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AUTHOR Zogby, James, Ed. TITLE Taking Root, Bearing Fruit: The Arab-American Experience. ADC Issues. Special Issue. INSTITUTION American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, Washington, DC. REPORT NO ISSN-8755-903X PUB DATE 84 NOTE 146p.; For volume II, see SO 023 307. ANAILABLE FROMADC Publications, 4201 ConnecticutAve., N.W., Washington, DC 20008 ($5, prepaid). PUB TYPE Collected Works Serials (022) JOURNAL CIT ADC Issues; 1992

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *; Community Study; Ethnic Groups;*Immigrants; *Life Style; *North ; *UnitedStates History IDENTIFIERS *Cultural Values

ABSTRACT This document reports onan examination of lifestyles, , and heritage of Arabcommunities within the United States. After a historical overviewof the arrival and settling of Arab-Americans inwave after wave of immigration, the work provides close-up views of differentcommunities across the country. Each of those views introducesa few of the people who live in the community. The document includesan examination of Arab-American community building, surveyingthe different regions in which Arab-Americans have builtup business, family ties, education, and social life. In addition, the documentoffers a look backward at the terms of life and the struggle forrecognition and identity of the pioneer and forebears of the presentgeneration. Among the many essays that comprise the work are ": Our Ellis Island"(Jane Peterson); "Arab in America:Adaptation and Reform" (Yvonne Haddad); and Talbott Williams' "'Pioneers':The Syrian in America." (Author/SG)

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American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee 4201 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 500 Washington, D.C. 20008 (202) 244-2990

Jim Abourezk ADC National Chairman Albert Mokhiber ADC President

Taking Root Bearing Fruit

Special Issue

Editor: James Zogby Assistant Editors: Pat Aufderheide, Anne S. Mooney Writers: Alan Dehmer, Jessica Gill, Randa Sifri, Anthony Toth, Mary Ann Fay

ADC Issues is published by the ADC Research Institute and informs ADC members on issues of special significance. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is a non-sectarian, non-partisan service organization committed to defending the rights and promoting the heritage of Arab-Americans. The largest grassroots organization of Arab-Americans. ADC was founded in 1980 by former U.S. Senator in response to stereotyping, defamation and discrimina- tion directed against Americans of Arab descent. ADC serves its nationwide membership thmugh direct advocacy in cases of defamation, through legal action in cases of discrimination, and through counseling in matters of immigration. The ADC Research Institute publishes information on issues of concern to Arab-Americans and provides educa- Dedication tional materials on Arab history and as well as the ethnic experience of Arabs in the United States. It also sponsors summer internships in Washington for Arab-American college students. ADC's For our parents and Women's and Children's Fund addresses the humanitarian needs of victims of violence grandparents who came in the Middle East. to this new world ©1984 ADC Research Institute ISSN 801041)3K bringing nothing but their (reprint 1992) love for our heritage and a hope for the future. And for our children, to whom we bequeath that love and that hope. 4 6411..44N1417111111W:u-A. -'441Mghll:#4;1A-"41S'"-44.-"lfSA"-4Zrllirait;Vi".4'aliallM'""bl;rtc""Ib;A,A...*iV4="""!!...V-A.'

Table of Contents

Arab-Americans: A Tradition Takes Root 7 The Role of Tradition by ; The Burgeoning Family; Old RootsNew Soil by Mary Ann Fay.

The Way We Are: Our Communities 25 Allentown: Fertile Valley by Mary Ann Fay; Birmingham: The Politics of Survival by Anthony Toth; : Dream of a Good Land by Evelyn Shakir; : On Freedom's Shore by Alan Dehmer; Detroit: Our Ellis Island; : In the Heart of by Jane Peterson; Jacksonville: As Salaam Aleikum Y'all by Anthony Toth; Portland: The Pride of Reawakening by Mary Ann Fay and Paul Rask; San Francisco: in the Bay Area by Randa Sifri; Yemeni Arabs as Farmworkers by Jack Matalka; Utica: Mt. to the Mohawk Valley; Worcester: Lively Ethnic Mix by Anthony Toth; in America: Adaptation and Reform by Yvonne Haddad.

The Way We Are: A Regional Survey 106 New England; Metropolitan ; Upstate New York; ; ; Midwestern Cities; Southeast; Texas; ; Western States.

The Way We Were 119 "Pioneers"; The Syrian in America by Talcott Williams; A Chal- lenge to the Younger Generation by H.I. Katibah; Who's Who in Utica, a 1917 newspaper opinion; and Fun- erals by Mary Macron; Red Wool for a ; The Coffee House Raid by Eugene Paul Nassar; I Believe in You by Mild Gibran. ff40-401"-'

Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Milan hN this issue of ADC Reports, we present a project we have been working on and dreaming of for a long timea survey of the lifestyles, the cultures, the eritage and living pulse of Arab-American communities across the country. After a historical overview of the arrival and gsettling of Arab-Americans in wave after wave of immigration, we provide close-up views of different communities across the United States. With each one, we introduce you to a few of the people in that community. Following this, we take a bird's-eye view of Arab-American community-building, surveying the different regions in which Arab-Americans have built up businesses, family ties and social life. Finally, we offer a look backward, at the terms of life and the struggle for recognition and identity of the pioneer and forebears of this generation. We think it is a brave start, and a mark of the coming ofage of the Arab-American community, to have this issue of the newsletter. It shows us the strength as well as the diversity of our people. It shows us how we are both Arab and American, and it points a direction for the future that doesn't forget the past. For people making a brave start, though, we approachyou with some trepidation. This we know, is only a beginning,an introduction to an ongoing project of self-description and self- identification, including an annual almanac and continuing updates on our communities through ADC Reports. And like all first efforts, this onewe are surewill have its share of omissions,errors and misstatements. We beg your help in finding thoseerrors and helping us to correct them, in finding those omissions and filling in the gaps in our knowledge. Each mistake, each lacuna is a mark of how important it is to continue this work, to find out whatwe don't know in order to know ourselves better, and to build forour joint future. And so we anticipate your interest, and at thesame time we beg your indulgence. We hope you judge ADC and ADC Reports, this issue, not only by its errors but by what new light these initial efforts shed on our community. We realize we have only scratched the surface. There is a greater story to tell, andwe promise to tell it. James Zogby, Editor

