he is used for both genders and the gender identifies by a special noun is used in previous, current, or presiding sentences. For example, Armenians say, “he is an actor, or he is an actress,” where the nouns actor and actress identifies the gender of the person and not the pronoun. There is another difference between Armenian and English languages. Armenians does not use plural of a noun with numerical. Instead of “five apples” they say, “five apple.” The number already shows that the apples are more than one. The Armenian Religion is the next aspect to discuss. The Hollywood Armenian community has many churches that belong to different branches of the Christian faith. It is important to review the history of the Armenian Church to understand that why the Armenians have different churches. The Armenian Church is one of the oldest branches of the Christian faith. According to Rev. Vazken Atmajian, a pastor of St. Garabed Armenian Apostolic Church, and other seven pastors of other Armenian Churches, the Apostles St. Tateos and St. Bartokimios brought Christianity to Armenia in 35, after the birth of Christ. “These Apostles established the Armenian Apostolic Church, and in 301 Armenians accepted the religion officially.” The earliest authentic accounts of the introduction of Christianity into Armenia date from the apostolic work of St. Gregory the Illuminator, who, in 303, converted King Tiridates III and members of his court. The Armenian monk and scholar St. Mestob strengthened Christianity in Armenia by the translation of the Bible into the Armenian language. Following the ecclesiastical controversy concerning the twofold nature of Christ, the Armenian Christians refused to accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedony and formed a separate church, sometimes referred to as the Gregorian Church. In 1439 some members of the Armenian Church accepted a union with the Roman Catholic Church. This was later repudiated, but a group of Armenian Catholics accept papal supremacy and the authority of the Catholic Armenian patriarchate of Sis or Cilicia (in Beirut, Lebanon), which was set up in 1742. They use an Armenian rite. Its Catholicos, who resides at Echmiadzin, a monastery near Yerevan in Armenia, heads the remaining large portion of the Armenian Church. He is nominally in authority over the Armenian patriarchs of Jerusalem and Constantinople (that is, residing in Istanbul, Turkey). The monastery has been the ecclesiastical metropolis of the Armenian nation since the 4th century; it is said to be the oldest monastic foundation in the Christian World . The older branch of the Armenian Church in the US, the Armenian Church of North America, has been under the jurisdiction of the See of Echmiadzin since 1887. In 1957 this diocese joined the National Council of Churches. In the early 1990s the diocese reported about 14,000 confirmed members in 72 churches. Another diocese, which left the parent American body in 1932, recognized the authority of the See of Cilicia in 1957. Known as the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, it reported a confirmed membership of 30,000 in 32 churches. The first Hollywood Armenian Apostolic Church was formed at the corner of Vine Street and Fountain Avenue in 1965 and anointed in 1966 as St. Johan Armenian Cathedral. There was another building on that land before. The new owners did not demolish the building. They just remodeled it, changing the interior and exterior decoration of the church, and made it look alike the Armenian Church. That is why the church does not have all structural characteristics of the Armenian Church. On the other hand, at that time Armenian community was smaller than it is now, and not much money was donated for the church constriction . Probably it was cheaper to build on the base of the old building. Also the time demands to build and anoint the church as soon as possible to centralize the Armenian population around the church. The Church has an important role in the Hollywood Armenian community’s life. According to Fr. Manoug Markarian, the Parish Priest of the church, the church is just another building without people. The main duty of the church is to seed in people hope, love, and faith. These three elements are very important to all people to live in peace in the American multicultural society. The people need not only good physical health and healthy intellect, but also a healthy soul. That is why the people should get religious education, listen the word of God. The church contributes to the society in many ways. The church has Bible study classes every Thursday evening and Saturday morning where they learn to follow the Ten Commandments. The students are mostly young people. These lessons teach them to keep themselves and souls far from any kind of crime, alcohol and drug use, to follow the American laws. On the other hand, weak family relations negatively affect children. There is an old saying, "The unit of a country is a family. To have a strong family means to have a strong country”. By attending the church and Bible study school of the church, the parents are educated morally to support their families and not to choose divorce as a solution of their personal problems, because that will harm their children for which they are responsible. “The main place where the children get bad habits is the street. To keep them away from it the church has chess and drawing classes. The chess class is called Young Armenian Chess Player, and the drawing class is called Young Armenian Artist. “ The church also has a saloon where the people may have meetings and parties for different occasions. Modern life is full of depression. There are many reasons for this. Some people get confused and find wrong ways to overcome depression. People start to use alcohol and drugs to forget about reality, but this is not helping them. They get fired from their jobs and become totally lost. Aram Mkrtchyan and Serob Tatulyan were alcoholics, begging for money to by food, but they really were buying alcohol. Nobody wanted to give them a job: they had become lost and they didn’t have friends. I met them in the church, and they told me that the church helped them to find themselves. They quit the bad habit, to which they were addicted for many years, and now they have a job, and they are able to earn money for living. I think this is a miracle. They were lost people and now the society respects them again . “The church awoke in us a faith and without medical help we could help ourselves,” Serob told me, and he added that they come to church every Sunday to pray and give their dues to God. The second church, St. Garabed Armenian Apostolic Church, was built between 1970-1979, at the corner of Alexandria Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard and anointed in 1980. This church was built in 9 years, and there was enough found available to build a completely new church. The land was bought, old houses were demolished, and the church was built on the brand new foundation. But this church has another structural detail that is not a characteristic of the Armenian Church: the main entrance of the church instead of opening to the east (as a characteristic of typical Armenian Church) opens to the west. By the opinion of the Armenians and many other nations, the east is the site where the sun rises, and also is the site of the bigining of a new day, new life, hope, and love. So, the Armenian Church entrance must open to the east to let the new day’s first sunshine enter and bring with it new life, hope, and love. During the interview Rev. Vazken Atmajian, the pastor of St Garabed Armenian Apostolic Church, told me about the church. He said, “We, Armenians, in the whole world are known as a Christian nation, and we have hundreds of churches worldwide. As a fact, whenever we established our community the first duty was to establish a church. The second duty was, under the provision of the church, to build a school to unify Armenian children, give them proper religious and Armenian way of education, teach them to respect the country’s laws, and to be honored citizens of the country.” The contribution of the church is also to teach children the Armenian culture and respect cultures of other nations. In 1978 the church established a school which is called Alex Pilibos Armenian School. According Rev. Atmajian, the church is not interfering in the school education process because the school has its own management, but it morally and ethically contributes to the school. A priest gives the pupil theological education. The church also helps low-income families to pay their children’s tuition fees partially or completely and give these children a chance to attend the Armenian school. The next contribution of the church is that the church by using its power does its best to reduce the number of gangs, drag, alcohol, and crime in our community. This is done by preaching or some legal actions. “We can blame the school or government,” said Rev. Vazken Atmajian and added, “but the first place where the education of a child begins is the home of the child. This is a serious issue for the parents, and they must take care of their children. For the children with busy parents the school has an after-school daily program from 3:00 – 6:00pm, where 8-14 year old children participate in tutoring, attend specially designed computer, art, drawing classes. These classes are created to keep children away from the street when their parents are at work. These are the hours when parents are at work, and the kids can be under the street influence. Additionally, every Monday and Wednesday from 7:00-9:00 PM the church has prayer hours, and it has also Saturday and Sunday morning Bible-study classes.” Many people give priority to their physical and mental development. But people’s lives are not enclosed only in physical and mental realms. They earn money to improve their lives, increase their lives’ welfare, give to their children better education to see them in the future as doctors, lawyers, or in other high paid job positions. Others spend money to train their body, making it more beautiful, or buy new, more expensive cars and houses. But the third most important thing is that they often forget to train their souls, and only we can train it by praying and getting close to God. Our community must give importance to this one also. It is wrong to say that physical and mental training is not important. Everything in us must be in balance. Mind, body, and soul must be trained equally and at the same time. The next Armenian Church I would like to talk about is not an Apostolic church but Catholic. Before it was an American Catholic Church, but later the Armenian Community members bought the building. In 1952, after some restoration work, it was anointed as Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Armenian Catholic Church. It is located at 1339 Pleasant Avenue, Los Angeles. There are some reasons for establishing the church. After the World War II (1945), many Catholic Armenian emigrants came to the U.S. So, “We had the responsibility to take care of their spiritual lives and establish the Church as an official parish of the Armenian community,” explained Rev. Minassian. Many years ago, from 4th to 14th century, the Armenian Church was one and it was connected with the Universal church. “By saying a Universal Church, I mean no Orthodoxy, no Catholic, and no Apostolic,” said Rev. Minassian, and added, “These names came after the division of the Church into separate branches of the Christian faith. These divisions occurred because of the political influences in our nation. But even though our church is Catholic, we use the Armenian rite.” This Armenian Church has its own way of participating in the community’s social life and has its own contribution to the community. One of these contributions is that under its provision the Church has two schools: Mekhitarist Fathers Armenian School, Armenian Sisters Academy. LA Times wrote about the establishment of the first school. “For about, John Chapa has