Kratak istorijat Srpske nacionalne akademije u Kanadi


Srpska nacionalna akademija u Kanadi (SNA) je registrovana neprofitna dobrotvorna organizacija osnovana 1981, a 1982. je dobila povelju od kanadske vlade kada je i upisana u registar dobrotvornih organizacija.

Osnivači i prvi članovi uprave bili su: advokat Nikola Pašić, unuk našeg slavnog državnika Nikole Pašića, Sofija Škorić, bibliotekarka univerziteta u Torontu, Dušan Bijelić, magistar istorije umetnosti, Nikola Aleksejčenko, inženjer građevinarstva i profesor Pavle Pavlović, direktor srednje škole.

Kao što i priliči jednoj akademiji, osnovni ciljevi su bili i ostali isključivo kulturnog i prosvetnog karaktera.

Zlatno doba SNA (1981 – 1993)

Nikola Pašić and Sofija Škorić were at the helm of the organization from the founding in 1981 until 1993. The Academy during time strictly observed its founding principles, and because of that fact and the ensuing activities, it achieved a great popularity and affirmation. Thus, that period could be regarded as the "Golden Age" in the history of SHA.

Because of its diversified and various academic programs, as well as truly diligent work of the Board of Directors, and contributions by many members, the Academy gained a great respect and credibility throughout the Serbian Diaspora on the North American continent, especially within the Canadian establishment, in the academic and intellectual circles of Canada, Serbia and Yugoslavia, and in addition, a great respect of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In addition to the five founding members, who served on the Board for many years, at every annual meeting, new members augmented it by being  democratically elected and added to the Board, who contributed new ideas and worked actively and thus furthered the development of the Academy. We will mention just a few names: Mrs. Rosa Somborac, Gojko Protich, Nikola Bogdanović, Jana Dželetović, Rade Dodić, Dr. Žika Davidovac, Mirjana Simić, Jelena Petričić, Braca Divić, Dr. Velimir Ristić, Nada Stegnajić, Gordana Tomić, and Dragan Todorović (aka Charles Todd).

The Academy had its chapters, members and associates in fourteen cities throughout Canada and the U.S.A. Guests of the Academy were very often invited speakers by the SHA chapters. Members, organizers and hosts were in Montreal: Dr. Dimitrije Pivnički, Dr. Jovan Cvejić, Dr. Milaca Vatic; in Windsor: Stanislav Markova; in Cleveland: Dr. Brainier Simić-Glavaški; in Edmonton: Prof. Milan Dimić, Jovan Mišić and Branislav Vilimonović; in Vancouver: Radomir and Nada Putnik, and Boba Stefanović; in San Francisco: Moma Tasić, Desa Tomasevich Wakeman and the archpriest Dušan Bunjević; in Los Angelos: Lupče and Jovanka Radivojević, Miša and Ankica Milosavljević, Dušica Savić-Benghiat; in San Diego: Aca and Danka Pantelić, Dr. Predrag Pecić; in Chicago: Miki Nedić, Savo Rakočević, Prof. Nikola Moravčević and Stevo Dobrijević; in Millwaukee: Dr. Lazar Brkić; in New York: Vlada Adjemović, Dr. Dušan Kosević and Ratko and Mirjana Pićurić; in Washington: Djordje and Mira Jovanović, Ružica Popović and Mihajlo Budjevac.

The list is rather long of all those who rightly deserve an honourable mention because of their generous help given to the Academy. Some of these great people, the Serbian patriots, are not, unfortunately, any longer alive, but their work and contribution cannot be forgotten.

Conferences, academic lectures, literary evenings, art exhibitions and concerts were of academic and international character and attracted large audiences. The SHA was the only organization in the Diaspora which had established formal cooperation with the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade. The Academician Dr. Predrag Palavestra was appointed as the coordinator .