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The Role of Tradition

by John Zogby

E Arab-Americans CIZZ)need to know who we are and where we have been in order to understand where we are going. 1984 is finally here, and perhaps we have grown so accustomed to thinking about its implications that we have forgotten about our past. Indeed, we live in an era that rejects past and tradition. The overriding passion today is to live for the moment, to live for yourself, not to carry on the tradition of those who preceded you, or to pass on values into the future. We are losing ,-,ur sense of history. It is no small won.er that more and more people are seeking the aid of psychologists and psychiatrists, health foods, body building, and all the latest fads. We are losing our ability to L .nmunicate with each other. In a fascinating account of 18th century London and Paris, Richard Sennett of Harvard wrote about how strangers meeting in parks or on streets used to speak to each other without embarrassment. You only have to walk down the streets of any big city today to see thousands of people walking past each other totally ignoring each other. We live in a society thaf dreads old age and death. The emphasis in America today is on youth, beauty, celebrity, and independence. We have come to believe that all changes are good and that we must adjust ourselves to them even if we can't understand them. Unfortunately, 9

rut.The Svnan and Irbetr, If" BEST COPY AVAILABLE what this tells young people is that traditional authority figures like parents,

_ ,4itt ;"4%-irur teachers and clergy represent .ne past, and have nothing to teach them. Worse yet, the elderly are treated as people who should be pushed aside because they have nothing to produce or useful to teach the rest of us. We see these messages constantly in jokes about the elderly on television, and we also see the family undermined in popular television shows 4,4_,Aviv- where father no longer knows best but the ultimate sources of wisdom in each family are the youngsters. We no longer live or plan for the future. The fear of nuclear war makes people not even think about the future, inflation makes people forget about investment and savings, and advertising ""saNer carries the message that only fools put off until tomorrow the fun that they could have today. If visitors from another planet came and viewed television and radio advertising they would wonder about the health of a society that promotes the endless purchasing of unnecessary goods as a way of life, as an answer to loneliness and sickness or bad breath. Modern technology and life chip away at the importance of family in the lives of people, not only through television 414, but also the home computer. I don't see anything exciting at all about people being able to do their shopping and communicating without ever leaving AL_ home, cutting down on the few opportunities to socialize that still exist. And recent reports in the Associated Press describe that many wives are already complaining about husbands spending more time on the home computer than Newman and Lola McKool left three of their children in Lebanon with the family. I also fear widespread use when they came to America. About 1893, they and their six-year old of the computer in the classroom. son, Charles, immigrated to Waco, and began peddling household Psychology Today magazine reports that goods. "Buy, please" and "Thank you" were among the first English children will be able to go directly to the words they learned to speak as they sold socks, buttons, needles, and computer and learn directly from it. Now similar articles. children are told they can learn more from When Charles was eighteen, he returned to Lebanon and got an electronic box than from an adult. married during a six-month stay (above). Back :n America he opened a We have to restore authority and grocery store in Shreveport, ; however, his travels were not respect for adulthood before we raise a over. The McKool family moved to New York state for six months and then, in 1917, to Mexico City, where Charles managed an uncle's shoe generation of lost, aimless people. And we factory and dry goods store. The family stayed in Mexico for seven must restore the authority and respect of years before returning to the United States to settle at Dallas. There, the family, where traditionally each Charles McKool was active in the restaurant business until his dealhr-, person has had a special role. 10 in 1947(from The Syrian and Lebanese Texans). A Children must be taught not only to respect their elders but that the strong We have a rich history, a great tradition, a must take care of the weak. And we must valuable source of strength amidst the restore our respect for our own traditions, pressures of modern life. In this special honoring the importance of cultural issue of ADC Reports put our best foot memory for every group in American forward by presenting selected vignettes society. about our families and neighborhoods, our In the long run, we are talking about institutions, leaders and friendsin short, putting this nation of individuals back our culture and our tradition. Sit back, together. enjoy the reading, and above all, be proud As Arab-Americans we are fortunate. of who you are.

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Photo: The *int and !Agnew Team The Abraham Kazen family of Laredo, Texas became renowned in Texas for its dedication and service to the legal profession. All four boys pictured here became in their adult life. 11

