Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York

Category Archives: Open Letters

DC Earth Day – ZAMWI

| Open Letters

From ZAMWI@yahoogroups.com

Dear ZAMWI Members:

On Earth Day (April 21), a few of us will be gathering at the Northwest Branch Park Site near West Hyattsville Metro to participate in the Anacostia River Clean up. The event will last from 8:30am to 12pm. I hope more of you will join us in this important initiative to improve the environment in Washington D.C.

In order to register, please e-mail Bill Howard (bill.howard4@verizon.net) from the Anacostia Watershed Society who is heading the initative at Northwest Branch – Hyattsville.

Directions from the DC Metro are below – From West Hyattsville Metro Station:

  • Head southeast on Jamestown Rd. toward Queens Chapel Rd.; go 0.2 mi
  • Use the pedestrian crossing to cross Queens Chapel Rd. and enter the Northwest Branch Park.

Thanks, and look forward to a strong turnout from ZAMWI,

Zal Damkevala
ZAMWI Board of Trustees

FEZANA: Report of the Infrastructure Working Group

| Open Letters

Dear FEZANA friends:

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of FEZANA.  Today, we are estimating a Zarathushti population of over 15,000 in the USA and another 7,500 in Canada.  We have a large proportion of younger Zarathushtis who grew up in this part of the world.  We are busy, thriving and growing.  We have good disposable incomes that we are willing to use for good causes.  Its time now to look beyond our present total dependance on volunteers to perform all the services that we need from their homes during their spare time; and evaluate how best we can continue to increase and solidify our footprints on North American soil.

The time is therefore ripe to start building the necessary infrastructure (office space, clerical and administrative support) that will ensure that all the Member associations as well as the North American Zarathushti community can avail of FEZANA’s benefits to the fullest extent.  A professional staff and a central office space for conducting the adminstrative tasks of communication, correspondence, recordkeeping, publishing, archiving, etc., will greatly assist the current and future elected officers of FEZANA in performing their tasks diligently and efficiently.

Accordingly, an Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) was formed in November 2006.  The IWG has now submitted its findings and recommendations in a report (attached), which will be the centerpiece of our discussions at the upcoming Annual General Meeting in Dallas on April 6,7,8, 2007.

Please review the Infrastructure Working Group Report carefully and if you have any questions, bring them up now, before the AGM, so we can discuss them and find solutions.  Distribute the report to your Association members and come prepared to discuss and vote on how FEZANA can raise the funds to do what the report recommends.

I am personally committed to see that FEZANA begins to set up the office and adminstrative structure this year, during its 20th Annivesary year.  I need your support.

Rustom Kevala
FEZANA President

Applications for the 2006-2007 Annual FEZANA Competition

| Open Letters, Special Announcements
  • Mehraban and Morvorid Kheradi Endowment Scholarship–The FEZANA Scholar
  • Banoobai and Maneckshaw Kapadia Endowment Scholarship
  • FEZANA Scholarships

The application form for the 2006-2007 Academic Scholarship annual competition is attached here: FEZANA Scholarships Application Form

Best wishes,

Dolly Dastoor
Zena Irani
Jerry Kheradi
Purvez Rustomji
Anahita Sidhwa
Katayun Kapadia (ex-officio)

Zoroastrian Ethics Presentation

| Open Letters, Special Announcements

Professor Kaikhosrov Irani will give a talk on Zoroastrian Ethics at the March religion class (March 4th, 2007 at the Pomona Darbe Mehr Zoroastrian Temple).  Please join us, as these presentations are consistently educational and entertaining at the same time!

Zarathushti Oral History Project: Volunteers Needed

| Open Letters, Special Announcements

The Zarathushti Oral History Project is looking for volunteers:  we need local coordinators in order to help publicize the project, identify volunteers, and coordinate interviews within FEZANA associations.

  • Objective: The Zarathushti Oral History Project is an effort to document our heritage as Zarathushtis. The aim of the project is for youth to interview Zarathushtis, especially seniors, and record their oral histories for posterity. We plan to excerpt interviews for the Fall 2007 issue of the FEZANA Journal.   Second, we hope that it will stimulate youth interest in their heritage and culture.  In the diaspora, much of our culture risks being lost once the immigrant generations pass on.
  • Reasons: In the past century, the Zarathushti community has witnessed remarkable transformations.  After more than a millennium of existence in the rural strongholds of Gujarat, Yazd, and Kerman, Zarathushtis have become a largely urbanized, well-educated people dispersed around the world.  Many members of our elder generation have witnessed first-hand the changes that have greatly impacted our culture, traditions, and religion.   It is in our interests to record their stories while they are still with us—within the Parsi community, 30 percent of the population is above the age of 60.
  • Example Topics: Topics for discussion—historical, cultural, and religious in nature—are diverse and unlimited.  Examples include: Life in a Gujarati or Iranian village, village customs and traditions, life in India and Iran during the Second World War, Parsis in the Indian independence movement and newly independent India and Pakistan, migrations from Yazd and Kerman to Tehran, or from rural Gujarat to towns in Gujarat to cities all over India, Zoroastrianism in the Pahlavi era, reasons for migrating to North America, and how early Zarathushti immigrants adjusted to life outside of their homelands.
  • Interviewees: Interviewees are the heart of this project. We need people who are willing and interested to share their experiences and recollections of personal and historic events, describe daily life when they were children, as well as their migration stories.
  • Interviewers: Although we encourage anyone to participate as interviewers, we are especially looking for youths.  Youth participation will be a way to foster interest in their family and community heritage.  Ideally, this project could be integrated into the religious classes offered within associations.  Youth participation in the project may fulfill community service requirements in some schools.
  • Local Coordinators: We are looking for people to help coordinate interviews in their area. The project contacts listed below will mail interviewers suggested topics and questions and notes about how to take oral histories.
  • Inputs, suggestions, and comments related to this project are greatly appreciated.   We do hope that you can help make the Zarathushti Oral History project a success!
  • Contacts: