Hello ana011-ga:
I'm afraid there are very few social resources indeed for young Serbs
in the Baltimore area.
While searching for "serbian immigrants Maryland," I found this 1999
post at Yahoo Groups decani messages site:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/decani/message/6367
"The sense of isolation is all the stronger because there are relatively few
Yugoslav immigrants in the Washington region. Unlike Serbs in Chicago
or Albanians in New York, those living here cannot fall back on a
large ethnic community for solace and support . . ."
So, it appears many other Serbian émigrés like yourself are also
having difficulty building a social network in the greater D.C. and
Baltimore area.
But I did find some promising leads for you:
The Serbian Cafe:
http://www.serbiancafe.com/imenik/usacodes.html
lists Baltimore among its sites, but when I tried to navigate the site by
clicking "Serbian Cafe" at the top, it brought me to this page:
http://www1.serbiancafe.com/amerika/?1
which I can't read because -- it's written in Serbian! However, when I
typed "Baltimore" into the search box it brought up this page:
http://www1.serbiancafe.com/pretrazivac/index.php?search=Baltimore&oblast=domaci
which has links to Baltimore organizations. But because I can't read the
language, I'm not sure how good these links are!
From AOL's City Guide to Baltimore:
Ze Mean Bean Cafe
1739 Fleet St.
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-675-5999
The Ze Mean Bean is a coffeehouse/ wine bar that specializes in Slavic
cuisine. It also features jazz bands on weekends:
http://www.digitalcity.com/baltimore/dining/venue.adp?vid=23064&squery=19%3acityids+AND+1%3avenuetypekey+AND+189%3asubtypes&uquery=type%3dvenue%26st%3dqf%26vtid%3d1%26stid%3d189%26tid%3d%2a%26search%3d&skip=0
The Ze Mean Bean Cafe is also listed in Zagat's guide:
http://www.zagat.com/Browse/Results.asp?VID=1&PID=1&LID=2&SBY=11&PG=1&BRW=22&LSID=111&NDPH=Eastern+European
which was the only listing I could find at Zagat's under "Eastern
European" for Baltimore.
The Slavic Male Chorus of Washington, D.C. often performs in
Baltimore. Keep checking this page for concert dates:
http://www.slavicmalechorusdc.org/calendar.htm
A resident of Rockville, Maryland has setup this directory to
Serb-related (and other Eastern European) music, churches, etc., at:
http://members.tripod.com/mike_in_md2000/links.htm
(Don't hesitate to contact the Webmaster of this site, as he may be
able to guide you to some Serbian-related groups or places of interest
in the Baltimore area.)
An Orthodox Serbian church is being built in Potomac, MD., (which I
realize is closer to D.C. than Baltimore):
http://www.serbianorthodoxchurch.com/pages/listing/country/comingsoonchurch.
html
There is a Holy Cross Orthodox Church in the Baltimore suburb of
Linthicum, MD. That church is under the Antiochian Orthodox
Archdiocese of North America:
http://www.disharoon.net/james/holycros.html
"The other canonical groups include Constantinople, Alexandria,
Jerusalem, Russia, Georgia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece,
Albania, Poland, Czech & Slovakia and the Orthodox Church in America."
While we're on the subject of churches, here's an article about the
St. Luke Serbian Orthodox Church in D.C.:
http://www.research.umbc.edu/~dkusic1/daiutolo-serb480.html
Attending services at any of the above churches is likely to lead you
to forming friendships with other Serbian young adults, and learning
about any Serbian-American organizations in the area.
Another good bet: become a volunteer! You can help others while
networking with other young Serbs who now live in the Baltimore area.
There are several outstanding community organizations in Baltimore:
Baltimore's "City Paper" newspaper features this story from its August
28-Sept. 23, 2002 edition: "East Side Story
A New Wave of Refugees Takes Shelter in Baltimore--And Could Revitalize a
Struggling Neighborhood in the Process," by Nicole Leistikow:
http://www.citypaper.com/2002-08-28/feature.html
(Notice the photo of the Milonovic family which emigrated to Baltimore from
Bosnia.)
From that article:
"Forget Ellis Island: The Baltimore Resettlement Center (BRC), which houses
the International Rescue Committee among other refugee organizations, is the
metro area's gateway for around 500 refugees every year . . . ." including
many Serbian-Croatians.
Read more about the incredible work being done by volunteers at the
BRC in this May 2000 article in the Baltimore Chronicle: "Baltimore
Takes The Lead In Refugee Resettlement," by Alex Roehrs:
http://baltimorechronicle.com/brc_may00.html
The BRC is located at:
3516 Eastern Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21224. Or phone 410-558-3166.
You may want to volunteer with Baltimore's highly regarded
International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), which is very
involved in aid work in the Balkans. Their address is listed here:
http://www.oea.serbian-church.net/info/1080.html
Catholic Relief Services is a Baltimore-based humanitarian aid organization
working in Serbia. Their address is: World Headquarters 209 W. Fayette St.
Baltimore, MD 21201-3443 or phone (800) 736-3467.
The Serbian Orthodox Church's Office of External Affairs:
http://www.oea.serbian-church.net/
is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
OEA
2311 M Street, Suite 402
Washington, DC 20037
Tel: 202-463-8643
E-mail: info@oea.serbian-church.net
They may be able to direct you to Serbian-related organizations in Baltimore.
The Decani Monastery Relief Fund includes members of the Serbian
Orthodox Church and is headquartered in Baltimore:
http://www.fr-d-serfes.org/missionary/charter.htm
(This site doesn't make clear if volunteers are needed, but it never
hurts to ask!)
Volunteering at such organizations, and attending churches, is a great
way to meet exceptional people and build lasting friendships and
community coalitions, so I hope you'll consider that suggestion.
Another possibility:
The University of Baltimore has a "Bosnia" Web site at:
http://home.ubalt.edu/calbrecht/bosnia.html
You may want to contact the instructor listed there to see if you can
audit her classes on Bosnia. There are likely other young adult,
Bosnian immigrants like yourself enrolled in the course.
Or contact the University's admissions office:
http://www.ubalt.edu/findpeople/
to see if you can take classes related to Serbia, either as a
part-time student, or by auditing them as a non-student.
I hope my research is of help to you.
If you need help navigating any of the above links, or if you need
clarification from me, please post a "Request For Clarification" and
I'll be glad to assist you further.
Search Strings:
"Serbs living in Baltimore"
"Serbian churches Baltimore"
"Serbian community Baltimore"
"Bosnian restaurants Baltimore"
"Serbian restaurants Baltimore"
Slavic Baltimore"
"Serb groups Baltimore"
"Serbian coffee houses Baltimore"
"young slavic immigrants" AND Baltimore
"Serb community Maryland"
"Serb churches Baltimore"
Regards,
nancylynn-ga |