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The Burgeoning Family

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Old Roots New Soil

by Mary Ann Fay

ETWEEN 1890 and 1920 masses of emigrants from southern and central Europe and the Middle East rediscovered America. Leaving behind critical food shortages, stagnant economies and political and religious repression, these men and women set out to carve a future from a dream. Among those millions of immigrants were Arabs from Greater Syriaa region that included , Lebanon, Palestine and Jordanwhich had been a part of the for five centuries. Like their fellow ethnicsthe Italians, Greeks, Slays and Jewsthe early Arab immigrants were predominantly poor peasants who were already burdened with pre-voyage debts and family obligations, possessed few industrial skills and were unable to speak English. As aliens in a foreign land, the odds against their survival were formidable. Probably no one could have imagined in 1890 that in slightly less than 100 years, the Arab-American community would swell to 2.5 million. And only those who recognized the courage and fortitude of these indomitable immigrants would have predicted the degree of achievement and prosperity their children and grandchildren would enjoy. We are their children and grandchildren. Today, we live in every region in the United States and work at every level of American professional, commercial and political life. 17 We are well-known and unknown. We are Ralph Nader and Danny Thomas and Casey Kasem. We are the farm workers WE are the well-known of , the auto workers of Detroit and the steelworkers of and the unknown. Pennsylvania. We are doctors and lawyers, businessmen and engineers, nurses and accountants. We are the Iraqi store We are owners of Detroit, the Palestinians of the Ramallah Club in Houston and the Alawi Ralph Nader of New Castle. We are the Rhodes and Danny Scholar from Utica and the former senator from South Dakota. Thomas and We are Americans of Arab descent patriotic, civic-minded and intensely proud Casey Kasem. of our ethnic heritage and culture. Though our life styles reflect the American mainstream, we enjoy the legacy of ageless traditions and cultural richness, which our grandparents would not surrender when they settled in the land of "golden opportunity." Yet, the early Arab immigrants, our grandparents We are chefs and great-grandparents, remained and farm- singularly private about their ethnic pride. workers, autoworkers Fear of Foreigners As the original immigrants settled into jobs and neighborhoods, they were not accepted easily by their American neighbors. Before 1890 and the arrival of and nurses immigrants from southern and eastern lawyers, Europe and the Middle East, the United States considered itself a homogenous engineers society whose dominant culture was white, Anglo-Saxon protestant. During and the three decades when immigration into doctors. the United States reached unprecedented volume, Americans were confronted on the job, in the shops and on the streets with people who spoke strange languages, practiced different and sometimes non- Christian religions and had customs and Top right, Danny traditions dissimilar to their own. Thomas; middle For the Arabs, the sources of their left, Raja pride in their heritage were the very ; middle factors alienating them from American right, Yemeni societythe richness of the farmworkers in language that Americans could not speak California; and or even pronounce, the Eastern liturgies bottom, of their churches that were so unlike Dr. Michael American churches and the Arabic 18 Dellakey. culture. For the Muslim immigrants, like the Alawis of New Castle, religion made determined to preserve the homogeneity of them a minority within a minority. American culture. The legislation enacted Yet, in small and large Arab in the 1920s was a major victory for the communities, the early immigrants strove advocates of homogeneity and a defeat for to preserve their heritage and identity cultural pluralism. through their churches, their clubs, the The National Origins Act of 1924 Arabic press and particularly within their restricted immigration to 2 percent of the families through traditional Arab cooking, foreign-born residing in the United States the rituals of birth, death and in 1890, and by 1927, to an absolute limit and the celebration of holidays. of 150,000 yearly. The immigrant knew, Between 1890 and 1920, the number in the words of an American text, "he was of Arab immigrants increased to more a second class citizen who had to make his than 250,000 and this continual influx of way in American society through the relatives and villagers from the Arab barriers of social prejudice." homeland was an important factor in the Besides hastening the process of preservation of the community's culture assimilation, the immigration legislation and tradition. also separated family Members from one After came the another. Many Arabs who emigrated to restrictive, discriminatory legislation the United States before 1924 considered which reduced immigration to a trickle themselves transients; they came here to and accelerated the assimilation and earn money and intended to return Americanization that characterized the eventually to the homeland. Many Arab-American community through the families sent one or two male members to following three decades. the United States hoping they would Even though the industrializing United become prosperous and eventually return. States needed the cheap labor of the new However, when the dream of returning immigrants, some Americans were clashed with their newfound prospects for

Arab immigrants encountered a babel of tongues and a variety of cultures when they arrived at Ellis Island. After their first meal (left), the immigrants left the Island and set out to find their fortunesor at least survivalon 4 the streets of their new country.

19 security, freedom and livelihood, many and other countries. These later Arab immigrants began bringing their immigrants were spared many of the remaining family to the United States pangs of acculturation that their instead. predecessors experienced, sincemany were educated, bi-lingual and familiar with western customs and traditions. The Price of the Melting Pot Moreover, the later immigrants tended to settle in towns and cities where members Gradually the Arab immigrants of their families or villageswere already became assimilated and Americanized, but established, or where Arab-American not without cost. Between 1920 and 1950, communities already existed. spoken Arabic and the Arabic press At the same time, these immigrants declined. Many of the Eastern-rite possessed a pride in their Arab identity churches lost members of their that was nourished by decades of struggle congregations to the more socially for political independence, by a closer link acceptable Roman Catholic and Protestantto and by their conscious pursuit of churches. And, while Arab-Americans stilllinguistic and cultural autonomy within chose to marry within the community, the American mainstream. Many foreign most of the third generation had little students of diverse Arab nationalities exposure to their heritage. came here to study, giving further Then in the 1960s, the "melting pot" stimulus to the survival of the Arab ethnic pattern that had characterized the early identity in this country. immigrant experience began to reverse The reawakening of an ethnic itself. The political and economic upheavalconsciousness among Arab-Americans in the Arab homeland in the 1950s and also can be linked to a trend common 1960s created a new wave of immigrants among immigrant groups. Second and from , Palestine, Syria, , third generations, fully assimilated, reach out to a heritage and a past to add depth to an otherwise rootless American identity. This process of "deassimilation" was stimulated by the Black Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, which affirmed the value of cultural pluralism and ethnicity in American society.

Khalil Atiyeh (above right) was not allowed to serve overseas during World War I because he was considered a subject of the Ottoman Empire. After the war, he and his brother opened a successful Oriental rug business in Portland (right). 20 24 A Rebirth of Awareness James Abourezk said at the time, "Had the operation been called Jewscam, the outcry The "Arab Renaissance" thLi- began in would have been incredible, and so it the 1960s also stems in part from the should." Arab-American community's increased At ADC's 1983 convention in Los awareness of the political and economic Angeles, ADC Assistant Director Helen importance of U.S.-Arab relations. Samhan described ADC's reason for Today, the Arab-American community being: "Service is the core of ADC's work, has a exceeding 2.5 million, and it is the challenge of ADC's which crisscrosses the nation and has organizers and leaders at a local as well as centers in Detroit, Chicago, New York a national level to seek out the needs of and Boston, as well as burgeoning our community, to find strategies that communities in California, Texas and build a future for our communities. Some Ohio. It is a community that four of ADC's current campaigns may respond generations ago survived by peddling dry to needs that we may never have thought goods, operating small stores and working we had. But they guarantee that ADC in the textile and steel mills of the will be there when and if we do." industrial Northeast, and which has now ADC Executive Director James Zogby successfully entered the American described anti-discrimination work as mainstream. "giving Arab-Americans power to become Arab-Americans are proud of their involved in their communities on every heritage, but even if they were inclined to level, to determine foreign policy, to forget their past, American society determine domestic policy as they wish. wouldn't let them. Political and economic But to be involved on every level. That's events in the Middle East have been what ADC is about. We use ADC to portrayed in media images of greedy oil organize our people first and foremost for sheiks and bloodthirsty terrorists. At a their own power." time when the United States is more ADC has become an advocate, receptive to cultural pluralism and providing immigrant assistance, protesting ethnicity is no longer socially FBI harassment of Arab-Americans and unacceptable, Arab-Americans remain calling for a Congressional investigation of primary targets of defamatory attacks on the unfair treatment of Arab-Americans their cultural and personal character. and Arab-Canadians at the U.S.-Canadian Therefore, much of the activity of the border. Recently the ADC national Arab-American community has been executive committee agreed to develop a directed at correcting the stereotypes that legal guide and to begin a limited legal threaten to produce a new wave of anti- defense fund. Arab racism in the United States and In three years, the list of ADC endanger the civil and human rights of victories grows in its struggle to combat the Arab-American community. The quiet the negative stereotyping of pride of the original immigrants has Arab-Americans: become a shout. The decision by Roget's Thesaurus to Today's Arab-American is upwardly delete in its 1981 edition synonyms for mobile and politically conscious. While the word Arab, such as "vagabond, Arab-Americans are profoundly loyal to hobo, tramp, vagrant, peddler, hawker, American values and institutions, they are huckster, vendor." intensely proud of their heritage and The removal from Elements of Social determined to preserve and defend it. Scientific Thinking by Kenneth R. Hoover of a reference to Arabs creating a ADC began in 1980 as a direct result hypothetical parallel between the of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's number of oil wells owned and the infamous "Operation Abscam," in which number of wives a sheik has. FBI agents trapped a number of The withdrawal by firms in Florida, Congressmen by posing as Lebanese Ohio and of offensive "sheiks" offering bribes. ADC Chairman products and publications including, 21

.Ir I)11 among others, a postcard that read. The intensity of these attacks peaked "Fight High Oil Prices! Mug a Sheik!" following Isratl's invasion of Lebanon during the summer of 1982, when the Arab-American community emerged as an The New Assaults organized and vocal opponent of Israel's policies. ADC organized the "Save Unlike the resistance early Arab Lebanon" campaign to coordinate medical immigrants met in this country, which for the Lebanese and Palestinian stemmed from the determination of somevictims of the war, and to counter Israel's Americans to preserve the homogenity of propaganda depictions about the war. American culture, the source of today's ADC has undertaken to provide defamation of Arab-Americans might be assistance to children in Lebanon who are described as the domestic counterpart of orphaned or whose parents are missing or the Arab-Israeli conflict. And that is the disabled, and has organized the "Save attempt by the Israeli lobby and various Lebanon" campaign, which has brought Jewish organizations to shore up support children from Lebanon to the United for Israel by defaming Arab-Americans. States for medical treatment. Photo UPI In tandem with its work on behalf of the victims of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and against the negative stereotyping of Arab-Americans here in the United States, ADC is also working to enhance and preserve the Arab-American heritage. Two projects planned for this year are the Kahlil Gibran Centennial Celebration and a series of after-school seminars for Arab-American children so they can learn about their rich cultural heritage and deal with the sometimes hidden hurts of anti-Arab sentiments. ADC's campaigns in the U.S. whether they are to stop the defamation of Arab-Americans, to join other racial and ethnic groups to combat racism and bigotry in American society or to defend academic freedomare all rooted in ADC's emphasis on human and civil rights. Following the war in Lebanon, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which lobbies Congress on 411111111r behalf of Israel, and the Anti-Defamation 11111110111.7- League of B'nai B'rith (ADL) both published books attacking Arab-American leaders and organizations as well as non- Arab-Americans who were critical of Israeli policies. The attacks characterized Israel's critics as "supporters of PLO terrorism" or as "tools of Arab petro- ADC's "Save Lebanon" program was initiated during the summer dollars." The Arab-American community of 1982 at the request of doctors in Lebanon for aid to the was described as "artificial" and un- wounded victims of war. Over SO children, teenagers and American, since according to the ADL and young adults have been given medical treatment. Abir Solh AIPAC, support for Israel is "in the national interest." (above) with her mother, arrived with the first group of wounded on Valentine's Day, 1983. ADC's Research Institute is preparing 22 a comprehensive analysis of these attacks