“Democracy and Parliamentarism” an international scholarly conference co-sponsored by the University of Toronto was held in 1981 to mark the centenary of the Founding of the Serbian Radical Party. It put the Academy in the center of attention and gave it an academic importance, which it  maintained in its future endeavours. It was interesting to note that at the conference there were also, beside the well-known historians, the grandson of Nikola Pašić; Milan St. Protić, the great-grandson of Stojan Protić; Prince Alexander Karadjordjević, heir to the Serbian throne; Dr. Milorad Draškovich, (Director of the Hoover Institute ) and son of Minister Drašković; Count  George Ignatieff, Chancellor of the University of Toronto, a grandson of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, a close relative of Tsar Nicholas II, who was also the first Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, and Count Bagration, the President of the Tolstoy Foundation.

The following conferences organized by the Academy and staged at the University of Toronto were devoted to Serbian poets Jovan Dučić and Djura Jakšić, the Serbian philologist and father of Serbian orthography Vuk Karadzić, the Great Serbian Migration of 1690, and other important historical and literary topics.

Lectures by many prominent intellectuals, Serbian academicians and professors were organized at the University of Toronto: academician Dobrica Cosić, academician Dr. Vojislav Djurić, academician Dr. Ljuba Tadić, academician Dr. Andrija Gams, academician Dr. Predrag Palavestra, academician Vasilije Krestić, academician Dr. Dimitrije Djordjević, Vaderbilt University professor Dr. Alex Dragnich, academician Dr. Dragoljub Živojinović, as well as Dr. Dušan Bataković, architect Dr. Predrag Ristić and many others.

Professors from the University of Toronto, in addition to professors from American universities such as George Vid Tomasevich, Dr. John Loud, Dr. Vasa Mihailović, Dr. Gale Stokes, Dr. Nikola Moravčević, Dr. Aleksandar Saša Petrov, Dr. Želimir Juričić were also guests of the Academy.

Members of the older generation, who were historical personalities themselves, such as Velimir Tošković from Windsor and Nikola Kosić from Milwaukee presented their witness accounts about the beginning of WWII in Yugoslavia.

Other speakers were film and theatre director Prof. Arsenije Jovanović, theater director Vida Ognjenović, theologian Dr. Veselin Kesić, noted law expert from the Belgrade University Prof. Dr. Radoslav Stojanović, Dr. Klara Mandić (founder of the Serbian-Jewish Friendship Society), Prof. Dr.Živorad Stojković, Dr. Lazar Brkić, the theologian Dr. Stanimir Spasović, and church dignitaries Dr. Atanasije Jevtić, and Dr. Amfilohije Radović, as well as Irinej, the then Bishop of Niš, currently His Holiness the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Famous and very popular poets and writers from Serbia were guests of the SHA: Matija Bećković, Rajko Petrov Nogo, Danko Popović, Brana Crnčević, Stevan Raičković, Momo Kapor, Jovan Radulović and others. Some of them extended their trips and visited Serbian communities in cities throughout Canada and USA, on more than one occasion.

Performances of the great actors from Belgrade theatres Ljuba Tadić and Aleksandar Berček will remain in the history of SHA as the great artistic achievements.

The SHA guests, while in Toronto, were hosted and entertained by the Jauković, Protić, Stegnajić and Škorić families.

Exhibitions such as “The Serbian national books published in Exile”, a photo exhibition by Boris Spremo, the renowned Toronto Star photographer, “Photographic presentation of Canada through the eyes of a New Canadian,” and the pastels art works of Aleksandar Petričić, were also important art events staged by SHA.
An academic project of SHA, organized in order to pay tribute to the Canadian medical volunteers in Serbia during the Great War, was officially supported by both states, Yugoslavia and Canada. In the hall of the Medical Sciences Building at the University of Toronto on November 11, 1984, the Remembrance Day,  an exhibit was opened and a bronze plaque “Thank you, Canadians!” unveiled by the Dean of Medicine, together with Dr. Dimitrije Pivnički from Montreal and Dr. Josif Divić from Ottawa. SHA was awarded a special Citation from Bill Davis, the Premier of Ontario, for this endeavour.

