On September 25, 1924, around 1,500 people gathered at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City for an unusual dinner. The N...

On September 25, 1924, around 1,500 people gathered at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City for an unusual dinner. The Near East Relief organization had arranged the event as part of its "Golden Rule" campaign, asking Americans to eat a plain meal similar to what orphan children in its care received, and to donate the difference between that cost and what they would normally spend on a meal. The cups and bowls on the table that night had traveled further than most of the guests. According to an American newspaper report from October 3, 1924, the cups had been made on the island of Syros, while the bowls had come from Jerusalem. Both were shipped specifically to New York for the dinner. Near East Relief records show the cups were crafted by orphaned children using empty condensed milk cans. Syros was at that time a refuge for thousands of Greek and Armenian orphans who had been driven out of Asia Minor. From 1923 onward, those children had lived initially in tents and had helped build the very orphanage that would shelter them. The orphanage on Syros also ran schools and vocational workshops, including metalworking, which is how children who had lost everything in the destruction of Asia Minor ended up making the tableware that sat in front of New York's dinner guests 102 years ago this week. The Near East Relief campaign raised funds across the United States throughout the early 1920s to support hundreds of thousands of Greek and Armenian refugees and orphans displaced by the violence that wiped out ancient communities across Anatolia. #GreekHistory #AsiaMinor #NearEastRelief