(?, which will document clear cut cases of General Accounting Office report on U.S. defamation. military assistance to Israel, which shed a The importance of national glaring light on how U.S. citizens' tax organizations like ADC cannot be dollars are being spent. The report, overestimated, since they represer.t- a released by ADC, cited State and Defense counterweight to the political clout and Department officials' opinions that the propaganda machinery of the Israeli lobby. Israeli view of the Arab threat to its In order to respond in a unified way to security was "over-emphasized at this major events such as the war in Lebanon, time." Pentagon officials were described as the leaders of six national Arab-American reluctant to commit Foreign M listry organizations agreed in September 1983 Sales funds to purchase armaments for to form the Council of Presidents of Israel "because of the U.S. economic National Arab-American organizations. situation, unemployment and the potential ADC's James Abourezk was elected the precedent-setting impact on other first chairman of the council. countries' FMS requests." The report cited the political difficulties of reducing U.S. aid to Israel, however, because of strong Reaching Out to Others Congressional support for Israel. Last year, ADC kicked off its fall ADC's links to other ethnic and racial campaign with a tour of ADC chapters by groups are essential to thwart ADL's Dr. Israel Shahak, an Israeli civil and attempts to isolate the Arab-American human rights leader. A survivor of a Nazi community. One theme of ADC's concentration camp, Dr. Shahak has been leadership conference last year was that a critic of Israeli policies, includingthe the aim of ADC's anti-discrimination invasion of Lebanon and the treatment of work was to empower the Arab-American Palestinians on the Israeli-occupied West community to change American attitudes. Bank and . "That's why we build coalitions," says ADC supports Palestinian self- an ADC spokesperson, "because you can determination and the right to an organize all the Arab-Americans you want independent homeland as fundamental and get nowhere unless you bring those human rights. When the civil war in masses of numbers of people you organize Lebanon resumed after Israel's withdrawal togeth& with other Americans and create from the Chouf mountains, ADC's a critical mass that can turn this country Executive Director wrote an editorial in around." the Los Angeles Times on September 15 in ADC sought to establish ties to other which he urged Arab-Americans to form ethnic and racial groups not only to end a peace committee that would call on the isolation of Arab-Americans, but also Lebanon's traditional elites to put aside because of its commitment to the their weapons and seek national dialogue elimination oF racism, discrimination and and reconciliation. bigotry from American society. Last ADC marks the progress of Arab- summer, ADC chapter members from Americans from penury to prosperity and across the country participated in the from a scattered, isolated minority to an march on Washington organized by the organized force in American society and Coalition of Conscience for Jobs, Peace politics. and Freedom to commemorate Martin Luther 's historic march in 1963. ADC's role in the coalition dates from its inception when one of the coalition leaders, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, invited Abourezk to be a co-convenor of the march. Arab-Americans' vigilance benefits the society as a whole. This was particularly true in the case of the "uncensored" 23

r? BEST COPYAVAILABLE 26 TheWay Weare: Our Communities

In this section, ADC Reports looks at the placeswe live. By examining 11 Arab-American communities their history, their religion, their peopleand by taking a closer look at Yemeni farmworkers in California and Muslims in America, a begins to take shape! This is the way we are.

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Fertile Valley

Iby Mary Ann Fay

SUPER Sunday in Allentown happens in September. It's the day the city celebrat.:s its ethnic diversity with a combination crafts fair and food . Although the city is predominantly Pennsylvania German in population and character, it is also home to a variety of ethnic groups including Irish, Italians, Poles, Slays, Arabs and, most recently, Hispanics. Each Super Sunday, the Hamilton Mall, the city's main shopping street, is closed to traffic. Men, women and children throughout the Lehigh Valley can eat their way from one culture to another, from pizza to potato pancakes and from tabouleh to funnel cake. In front of the First National Bank opposite the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at 7th Street and Hamilton Mall, members of St. George's had a food stand where they served shish , tabouleh and other Middle Eastern delicacies. Midway through the afternoon, the crowds around the food stand could eat their shish kebab or sticky, sweet baklawa to the of an Arab band. The presence of the city's Arab- Americans at Super Sunday is not unusual. The Arab-American community has participated in the city's ethnic festival since its inception. The food stand on Super Sunday is a symbol of the degree to which the Arab-American community has been woven into the city's social, cultural and political life. 27

9 BEST COPY MUM Faces of Allentown Allentown's Arab-American community's roots are deep. A7iz Elias Atiyeh, the first immigrant from the Syrian village of Amar came to Allentown ARVEY Atiyeh In Florida, Atiyeh in the 1890s. Since Atiyeh landed in came to the United cultivates his garden and is Allentown and survived by peddling dry States in1926at the age of particularly proud of his fig goods house to house in communities 11 from the village of Amar tree. His friends jokingly tell throughout the Lehigh Valley, the Arab- in Syria. His father, George,him that he is still a Syrian American community has grown to an was one of the first Syrian peasant at heart, and Atiyeh estimated5,000-7,000people and has immigrants to settle in laughingly agrees. Although included among its ranks one of Lehigh Allentown. he remains intensely County's most popular district attorneys, Recently retired, Atiyeh interested in the affairs of an assistant police chief, the president of worked as a union the Arab-American one of the two teacher's unions in the city organizer for the United community in Allentown and the head of the city's public defender's Auto Workers (UAW) and and still receives the local office. the Service Employees newspaper so he can follow The tendency of the city's Arab- International Union (SEIU). events there, Atiyeh Americans to vote as a bloc and predominantly Democratic has given the community access to city government, particularly during a Democratic administration. Ayoub Jarrouj, president of the Arab- American Cultural Society and an ADC coordinator, said, "The mayor recognizes that he has to deal with us as a political force." The participation of the city's Arab- American community in Super Sunday 1982was nothing out of the ordinary. However, because of an event that occurred the day before, the city, indeed the entire Lehigh Valley, learned an important lesson: To be an Arab- American means more than savoring Middle Eastern food and the seductive swaying of a belly dancer. In Allentown, he helped to believes that after decades organize the UAW local at of hard work and Mack Trucks and the city's community service, he has Coming of Age municipal employees. earned his retirement. In1968,Atiyeh was one As first generation On the preceding Saturday, just two of the founders of the Arab-Americans like Atiyeh blocks away from their Super Sunday Syrian Arab-American have retired and become food stand, the city's Arab-Americans held Cultural Society, now the less involved in the their first public demonstration. Carrying Arab-American Cultural Allentown community, Palestinian and American flags and Society. In1981,he others have stepped placards denouncing Israel and Prime organized the local chapter forward to take their places. Minister Menachem Begin, an estimated of ADC of which he is a One of those is Ayoub 200people marched through the streets national board member. Jarrouj, president of the of the city to demonstrate their revulsion For the past two years, Arab-American Cultural and anger over the massacre of Atiyeh has divided his time Society and an ADC Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila between 'cgs home in coordin for. refugee camps. Naples, Florida, and The demonstration began with a 28Allentown. Continued page30 memorial service at St. George's Eastern

30 Orthodox Church and then, under a heritage survived mainly within the family bright September sun, the demonstrators and in various cultural organizations. marched to the plaza in front of the county courthouse. Representatives of other religious, ethnic and racial groups Ethnic Pride Revitalized participated with the city's Arab- Americans in the demonstration, including When new immigrants began to arrive several Protestant ministers, the president in Allentown in the late 1950s, they of the local chapter of the NAACP and brought with them a fervent Arab one of the leaders of the city's Hispanic nationalism and still-fresh memories of community. their homeland. The result has been a re- The demonstration after the Sabra awakening of the community's ethnic and Shatila massacre represented the pride and a willingness to assert itself

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Allentown's Arab- Americans were joined by other local community groups to protest the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Photo: Call-Chronical Newspapers. Inc. coming of age of Allentown's Arab- socially, culturally and politically. Americans. On that day they According to Kamal Abboud, an demonstrated their willingness to assert ADC coordinator, about 65 percent of the not only their ethnic pride but their Arab-American community is made up of political views as well. immigrants who began to arrive in "The demonstration was a milestone," Allentown in the late 1950s, with the said Leila Jarrouj, an ADC board member largest wave coming in the 1970s. In and treasurer of the local chapter of the Allentown, there has been a cross- National Association of . fertilization between the generations as "We came out of the closet." the assimilated children of the original The 1982 demonstration is an example immigrants helped the new immigrants of the effect the new immigrantsa find jobs and housing and work their way second first-generation of Americanshas through the process of naturalization. The had on the Arab-American community in new immigrants infused the community Allentown. As in other Arab-American with their nationalism and their pride in communities in the country, the Arab their heritage.

BEST COPY APHANft' Faces of Alentown, Ajoun, Syria. Although her Presbyterian Missionaries Bring continued parents intended to settle in Message of the West the United States, they stopped off in Trinidad on The Arab-American community began the way, liked it and stayed. originally with the pioneer immigrant Jarrouj, who was born Ayoub, who is employed Aziz Elias Atiyeh and his brother, George. in Amar, Syria, came to the at Bet! dehem Steel, and Together, they came to Allentown from United States in 1965. Leila have two children, a the village of Amar, one of about 30 During his presidency, the son, 14, and a daughter, 17. villages in Syria's Christian valley. cultural society expanded itsOn the ceiling of their -on's Po:- centuries, the inaccessability of the programs and purchased bedroom is the flag carried valley protected the villagers and allowed land for the construction of at the head of the them to practice their religion in peace and a new building designed to demonstration held in safety. Then, sometime in the 1890s, this hold 400 people. Jarrouj September 1982 in remote and tranquil valley was opened to hopes the new building will Allentown to protest the the outside world by missionaries of the become a real community massacre of Palestinians at American Presbyterian Church. One of center since neither St. the Sabra and Shatila the missionaries, Dr. W.S. Nelson of George's Church nor the refugee camps. Philadelphia, spent 60 years in Amar. society's present building Both Ayoub and Leila Some of the villagers gravitated to the are large enough for believe that the Arab- mission, if not for religious reasons, then community events such as American community must for the Western-style education the the society's annual dinner. be organized and should be mission offered. Through contact with the Jarrours wife, Leila, is a force in the life of the city. missionaries, the villagers in Amar learned also actively involved in the Both are also determined to about the new way of life and the community. She is a combat the negative, often prosperity that lay across the ocean in the member of the board of the defamatory, image of United States. A few of them, like Aziz local ADC chapter and Arab-Americans. and George, decided to seize the treasurer of the local "It was the image they opportunity to create a new life for chapter of NAAA. portrayed of us and we sat themselves and left the village. Leila came to the United back and let them do it to Aziz Atiyeh settled in Allentown but States in 1961 from us," said Leila. "We want to his brother left and eventually settled in Trinidad. Both of her show them we're as good as Portland, Oregon. To support himself, parents were born in they areeven better." Aziz became a peddler, buying on credit in Allentown and selling his dry goods door to door in the small towns and villages outside the city. In 1900, Aziz's cousin, who was also named George Atiyeh, followed him to Allentown and he, too, became a peddler. Sometime before World War I, cousin George became engaged and returned to Amar with his -to-be for the . Although he wanted to return to the United States with his wife, he was unable to leave Syria because of the outbreak of World War I. Ayoub Jarrouj leads a In the early 1920s, George left Amar demonstration held in alone and returned to the United States to September 1982 protesting work and save enough money to bring the Sabra and Shad la over his family which had grown to include massacre. [The two sons, and two daughters. In 1926, demonstration was held on George's wife and four children boarded a the plaza in front of the ship for the journey to the United States. county courthouse in One of the sons, Harvey, who was 11 30 Allentown.] years old at the time, remembers the