The same exhibit was presented at the National Library in Belgrade by Mr. Fraser, the Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, and Sofija Škorić, who was the author of the Exhibit and of the academic presentation. Later on, when the Exhibition traveled through Serbia, visiting many cities, the new ambassador, Mr. James Bissett, took part in the openings. After completing the tour, the exhibit was gifted to the Serbian Medical Society’s Museum of Serbian Medicine in Belgrade and at that time another “Thank you Canadians” plague was unveiled at the Museum. Special recognition and medals were awarded to the organizers as symbols of gratitude by the Society of the Descendants of the  Salonika Veterans.

A very successful multimedia event, in Serbian and English, marking the Anniversary of the 750 year of Death of St. Sava, on October 12, 1985 at the Ryerson Theatre in downtown Toronto was choreographed and directed by Prof. Arsenije Jovanović. This performance was repeated in Montreal, Windsor and Chicago.

The benediction of His Holiness Patriarch German was read by Bishop Irinej of Niš, currently the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Greetings were sent or personally delivered by His Grace Bishop Georgije, prelate of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Canada, Mila Mulroney, then the First Lady of Canada, Otto Jelinek, Federal Minister for Multiculturalism, Tony Ruprecht, Ontario Minister without portfolio responsible for Disabled Persons and Multiculturalism, Art Eggleton, Mayor of the City of Toronto, Elizabeth Kishkon, Mayor of the city of Windsor, academician Antonije Isaković, Vice President of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, as well as academician Dobrica Cosić, academician Miodrag Pavlović, writer Borislav Mihajlović Mihiz, poet Ljubomir Simović and Bishop Atanasije Jevtić.

After the staging of the event in Toronto, arrangements were made for the poet Matija Bećković to visit Serbian communities in Canada and the U.S.A., with the purpose of collecting donations for the construction of the St. Sava temple on the Vračar Hill in Belgrade, the largest Eastern Orthodox church in the world. The Serbs donated at that time $350.000. For this humanitarian work His Holiness German, the Serbian Patriarch, acknowledged the work of the Academy by proclaiming SHA a "ktitor" (a founder) of the Church of St. Sava.

On the 50th Anniversary of the Jasenovac concentration camp, there was a commemorative academy and promotion of a publication about the Jasenovac victims, which was published by the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1990. This commemoration was organized by Mrs. Nada Stegnajić, herself a surviving detainee of Jasenovac. Incidentally, Nada is credited with being the first to introduce the Serbian language classes in Ontario schools.

SHA translated and published books by Meša Selimović, Ivo Andrić, Prof.George Vid Tomasevich, Negovan Rajić, academician Ljuba Tadić and Matija Bećković. Also, SHA made a sizeable financial contribution towards the publishing of the Collected Works of Jovan Dučić, in 1989, which was also the first time in the post-WW II Yugoslavia that Dučić's works were published.

A significant financial help was donated in 1987 to facilitate the publishing of a monumental book “The Heritage of Kosovo: Monuments and Symbols of the Serbian People.” The book will represent “Our Title Deed to Kosovo and Metohija,” stated at the time the president of the Editorial Board, then Bishop Pavle, and later Serbian Patriarch, as he foresaw the coming events. The same year the book “Oj davori, ti Kosovo ravno” was edited by poet Rajko Petrov Nogo and published by SHA.

An important book “Serbs in Ontario” published in 1987 is the best, most objective history of the Serbian in Ontario to date. Gerry Phillips, Minister for Citizenship, at the special promotion of the book on September 12, 1988, proclaimed that this was the best publication which his Ministry had financially supported.

Numerous lectures and promotions  of various Serbian publications organized by SHA attracted audiences and enlarged the SHA membership. A great number of Serbs in Toronto and the surroundings were always willing to work for the organization, as well as provide donations. Some of the projects were subsidized by the Ontario government, while others University of Toronto  officially supported and participated in all event staged at the University. Many events were opened by George Ignatieff, the University Chancellor or Dr. Gleb Žekulin, Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies.

SHA contributed considerably to building bridges between the Mother Country and the Diaspora in the decade of 1980 and after. That was an attempt of a younger generation of Serbs in Canada, who wanted to open their doors to the most prominent Serbian scholars and writers, in order to make possible for them to meet their exiled countrymen, whom the communist government in Yugoslavia had tendentiously accused of being “people's enemy,” while the Slovene, Croat and Macedonian immigrants were embraced as “our people.”

SHA invited as guests the most popular writers, the Serbian dissidents, who were bravely raising their voices demanding their human rights and freedom of speech in those famous public debates that were taking place at 7 Francuska Street in Belgrade, home of the Association of Serbian Writers.

The Serbian Heritage Academy, eloquently and principally, on a scholarly level, defended the interest of the Serbian community before the Canadian authorities, and at the academia stage, contributing to the good image of the Serbian people in Canada, and serving as the Diaspora’s spiritual centre.

SHA opened a new world for our guests. They came here and met and got to know our people and upon their return to the Homeland they were able to bear witness verbally and in their writings about the real attitude of the Serbian patriotic émigrés.

Vreme Srpskog centra za novodošle (1993 – 2001)

Drugi period, od 1993. do 2001. godine, mogao bi se nazvati "Vreme srpskog centra za novodošle". Zlo koje je prouzrokovano raspadom bivše Jugoslavije nije mimoišlo ni Srbe u dijaspori. Srpski živalj, prognat sa vekovnih ognjišta, počeo je devedesetih godina da pristiže u Kanadu. Neki od članova SNA došli su na ideju da srpskim izbeglicama treba izaći u susret i pomoći im da prebrode šokove i traume. Akademija je bila od velike pomoći jer je davala vitalne informacije, prevodila i overavala dokumente, upućivala ih na razne državne institucije i kompanije, pripremala ih za intervjue. Akademija nije mogla da uradi više od toga, jer nije raspolagala ni sredstvima ni uslovima za tu vrstu humanitarnog rada. Pomoć tih prvih godina kanadska država je izdašno davala pa su mnogi unapredili engleski jezik i brzo se uhlebili i postali uspešni Kanađani.

Tada je Akademija morala da doda svojim ciljevima humanitarni rad sa izbeglicama i odredila je to kao najvažniju svrhu svog postojanja te se skoro isključivo bavila novodošlima. Ontarijska vlada joj je odobrila sumu od $150,000 za kupovinu jedne zgrade koja je adaptirana u “Srpski centar za novodošle”, pod uslovom da SNA učestvuje sa svojih 25% sredstava i obaveznim volonterskim radom sledećih deset godina. Drugi uslov je bio da SNA uvede puno radno vreme, od 9 ujutru do 5 sati popodne svakim radnim danom, na zbrinjavanju novoprispelih imigranata. Večeri i vikendi su ostavljeni Akademiji na raspolaganju za njene druge delatnosti. Pored ovako napornog rada, Upravi je ostajalo jako malo vremena da se posveti kulturnim projektima, kako je to činjeno u prethodnom periodu. Proučavajući aktivnosti Akademije u ovom periodu dobija se utisak da je Uprava prepustila kulturno delovanje društvima koja su ušla u povremenu saradnju sa Akademijom, kao što su Udruženje književnika "Desanka Maksimović", Udruženje diplomiranih studenata beogradskog univerziteta "Singidunum" i Srpsko istorijsko društvo "Preporod."
Sa tako promenjenim profilom Akademija je sve više prestajala da bude magnet za njeno članstvo, koje je nekada brojalo na stotine članova i koje joj je, prevashodno, bilo prišlo zbog njenog bavljenja kulturnim projektima.Članstvo se naglo osipalo, a novodošli nisu bili zainteresovani za volonterski rad. Sofiju Škorić, koja je dotle bila spiritus movens SNA, odvode druge obaveze, ali nastavlja sa promovisanjem srpske kulture na Torontskom univerzitetu, organizovanjem predavanja i izložbi o ćirilici, Ivi Andriću, 800 godina Hilandara, itd. Otvarala je vrata biblioteke Torontskog univerziteta za goste “Desanke Maksimović” kad god su od nje to tražili. Dugogodišnji predsednik SNA, poštovani Nikola Pašić, povlači se 1994. Tada je izabrana za predsednicu Akademije dr Desanka Krstić, ali je ostala na toj dužnosti samo godinu dana. Zamenio je Dragomir Koča Radojković i ostao na toj poziciji sve do 2013. godine.

Centar je opstojavao zahvaljujući, pre svega, velikom broju veoma posvećenih volontera koji su svakodnevno radili u ovom centru, jer su to smatrali svojom patriotskom dužnošću i zbog finansijske pomoći koju je Centru davaala ontarijska država. Da pomenemo, sa posebnim poštovanjem, samo neke volontere koji su svakodnevno dežurali i radili u ovom centru: Petar i Saveta Milojević, Bilka Mironović, Milena Milošević, Branka Stefanović, Kaća Lazarević, Suzana Smit (Smith), Anđa Stepanović, Zorica Radišić, Mirjana Matejić, Katarina Kostić i mnogi drugi.

Početkom 2000. godine talas srpskih useljenika se smanjuje. Kanadske vlasti ukidaju finansijsku pomoć i Srpski centar za novodošle se gasi, a SNA se suočava sa ozbiljnim finansijskim problemima. Hiljade emigranata su prošle kroz centar i koristili usluge, ali retko ko se odazvao da postane član i da aktivno sarađuje. Gledali su na Akademiju kao na servis koji njima treba da posluži, a bez želje da se učlane i pomognu kao svoju organizaciju, da je unaprede, da se bave društvenim neplaćenim radom. Zašto je to bilo tako, pokazaće neka buduća objektivna istorijsko-sociološka analiza. Uprava donosi odluku da se prostorije izdaju pod zakup da bi makar na taj način sačuvali zgradu.

Vreme mirovanja (2000 – februar 2013)

Treći period, od 2000. godine do februara 2013., okarakterisali bismo kao "Vreme mirovanja". Upravu, koja nije sazivala godišnje skupštine te nije ni menjana od 1995. godine, aktivno članstvo je uglavnom bilo napustilo, a ona sama nije imala ni želje, ni znanja, ni energije da Akademiju oživi. Tako da je organizacija postojala samo na papiru, bez značajnih manifestacija, bez buddžeta, i praktično i bez prostorija, jer su bile date pod zakup. Postavilo se legitimno pitanje: kome i čemu ovakva organizacija, koja nosi srpsko ime, ustvari služi?

Obnova Srpske nacionalne akademije 2013. godine

U decembru 2009. osnivači SNA i dobar broj starih članova, kojima se pridružuje i jedan broj intelektualaca, novih useljenika u Kanadu, svi dobri Srbi i patriote, a uspešni Kanađani, koji znaju da vrednuju važnost kulture u gajenju nacionalnog identiteta, pokreću akciju za oživljavanje SNA. Proces je bio mukotrpan, zbog otpora stare autističke uprave, i potrajao sve do februara 2013. kada je, konačno, demokratskim glasanjem na godišnjoj skupštini, izabrana kompletno nova uprava u sledećem sastavu: Sofija Škorić (predsednik), Miro Miketić (potpredsednik), Rajko Radojević (sekretar), Dejan Milićević, (blagajnik), Dragana Babić, (građevinski odbor), dr Radomir Baturan (izdavaštvo), Dragica Braunstein (književnost), Katarina Kostić (informisanje), Đuro Lubarda (umetnost).

Uprava proklamuje vraćanje SNA svojim izvornim prosvetnim, naučnim ciljevima, kao i negovanju srpske baštine, unapređenju srpske kulture, građenju specijalnih odnosa sa kanadskim društvom i srpskim narodom u matici.

Od februra 2013. počinju nove kulturne aktivnosti, zahvaljujući angažovanosti vrednih članovima Uprave i podršci srpske zajednice.