raced the clock, working 14-hour days to convert an empty church into a school. An empty church has been converted to accommodate more than 275 Mekhitars Father’s students. ” These are not religious schools but regular schools. “Why is the second school is called Sisters Academy?” I asked to Rev. Minassian. He explained that the school has this name because sisters or nuns run the school. The church supports the school morally and by preaching assists the children in their spiritual life. It is like the old saying which says, “A healthy soul in a healthy body.” On the other hand, the church donates money to the poor families and pays the students school tuition fees as long as they know that these children are coming from low-income families. Rev. Minassian believes that besides mental and physical training which children can get at the schools, the children also need to satisfy their spiritual lives, follow their culture. He believes that by educating a person we help him to have a good future. By preaching, the church gives the people religious instruction. Then they learn and start to follow to these instructions and their tradition as Christians. If they are faithful followers, this kind of education will keep them away from using drugs, alcohol, committing crimes, and will help them respect other members of the community and members of other communities. This is very important when the people are living in a multicultural society. Yes, the church contributes to the community, but Rev. Minassian is not satisfied by the action of some community members because these members are not practical Christians. They are not attending the church and are neglecting their spiritual life. The reason of this is that the people do not have time or they are under the pressure of their social lives. According to the priest there is no excuse for this because the question is “to believe or not believe.” I think these words are truthful because when I was in the church the smell of incense and the prayer relaxed my mind and body. This is a good remedy for depression because the church ceremony can free the people's minds and make them temporarily forget about their everyday problems. On the other hand, the preaching will help the people to find the right way to solve their problems. Rev. Minassian thinks that even though some community members do not practice the religion regularly, the Armenians were always been united to their church. These members do not go to church every Sunday, and they do not pray, but all of them use the church’s services for many occasions: baptizing, wedding ceremonies, burials, etc. The above mentioned three Armenian Churches have some similarities and differences. The main similarities between these churches are that all of them use the Armenian rite and chants. The main part of the church ceremony is the mass. This tradition came from ancient times and represents Jesus Christ’s commandments to his twelve disciples. In all three the people pray, which means to communicate with God and ask forgiveness for their sins. All of the priests of the churches believe that one day they will unite again and represent a single branch of the Christian faith. The First steps are done already after the declaration of independence in Armenia. The churches established close relations with each other and excepted the priority of Echmiadzin’s Catholicos. Johan Dart, LA Times’ staff writer explained, “Taking a symbolic step toward reuniting the divided Armenian Apostolic Church worldwide, the top two patriarchs of the historic Armenian Christian faith will lead a worship service together Sunday during the Los Angeles visit of Armenian President Robert Kocharian.” On the other hand, all of these churches have made their own valuable contributions to the community for making the future better; they give the priority to the education of the young generation. There are also some differences between these churches. The structure of the Apostolic Churches is physically different from the Catholic Church. In the Apostolic church the altar is located on a stage, which is higher than the floor of the church, but in the Catholic Church it is at the floor level. The roof of the Apostolic Church is a cone shaped with an octagonal base, but Catholic Church roof is flat. Also in the first two churches, the people pray and confess to God, but in the Catholic Church they confess to the priest who plays a mediator role between a person and God.Another type of Armenian Church that is located in Hollywood area is the United Armenian Congregational Church. The United Armenian Congregational Church was built about 30 years ago at 3480 Cahuenga Blvd. Three free churches (Gethsemane, Masis, Armenian Congregational Church of San Fernando Valley) were united and established the church. The duty of the church is to worship God and lead the people to Christ. For this reason the church holds religious ceremonies every Sunday morning when Rev. Tovmassian, the pastor of the church, tells to the believers the words of God. Also it serves as a theological school for educating the youth and adults. The school is open on Friday nights and Sunday mornings for public Bible study. The church belongs to the Union of Armenian Congregational Churches which represents 25 churches located all over the U.S. Six of them are in Los Angeles. This church has much in common with the American Protestant Church worship, which is different in theological ideology from the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is more alike to Roman Catholic Church worship. The next type of Armenian Church is the Armenian Brotherhood Bible Church, which is located at 5656 Harold Way, Hollywood. The Church is not specifically Armenian but shared by many nations. The Armenian Holy Brother Association rents the building for religious ceremonies and meetings. This type of church is relatively new because this branch of Christianity was established in the beginning of twentieth century. In several cities of Cilicia (Xarbert, Marash, Hasan