BEST COPY AVAILABLE voyage. After leaving Beirut, the ship Orthodox Church and the Arab-American docked at Haifa and then, en route to Cultural Society. The original church was Piraeus, the ship hit a reef where it was built in 1916 and was later demolished so stranded for five days until another ship that a larger church could be built in its arrived to pick up the passengers. place in 1964. After 39 days with stops at Istanbul, The cultural society, originally called Rostov on the Black Sea, Malta, Naples, the Syrian Arab-American Cultural Marseilles and Barcelona, the ship arrived Society, was founded in 1968 as a at Ellis Island in New York. Because of the community center and as an organization sea-sickness that never abated during the that could assist the new immigrants in the voyage, Harvey Atiyeh never traveled by city. Last year, the organization received a ship again. city grant to operate a summer program in In 1926, the Arab community in English and math for city school children Allentown numbered about 60-70 and an outreach program for the Arab families. The size of the community is community that includes employment fixed in Harvey Atiyeh's memory because counseling, assistance in finding housing, the members of the community attended translation and transportation for those the funeral of his father who died only who can't drive. In addition, the society three months after his family arrived in has been distributing food supplied by a Allentown from Syria. private organization to needy Arab- American families, many of whom lost jobs in industry during the 1983 Allentown's Sixth Ward recession. Jarrouj explained, "Some of our people are too proud to apply for welfare When Harvey Atiyeh arrived in or food stamps." Allentown, many of the city's Arab and The society also conducts Arabic European immigrants lived in the city's language classes for adults and children. 6th Ward, a neighborhood of small Recently, the society purchased land for a rowhouses along the Lehigh River that new center that Jarrouj hopes will be flows through the city. Although the completed this year. children of the original Arab and Each year, the society celebrates European immigrants moved out of the Syrian Independence Day with a banquet neighborhood as they became more and the raising of the Syrian flag at City prosperous and socially mobile, the 6th Hall. About 80 percent of the Arab- Ward is still home to another generation American community is Syrian in origin, of immigrants, the Arabs who began about 17 percent is Lebanese and arriving in the late 1950s and the 3 percent is Palestinian. Hispanics. The city's ADC chapter was organized Today, the 6th Ward has a distinctlyin 1981 by Atiyeh and recently the NAAA Arab character with its Arab grocery founded a local chapter as well. stores, bakeries, coffee houses and the That the city's Arab-American headquarters of the Arab-American community has become more politically Cultural Society. conscious, better crganized and more According to Abboud, the majority of assertive is reflected in the local media. the Arab-American community is Once particularly ignored, the Arab- employed as blue collar workers in American community and its events are factories such as the Alton Knitting Mill now regularly covered by the local media. and large industries like Bethlehem Steel, During the war in Lebanon in 1982, Arab- Mack Truck or Western Electric. The American community leaders routinely community also has a growing middle were sought out for their opinions and class of professionals and business knowledge of events in Lebanon. owners, particularly among the second "It is important to be organized," said and third generations. Jarrouj. "To stay asleep while others are The center of the community's social doing their work means they would get and cultural life is St. George's Eastern stronge- while we get weaker." 31 Vottlft411.1Piart4:4!,...toN'AZEIP2."

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/1100. BIRMINGHAM,

The Politics of Survival

by Alan Dehmer

HEN Josephine Sharbel's parents, CV)Sultana and Khattar, arrived in Birmingham, Alabama in the early years of the 20th century, they entered one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Thousands of immigrants from around the country and the world poured into Birmingham between 1880 and 1930. They were looking for new work opportunities in, or around the growing steel industry. Today they are part of a growing Arab-American community made up of first-, second- and third-generation Lebanese and Palestinian-Americans who number over 400 families combined. Sultana and Khattar were from the same village in Lebanon (then Syria), but it was not until after they arrived in the United States that Khattar "twisted" Sultana's arm and they married. Sultana, 17 years older than Khattar, had actually come to the United States with her sister and brother before Khattar. She went to Paris, Texas where relatives had already settled. Khattar, who was educated as a teacher in Lebanon, came to America shortly after Sultana. He took up peddling, carrying his wares on his back and travel- ling from city to city in search of business and a place to call home. He too stopped in Paris, Texas where he found Sultana. "Mama used to say she never was sure what it was about himbut he was a very good-looking man, and she said,

'Well, I want a child, so. ..he's well- 33

Photo. Greater Birmingham C oni,enttirti .i.itors Bureau t) educated, and he's good-looking, and he Faces of Birmingham has a beautiful voice, so if I have a child and he leaves me...' Well he never left WHEN Salem his birth several times to her. He never did," recalls Josephine. Shunnarah settled visit family still living there. For however many reasons, Sultana, in Birmingham in 1940, he "I like the country a lot," 34, and Khattar, 17, married and set off became the first Palestinian he said. "I might go in June." for new frontiers againthis time to- resident of this southern Fred Melof worked as a gether. After short stays in Kentucky and city. After arriving in the safety engineer for U.S. Nashville, , they arrived in United States in 1935, Steel in Brimingham for 45 Birmingham. In 1904, they gave birth to Shunnarah traveled years, until his retirement Josephine, making her Birmingham's first throughout the south as a in 1972. The Melof family Lebanese-American. "I was the first peddler, selling tapestries, immigrated to the United Lebanese child born in Birmingham," and I oriental rugs and the like. In States when Fred was five was delivered by the first Lebanese doctor 1940, in Augusta, Georgia, years old. His father owned in Birmingham" boasts Josephine. "Dr. he met the woman who a grocery in Birmingham, El-Kourie used to always brag about me would become his wife. She but Fred, his two brothers for that." was a Lebanese-American and a sister all worked for Like Khattar and Sultana, from Birmingham who, he the steel industry. "My Birmingham's Lebaneseall of whom claims, is "really a family had more people were either Maronite or Melkite Palestinian at heart." working for U.S. Steel than Catholicsemigrated from the rich Mr. Shunnarah anyone in the area," boasted farmland around Zahle. Most had come continued peddling for a Melof. Known by fellow from the village of Wadi-el-Arayeche, one few years, then settled in Arab-Aniericans as the or two family members at a time. They Birmingham. There he community's historian, would come over, earn money and soon opened an oriental rug storeMelof continues to work as invite other members of the family to which he still operates with a consultant for the steel their new home. In this way, the one of his sons. industry. community grew rapidly between 1900 Dr. Salah EI-Dareer is and 1920. In 1905, the men formed the one of about 15 Egyptian- Phoenician Club, which still exists today born residents of as the Cedars Club. In 1910, a Maronite Birmingham, and one of a Church was established and named St. handful of Muslims there. Elias, after the in Wadi- He did his early studies in el-Arayeche. St. Elias Church was before coming to the founded in a converted public school United States to study building at 20th Street and Sixth Avenue pharmacology at South, in what is now downtown State University and the Birmingham and which at the time was . Dr. an area of Lebanese settlement in the city. El-Dareer and his wife In 1915, the Lebanese community of moved to Birmingham in Birmingham was 65 families strong. St. 1965 where he has since George Melkite Church was established in been engaged in cancer 1921, giving Birmingham two distinct In 1948, relatives began research at Southern Eastern Catholic Churches in which to moving to Birmingham Research Institute. worship. from Ramallah. In 1949 Though there is no they formed the Ramallah in Birmingham, El- Club and Mr. Shunnarah Dareer has maintained his Peddlers to Store Owners became its first president. Muslim faith, and at one He also served as president time served as for the Then as now, the Lebanese of the American Ramallah local community. On community represented only a small Federation in 1968-69. occasion he and other Arab portion of Birmingham residents. But Since he arrived in Muslims also worship at the from the start, it played an important role America, Mr. Shunnarah Black Muslim mosque in in the evolution of the city's economy and 34 has returned to the land of Birmingham. social organization. Starting as peddlers in

3 G the streets of Birmingham and classes served to keep alive in the new throughout the countryside, most generation the strong sense of Lebanese Lebanese were able to set up small retail identity that persists to this day in stores within a few years of al i ival. Dr v Birminghanr. goods and grocery stoles were most Such passing down of traditions and common, but there were other successful language was commonplace in early ventures as well. Sultana, for example, immigrant families in the United States. opened up a fine linen shop, selling cloth But in Birmingham it was not just the unavailable elsewhere in Birmingliam. desir e to pass on the best in the parents' Josephine recalls writing orders to the cultor al expel ience which brought New York distributor Dahrouh Luau as a Khattar to St. Elias Church after work. In young girl. Although her mother had Bir mingham, cultural pride was necessary lear ned to speak English, she was Of Ilble for sur vival in what was frequently a to write it. "I probably misspelled hristile cit vii of intent. everything, but we always got everything White (Arigki-Saxon) southerners, the just the same," she said. 'We got tlstuf f original settlers of Birminghani, were here all right." establishilig racist policies and Josephine's role as family translator pi omulgating racist attitudes directed at was a familiar one for childt en of the Lebariese arid other Mediterranean Lebanese and other immigrant fantilies. and Eastern European settlers. From Growing up in America put the childiell inunigration policies whkh discour aged in tile position of bi idging two worlds. certain immigr ants from further This had its advantages, but parents were settlement into Alabama, to name-calling concerned that the new generation might and exdry3ion from restaurants and other lose sight of their heritage. In response, public facilities, l3ii minghair's Lebanese- Khattar began teaching classes in 1015 iii Amet icans experienced bigotry and racism Although from the Arabic and , music and limn their -white- neighbors. For the same village in history. Classes were held in the immigrant Lebanese, living in America Lebanon, it was aftei nouns, first at St. Elias (Jun ch and meant ha ing to defend arid protect their not until after they later at St. Georges as well. Kbatt-,r'c ivil and human rights. met in Paris, Texas, that Sultana and Khattar heard wedding bells. After they moved to Birmingham, they gave birth to Josephine, the first Lebanese child AM _AIM' born in that city. At left, Josephine 41' Sharbel is playing the Lebanese national anthem in her house.

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3 Immigration & Racism An Era of Racism and Depression

Named after the English industrial city, Birmingham was established in 1871. Lying in the heart of a fabulously rich itt11,0 1Nt It F.StS. li. R.9177. mineral region, a group of speculators and industrialists rallied that year to turn what had been cornfields into what would ATIV ES. ()V REPRESENT become, within the next 50 years, the IN THE 1101..SE 10. 190:. South's most industrial city. So successful II,, uloa, Ow 0111°,101 1,41. 1.1.0 .1 was the Birmingham project that after Its It, rt Ana NI, tt Atttt matt,' ttt.It ...... ttt just a few short years, the supply of incoming workers from the surrounding region had been exhausted. The call went A. BILL out to northern cities and to Europe for tlittt- laborers, merchants and others. And they Mt t ttltttitit .:11.11tnt =Ittut cameRussians, Hungarians, Greeks, :I.. WI.. