Boris Abadzhyan, 32, is running in 2020 as a Democrat in the 71st District of Missouri, covering parts of Olivette, Overland, Creve Coeur, Chesterfield, Maryland Heights, and Unincorporated; an area heavily populated with Jewish Americans and Immigrants. Abadzhyan comes himself from a prominent Soviet Armenian military family. He is related to Marshal Hovhaness “Ivan” Baghramyan on his mom’s line who had fought against the Nazis in World War II.Abadzhyan empathizes with the importance of continuing to remember the holocaust so that it will never happen again and wants to defend Jewish rights. Much of his sympathy comes from his family background and their actions to fight the Nazis during the Holocaust. In 2020,Abadzhyan hopes to turn out the vote. One of Boris’s ancestors who was just mentioned, was widely celebrated historically through the years, as a Marshal for Armenia and former Soviet Union who fought between 1915-1968. What was most revealing about Abadzhyan’s extended family was that Baghramyan fought the Nazis; however, his maternal great grandmother Haykanush Danelyan fed many of her Jewish neighbors who were hungry during WW II as well. She was wealthy and fed many families during World War II and after. These ancestors and their impact on Jews, account for Boris having sympathy for the Holocaust because of his ties to the Armenian Genocide, and ancestors who his family remembers as relatives who directly fought to liberate Jews during World War II.   Being a Marshal was the highest ranking above General, and the only limited high ranking military officials had it. Marshal Hovhaness "Ivan" Baghramyan was the first Armenian who worked in charge of the 1st republic of Armenia, active in WWII, and during 1915-1968. He was in charge of under this command of liberating the Baltic states, as deputy defense minister of the soviet union all battles, the Baltic - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia,Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. He was also the deputy defense minister of the former Soviet Union. He was sent to Vietnam to negotiate during the Vietnam war, Mother's blood line he (Ivan) was responsible for the liberation of the nations mentioned above...A lot of the older generation Jewish people know Boris and know his family.  
When asked about growing up with Jewish people, Boris Abadzhyan said “My mom Karine Mikaelyan was born in Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan - she was an ethnic Armenian and senior economist working in the government of Soviet Azerbaijan. After all, Soviet Azerbaijan was multicultural and my family had a lot of friends and neighbors who were Jewish.” He went on and said ,“ I’ve always loved the Jewish people…my mother, she passed the love of culture and in Armenia we also had Jewish neighbors I grew up in an environment, I was always around Jewish people, Jewish holidays, We never differentiated, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian. Our family friends here in St. Louis are majority Jewish.”
Abadzhyan shared his thoughts about Jewish people and said,“The Jewish people are very intelligent, highly educated, wonderful big heart understanding, caring, loving, I have never seen anything bad, always misjudged my others, people have different perceptions, they give good advice, I love the holidays, Passover, Hannukah. My district includes sections of St. Louis County with large Jewish populations.” 
As a politician who is for human rights, Abadzhyan said,“I will always defend their rights, especially with the defender of human rights, nobody should discriminate anyone based on their race, religion, ethnicity or gender.”

He said that, “we have a lot of family friends, hanging time, listening to funny jokes, and living, [day by day] with my Jewish neighbors around and friends.” A voter issue included for Russian older folks is that“I want to provide English courses once per week, in addition to organize Jewish events for Jewish people to host at the state capitol, have Jewish different holidays important days I will support, if in town work with Jewish community leaders, give a speech, point out hard work they bring in wealthy culture traditions, and so on, working as you go, getting to know people what they want and cooperating…address it at state capitol and hopefully events.”  
He said “my role model for me, as I said, is a role model as in work ethic, kindness and compassion was given to me by my great grandmother and my mom. She, my mom, told me to be who I am today, to be a good person, and kind politician.

  My mom was a single parent, and obviously my great grandmother she had a lot of Jewish neighbors and a lot of Jewish friends, helped some neighbors in WWII who were hungry.
Always be kind and just be genuine leadership wise.” He said a well-known role model was Albert Einstein, who was “very smart, given to the world because of his knowledge, he was a physicist, he was an asset, in the science community has done so much, and he contributed so much.”

Why Abadzhyan thinks it is important to vote for him as a Missouri politician and said – “I’m very genuine, and not that many politicians have that trait…you have to know history to not repeat the mistakes that don’t happen before; if you don’t know history, it can repeat itself [when you]don’t realize they are proponents of hate….” Abadzhyan said, “your education gives you the key for the future\the Jewish community is a great asset to have and gives you a better understanding. What makes you a good politician is understanding people of different ethnicities and religions and keeping a balance so bringing harmony to the district.”   The subject that should Jewish voters pay attention to is Health care. Abadzhyan said,“Health care is very important-Senior care, Medicaid, and Medicare, Jewish voters, who have small, medium size businesses, because a lot of Jewish people are entrepreneurs, let these business thrive, promote more education create more jobs, very educated, hardworking – lawyers, doctors, businesses, the Jewish population is a great asset.”   What Abadzhyan said to Jews in your district, is“I will as a political candidate and politician stand beside you and both happy and difficult times, work hard to promote and further expand the awareness of Jewish culture throughout my district and throughout MO, and work with the Jewish community very closely on any issue they may have and defend their rights.”   Further, he said,“There is a substantial amount of the Jewish communities here, and I am very thankful to have a hard working Jewish population within my district.In the recent year, University City seeing what has happened in my neighboring university city in the Jewish cemetary has brought back the tragic memories that my family told me about in the recent years, the amount of anti-Semitism has grown against the Jewish community, hate divides the community and as a citizen I strongly condemn these actions...hate is arising very hard to see in your district everyone is equal according to me.”  

The experience Abadzhyan has had with Jews:
Abadzhyan said he has had “only positive experience, never seen any negative sides, theyare there when you need them the most as an individual.”
Abadzhyan is reaching out to the Jewish Community, and said,“through our family friends who are Jewish, Russian American Jews and immigrants [neighbors], is using social media, a lot are following me on my facebook fan page.”   And his views As a secular Christian, Abadzhyan said about his burden: “So, the safety of the Jewish people being a Christian, and Germany was Christian too during WWI and WWII - as a Christian, I condemned what Germany did because it works against Judeo-Christian values and i support the unity of the Abrahamic religions, which are Jewish, Muslim, and Christian because they come from the same branch , and I will work hard as a secular Christian I will work for the equality of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths.I am very secular as an individual, secular but with values- I would be more than happy and honored, if Jewish organizations invite me to speak. I have been reaching out to the community.” 


Daphne Drohobyczer