Bay, Ayentap, Atana), because of some conflicts with Apostolic and Catholic Churches, some religious leaders separated and established the Holly Brotherhood Church. In the 1950s some of these leaders came to America and established the same type of churches in many states of the US. The first Brotherhood Bible Church was built in Pasadena in 1986. Lather this church opened its two branches in Hollywood and Burbank. This church has a different organization than the above-mentioned churches. The church board is made of elders, deacons, pastors, and the chairman of the departments. These members must have at least 5 years of Christian experience, be well suited to teach it, be an example to the flock of God, be zealous toward the growth of the church, and not keep away from the meetings of the church without valid reasons. This somehow is a match with the separation of powers in democracy, and the members vote for their leaders. The main ideology of the church is based on the Bible and the central philosophy is that all the words of Bible are holy, absolutely truthful, and not arguable. The Second Coming of Christ is the hope of the church. The death in Christ shall rise first, and together with the living believers, will be caught up to heaven. There will be a 7-year period of tribulation for those left on the earth, after which Christ will descend on the earth with His saints, bind Satan, and establish His millennial kingdom. After the millennium, Satan will be released for a short while. There will be a general resurrection, and the judgment of the sinful dead. Unrepentant sinners will be condemned to everlasting torment, and believers to everlasting bliss . This is what they believe and this is the main vital force of the movement of the Brotherhood Bible Church. So, The church’s advice to its members and other people is to keep their souls clean. As a tool of enforcement they use the fear of the Last Judgment. According to this, unfaithful people’s souls will burn in the fires of Armageddon. The confession works like positive reinforcement in Psychology: for positive action (confession) a person will be rewarded (forgiven), and for any kind of crime (sin) a person will be punished (damned), which is compatible with the negative reinforcement. The church has its own way of contributing to our society. The church has its own principles to educate the members of the church and keep them away from any kind of impurities that may harm to their souls. All of these principles are based on the words of Bible. According to these principles, the members of the brotherhood must love God with all their heart, and love their friends as themselves. They must also abstain from evil speaking, fraud, lying, stealing, cheating the Government in taxes, the unequal yoke (in business and marriage), alcoholic beverages, use of drugs, tobacco, spiritism, fortune telling, and lotteries. This is a good advice to people to keep them away from everyday life’s bad habits and impurities. The church also does not encourage and does not endorse divorce and abortion. There are some other limitations that not everybody will agree upon. For example, the church’s advice to abstain from reading unsuitable books, listening to worldly music, attending dancing-halls and dancing. I think this is too much, because this advises to live a monk’s life that is not only possible but also is not practical way of living in the modern world. The church also advises its members to lead morally clean and exemplary lives, and considers these things as essential. The church believes that moral purity originates in the heart and expresses itself in the outer man. It considers false and futile to cover up the moral impurity of the inner man, the defilement of spirit, and mind, with outer appearances, behavior and practice. The church has the following services for its members and the public: worship services, fellowship service, Evangelism, baptismal service, Holy Communication, Dedication of children, doctrinal studies, prayer meeting, general meeting. All of the above mentioned meetings are open to the public, except the general meeting. These meetings are held to obey the injunctions of the Word of God, to safeguard the good tradition of the Brotherhood, and to safeguard the paternal customs of the Armenian family . Representatives the religion claim that increase the people’s self-esteem. In the world of science little attention has been given to the relationship between prayer and self-esteem. Conflicting evidence can be found in the wide literature on religiosity and self-esteem. In 1990, Forst and Healy reported a positive correlation between self-esteem and religious faith. Watson, Hood, Morris, and Hall reported a negative correlation between self-esteem and extrinsic religiosity. Gill and Thornton reported no correlation between religious belief and self-esteem. Finally, in 1996, Francis and Gibbs decided to conduct their own experiment to explore the relationship between prayer and self-esteem among a sample of 166 children (8-11 years old boys and girls). Self-esteem was assessed by the short form of the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory, a 25-item instrument scored on a 2-point scale: yes and no, frequency of personal prayer was reported on a 5-point scale that ranged from never (1) to daily (5). The Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory achieved a satisfactory alpha coefficient of 0.74. After controlling for effects of gender differences, there was no significant correlation between prayer and self-esteem. These data, therefore, offer no support for the view that prayer enhances self-esteem nor for the view that low self-esteem generates the need for prayer. Further research is needed among other age groups, in other cultural contexts, and using other indices of self-esteem so that the generalizability of this finding can be assessed. In several recent studies, the positive correlates of prayer among children and young people have been emphasized. A positive relationship has been reported between prayer and purpose in life, avoidance of alcohol, and attitude toward school. All of the churches contribute to the Hollywood Armenian Community and every church does this in its own way. These are not the only institutions that play important roles in the community. The Armenian political parties and organizations have their important contribution, too. The churches assist the people in their spiritual lives, and these parties and organizations in the people social live. Each organization in the community is focused or specialized to assist the people in various fields of the life. In this case education is one of the important issues. Recent studies show that newly arrived immigrant youth have the highest appreciation for education, while “second generation Americans of minority descent show signs of losing faith in their ability to achieve the California dream through hard work.” It is important to help our young generation and provide a good future for them. For this reason the Armenian organizations raise funds and help our children in their education. This money they spend for opening new schools and daycare centers, buy new toys, and books, pay the tuition fees for orphan children and children of low-income families, and provide the children with food during school time. Some of these organizations are Armenian Educational Benevolent Union, Armenian Educational Foundation, INC., AMAA Orphan Child Care Fund, Davidian & Mariamian Educational Foundation, Evereg-Fenesse Mesrobian-Roupinian Educational Society, Kessab Educational Association of Los Angeles, Mekhitarian Educational Foundation, Tekeyan Cultural Association. Other organizations benefit the children during the Summer time by opening Summer Camps where the children can enjoy Mother Nature. Some of these organizations are A.Y.F. Camp Big Pines, A.Y.F. Summer Camp, Armenian Children’s Fund, Camp Kessab, Camp Arev, etc. It is very important to manage the children’s after school time to keep them away from the streets and bad habits. The street has its own rules and moves the youth to the wrong direction. As we know, there are many gang groups in Hollywood. One of these is Armenian Power. These kids chose power to solve their problems. For example, one of the members said, “We don’t want others to touch our girls.” The speaker means that they don’t want other guys who belong to other nationalities to bother Armenian girls, and if this happens they will beat the guy. One of the examples of this is the article that I found in one of the Armenian periodicals that tells about a fistfight between Armenian Power and other Hispanic gang members near Hollywood High School. The reason for this fight was that one of Hispanic gang members invited an Armenian schoolgirl out, and the girl refused to accept the invitation. Then the guy started to follow the girl, and the girl called her brother for help who was an AP member. Sometimes the teenagers use knives and guns to solve their problems. These cases are having more dramatic ends and even death. For example, LA Times wrote, “In June 15, 1998, high school student was stabbed outside ‘Sweet 16’ birthday party.” In the other publication of LA Times we read that “a 15-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded during a gang fight.” After the fight the police arrested two teenage boys who were involved in the fight. Another Armenian periodical wrote that, “four teenagers were arrested by the police for using drugs.” The police caught these teenagers while they were smoking marijuana, and one of them had a small bag of marijuana in his pocket. In addition to this, in his book, Ecology of Fear, Mike Davis complains that “…city life grows more feral…” He also says that there are already under development special ‘digital supper-surveillance’ systems which will be able to detect and track suspects and criminals. I would not say that the city life grows more feral, but say that life is designed to be feral. For this I blame the parents of the criminals, our society, and the government. The old saying says, “You will harvest that whatever you have sown.” Only the ignorance and carelessness toward each other creates a crime and criminals. Instead of increasing funds on education and the quality of the system, the government increases the funds on LAPD and other organizations to increase the number of police officers and develop technology to catch criminals. It is easier to prevent crimes by educating our young generation, than to catch them after they commit crimes. The question is why should we trust our destiny to another human being who is wearing a police uniform. In his novel, LA Confidential, James Ellroy shows that in the city of Angels the police officers are not Angels and like Ed Exely they want glory and they will pay any price to reach their goals. And why expect more? Aren’t they human beings? Other Armenian organizations took the duty of teaching the children music, folk and modern dance, drawing and other forms of the art. Some of these are Armenian Allied Arts Association, Armenian American Association, Armenian American Theatrical & Musical Society, Armenian community Theater, Armenian Cultural Festival, INC, Armenian Cultural Foundation, Armenian Educational & Cultural Association Hamazkayin, Armenian Film Foundation, Armenian Film Society, Armenian Musicians & Artists Center, INC, Land and Culture Organization. They often organize children’s performances for the public. These performances of young Armenians impress not only the community members, but also others. The musicians tend to use Armenian Brotherhood Bible Church was built in Pasadena in 1986. Lather this church opened its two branches in Hollywood and Burbank. This church has a different organization than the above-mentioned churches. The church board is made of elders, deacons, pastors, and the chairman of the departments. These members must have at least 5 years of Christian experience, be well suited to teach it, be an example to the flock of God, be zealous toward the growth of the church, and not keep away from the meetings of the church without valid reasons. This somehow is a match with the separation of powers in democracy, and the members vote for their leaders. The main ideology of the church is based on the Bible and the central philosophy is that all the words of Bible are holy, absolutely truthful, and not arguable. The Second Coming of Christ is the hope of the church. The death in Christ shall rise first, and together with the living believers, will be caught up to heaven. There will be a 7-year period of tribulation for those left on the earth, after which Christ will descend on the earth with His saints, bind Satan, and establish His millennial kingdom. After the millennium, Satan will be released for a short while. There will be a general resurrection, and the judgment of the sinful dead. Unrepentant sinners will be condemned to everlasting torment, and believers to everlasting bliss . This is what they believe and this is the main vital force of the movement of the Brotherhood Bible Church. So, The church’s advice to its members and other people is to keep their souls clean. As a tool of enforcement they use the fear of the Last Judgment. According to this, unfaithful people’s souls will burn in the fires of Armageddon. The confession works like positive reinforcement in Psychology: for positive action (confession) a person will be rewarded (forgiven), and for any kind of crime (sin) a person will be punished (damned), which is compatible with the negative reinforcement. The church has its own way of contributing to our society. The church has its own principles to educate the members of the church and keep them away from any kind of impurities that may harm to their souls. All of these principles are based on the words of Bible. According to these principles, the members of the brotherhood must love God with all their heart, and love their friends as themselves. They must also abstain from evil speaking, fraud, lying, stealing, cheating the Government in taxes, the unequal yoke (in business and marriage), alcoholic beverages, use of drugs, tobacco, spiritism, fortune telling, and lotteries. This is a good advice to people to keep them away from everyday life’s bad habits and impurities. The church also does not encourage and does not endorse divorce and abortion. There are some other limitations that not everybody will agree upon. For example, the church’s advice to abstain from reading unsuitable books, listening to worldly music, attending dancing-halls and dancing. I think this is too much, because this advises to live a monk’s life that is not only possible but also is not practical way of living in the modern world. The church also advises its members to lead morally clean and exemplary lives, and considers these things as essential. The church believes that moral purity originates in the heart and expresses itself in the outer man. It considers false and futile to cover up the moral impurity of the inner man, the defilement of spirit, and mind, with outer appearances, behavior and practice. The church has the following services for its members and the public: worship services, fellowship service, Evangelism, baptismal service, Holy Communication, Dedication of children, doctrinal studies, prayer meeting, general meeting. All of the above mentioned meetings are open to the public, except the general meeting. These meetings are held to obey the injunctions of the Word of God, to safeguard the good tradition of the Brotherhood, and to safeguard the paternal customs of the Armenian family . Representatives the religion claim that increase the people’s self-esteem. In the world of science little attention has been given to the relationship between prayer and self-esteem. Conflicting evidence can be found in the wide literature on religiosity and self-esteem. In 1990, Forst and Healy reported a positive correlation between self-esteem and religious faith. Watson, Hood, Morris, and Hall reported a negative correlation between self-esteem and extrinsic religiosity. Gill and Thornton reported no correlation between religious belief and self-esteem. Finally, in 1996, Francis and Gibbs decided to conduct their own experiment to explore the relationship between prayer and self-esteem among a sample of 166 children (8-11 years old boys and girls). Self-esteem was assessed by the short form of the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory, a 25-item instrument scored on a 2-point scale: yes and no, frequency of personal prayer was reported on a 5-point scale that ranged from never (1) to daily (5). The Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory achieved a satisfactory alpha coefficient of 0.74. After controlling for effects of gender differences, there was no significant correlation between prayer and self-esteem. These data, therefore, offer no support for the view that prayer enhances self-esteem nor for the view that low self-esteem generates the need for prayer. Further research is needed among other age groups, in other cultural contexts, and using other indices of self-esteem so that the generalizability of this finding can be assessed. In several recent studies, the positive correlates of prayer among children and young people have been emphasized. A positive relationship has been reported between prayer and purpose in life, avoidance of alcohol, and attitude toward school. All of the churches contribute to the Hollywood Armenian Community and every church does this in its own way. These are not the only institutions that play important roles in the community. The Armenian political parties and organizations have their important contribution, too. The churches assist the people in their spiritual lives, and these parties and organizations in the people social live. Each organization in the community is focused or specialized to assist the people in various fields of the life. In this case education is one of the important issues. Recent studies show that newly arrived immigrant youth have the highest appreciation for education, while “second generation Americans of minority descent show signs of losing faith in their ability to achieve the California dream through hard work.” It is important to help our young generation and provide a good future for them. For this reason the Armenian organizations raise funds and help our children in their education. This money they spend for opening new schools and daycare centers, buy new toys, and books, pay the tuition fees for orphan children and children of low-income families, and provide the children with food during school time. Some of these organizations are Armenian Educational Benevolent Union, Armenian Educational Foundation, INC., AMAA Orphan Child Care Fund, Davidian & Mariamian Educational Foundation, Evereg-Fenesse Mesrobian-Roupinian Educational Society, Kessab Educational Association of Los Angeles, Mekhitarian Educational Foundation, Tekeyan Cultural Association. Other organizations benefit the children during the Summer time by opening Summer Camps where the children can enjoy Mother Nature. Some of these organizations are A.Y.F. Camp Big Pines, A.Y.F. Summer Camp, Armenian Children’s Fund, Camp Kessab, Camp Arev, etc. It is very important to manage the children’s after school time to keep them away from the streets and bad habits. The street has its own rules and moves the youth to the wrong direction. As we know, there are many gang groups in Hollywood. One of these is Armenian Power. These kids chose power to solve their problems. For example, one of the members said, “We don’t want others to touch our girls.” The speaker means that they don’t want other guys who belong to other nationalities to bother Armenian girls, and if this happens they will beat the guy. One of the examples of this is the article that I found in one of the Armenian periodicals that tells about a fistfight between Armenian Power and other Hispanic gang members near Hollywood High School. The reason for this fight was that one of Hispanic gang members invited an Armenian schoolgirl out, and the girl refused to accept the invitation. Then the guy started to follow the girl, and the girl called her brother for help who was an AP member. Sometimes the teenagers use knives and guns to solve their problems. These cases are having more dramatic ends and even death. For example, LA Times wrote, “In June 15, 1998, high school student was stabbed outside ‘Sweet 16’ birthday party.” In the other publication of LA Times we read that “a 15-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded during a gang fight.” After the fight the police arrested two teenage boys who were involved in the fight. Another Armenian periodical wrote that, “four teenagers were arrested by the police for using drugs.” The police caught these teenagers while they were smoking marijuana, and one of them had a small bag of marijuana in his pocket. In addition to this, in his book, Ecology of Fear, Mike Davis complains that “…city life grows more feral…” He also says that there are already under development special ‘digital supper-surveillance’ systems which will be able to detect and track suspects and criminals. I would not say that the city life grows more feral, but say that life is designed to be feral. For this I blame the parents of the criminals, our society, and the government. The old saying says, “You will harvest that whatever you have sown.” Only the ignorance and carelessness toward each other creates a crime and criminals. Instead of increasing funds on education and the quality of the system, the government increases the funds on LAPD and other organizations to increase the number of police officers and develop technology to catch criminals. It is easier to prevent crimes by educating our young generation, than to catch them after they commit crimes. The question is why should we trust our destiny to another human being who is wearing a police uniform. In his novel, LA Confidential, James Ellroy shows that in the city of Angels the police officers are not Angels and like Ed Exely they want glory and they will pay any price to reach their goals. And why expect more? Aren’t they human beings? Other Armenian organizations took the duty of teaching the children music, folk and modern dance, drawing and other forms of the art. Some of these are Armenian Allied Arts Association, Armenian American Association, Armenian American Theatrical & Musical Society, Armenian community Theater, Armenian Cultural Festival, INC, Armenian Cultural Foundation, Armenian Educational & Cultural Association Hamazkayin, Armenian Film Foundation, Armenian Film Society, Armenian Musicians & Artists Center, INC, Land and Culture Organization. They often organize children’s performances for the public. These performances of young Armenians impress not only the community members, but also others. The musicians tend to use Armenian national musical instruments in their performances. For this occasion Josef Woodard, who was present one of the concerts, writes, “The sound is uniquely mournful, a plaintive wail from some timeless source, with a nuanced timber somewhere between a woodwind instrument and human voice. It is the duduk, a 1,500-year-old instrument made of apricot wood.” Organizations such as Homenmen Armenian Athletes Association, United Armenian Soccer Club and others are concerned with the children health and physical condition. They have established schools where the children master in various types of sport. Other organizations are specialized to help adults and the elderly to find a job. These organizations have special programs to help the community members to find jobs and do not rely on federal aid. “These Program’s help to new arrivals is to get them off to a good start and keep them off welfare.” On the other hand, new reforms at federal and state levels have created some difficulties for the population. This is the reason why immigrants, especially old and disabled people, will not get federal and state aid or this aid will be reduced. Officials said that “more than 4,000 elderly or disabled immigrants living in Los Angeles County stand to lose federal aid unless they can show they have obtained US citizenship or permanent resident status. ” After this reform the role of Armenian organizations became more important. Now these organizations’ duties include taking care of the homeless, old, and disabled members of the community. Also they have many specialized doctors in various fields of the medicine and provide the people with their medical cervices. These organizations also provide community members with many specialized attorneys to protect their constitutional rights. Some of these organizations are Armenian National Committee to Aid Homeless Armenian, Ararat Home of Los Angeles INC, Armenian American Council on Age, Armenian Relief Society INC, and Medical Outreach for Armenians, Armenian Bar Association, Armenian Center of Hollywood, etc. The above mentioned organizations with their services also have many other duties and services, too. The first duty of these organizations is to help Armenians that live in Hollywood and other cities and states of the US. On the other hand, some other organizations such as Armenia Fund INC, Artsakh Fund, FCHA Fund For Children’s Homes Of Armenia INC, Friends of Armenia, United Armenian Fund, help the people of blockaded Armenia and Artsakh to survive. While the Armenian organizations provide financial and physical help to the starving Armenians in Armenia and Artsakh, the Armenian political parties are searching for democratic and political solutions to the issue. There are three major Armenian political parties in the US: Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Armenian Democratic Liberal Organization, and Social Democratic Hnechak Party. Although some disagreement exists between their political platforms, these political parties have one united goal: to find ways to solve The Armenian Issue, to help Armenia and Armenians worldwide. The Armenian Issue refers to the Armenian genocide. In the 20th century, between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were driven from their homes and massacred by the Turkish government. But until now the Turkish government refuses to accept the crime and pay the contribution. Genocide, in international law, is a crime of destroying, or committing conspiracy to destroy a nation, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Genocide was defined in the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948. The crimes of the Turkish government remains unpunished, but Armenians believe that time will come to pay the prize. Benjamin Disraeli, the nineteen-century British Prime Minister and novelist wrote, “the politics are the possession and distribution of power.” But the Armenian political parties do not seek for political power in America. Their only target is Armenia itself. The U.S. is the most powerful country in the modern world, and this is why the Armenian political parties are looking for political allies in America. These parties use the support of the communities, which are calcified as politically active. “Small but active minority communities are working toward having a great share of political power. Armenian Californians have seen a governor from their heritage elected…” On the other hand, the political allies and active lobbying help the political groups to apply political pressure on the legislature. One of the products of this pressure was that in 1997 the U.S. Government reduced aid to the government of Azerbaijan. But on June 23, 1998 the State Foreign Relations Committee approved the Silk Road Strategy Act, which would effectively lift the ban on US aid to the government of Azerbaijan. One of the members of Armenian Revolutionary Federation said, “As an American Armenian, I am very disappointed by this action, because this bill represents a fundamental misguided effort by the Caspian oil lobby to reward Azerbaijan for refusing to lift its illegal blockade to Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh. ” So, the Armenian language is an important factor that helps the Armenian community to learn English and other languages. Especially it helps children and newcomers who know the native language and want to learn English. This is important, because the knowledge of the official language of the land helps them to learn and understand the Law of the land. On the other hand, the Armenian Church assists the community members in their spiritual lives. In Church work the main philosophy is “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” The Armenian Church and Organizations play important role in keeping the community members, especially children, away from any kind of impurities: committing crimes, using drags and alcohol. These institutions also build new schools and educate the youth morally, ethically, and physically. The main point of these institutions is to educate the community members to be honored citizens of the country and respect other nations. Additionally, the Armenian political parties participate in political life of the U.S. They and their political allies communicate with legislators or other government officials and try to influence their decisions on national and international issues. While the Armenian Churches, schools, organizations assist people in their spiritual lives, build new schools, and educate the young generation mentally, physically, and ethically, and the political parties fight for simple human rights for survival, Hollywood dreams under its unusual yellow- brown smog-blanket. The dream includes different dreams that all the communities of Hollywood have in their hearts: Chinese dreams, Korean dreams, Mexican dreams, Armenian dreams, and many other dreams. Hollywood is unusually beautiful at nighttime with all its sparkling lights. But the sun will rise, and the people of Hollywood will see the Hollywood sign on mount Hollywood and they will hope again.
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