A front page of Η ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ — ΕΘΝΙΚΟΘΡΗΣΚΕΥΤΙΚΗ ΕΦΗΜΕΡΙΣ = “Aletheia — National-Religious Newspaper,” Volume 4 Number 2, August 1935, published at 266 West 25th Street, New York City (5¢ per copy). Masthead epigraph from William Lloyd Garrison: “The success of any moral great enterprise does not depend on numbers.”
The lead headline:
“Η ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑ ΕΝ ΔΙΩΓΜΩ” — (The Church Under Persecution)
“Η ΤΥΡΑΝΝΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΑΘΗΝΑΓΟΡΑ ΚΛΕΙΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΝ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΕΙΑΣ” — (The Tyranny of Athenagoras Closes the Church of Philadelphia)
The subject is the Saint George Greek Orthodox Church of Philadelphia, PA, being closed by Archbishop Athenagoras — the same anti-Athenagoras dissident-faction politics as the 1933 Bronx parish schism, now playing out in another city two years later.
The single most consequential line in the entire Lazaros archive
The article body opens with a salutation that settles a year-long open question about Lazaros’s role:
“In Philadelphia, July 10, 1935 — Mr. Lazaros Yannopoulos, ΔΙΕΥΘΥΝΤΗ (Director) of the newspaper ‘H ALETHEIA’, New York — Dear friend…”
Lazaros was the Director — the Editor-in-Chief — of Aletheia newspaper. Confirmed by direct salutation from the President of the Saint George Philadelphia parish, writing to him in his editorial capacity. This revises a substantial portion of the family record: Lazaros was not merely a participant in the 1933 anti-Athenagoras rally and a member of its NYC organizing committee — he was running the dissident-faction Greek-American newspaper through the full 1932–1935+ era.
What this reframes
The discovery re-classifies many documents in the Lazaros archive that previously read as personal correspondence:
- The 1933 subscription-complaint letter from Father John Aslanides of Brockton, Massachusetts — addressed to “the Director of Aletheia” — was in Lazaros’s papers because he was the Director.
- The 1933 multi-clergy declaration page on “The Truth” newspaper letterhead (the same paper) — Lazaros’s editorial working files.
- The 1932–33 Bronx parish correspondence — partly editorial intake.
- The 1935 Saint George Philadelphia parish letter (this article’s body) — written directly to him as Director.
The Saint George Philadelphia 1935 case
The article body discusses the President of the Saint George parish convening a general assembly on July 28 or 29, 1935 at 3 PM to address the church closure. New names from the Saint George Philadelphia parish administration (1935): A. Kapnistopoulos, S. Spyropoulos, A. Plantis, A. Lastos, K. Bolopoulis.
The case extends the anti-Athenagoras dissident-faction story geographically — what had been a Bronx issue in 1933 (the Saints Constantine and Helen parish vs. the rival anti-Athenagoras parish) was, by 1935, a Philadelphia issue under the same canonical pressures. Aletheia under Lazaros’s direction was the nationwide editorial voice connecting them.
Editorial address evolution
Aletheia’s address moved from 344 W. 27th St., New York (1933) to 266 W. 25th St., New York (1935). A six-block move along the same Chelsea / Hell’s Kitchen corridor of Manhattan, where much of the Greek-American press of the era was clustered.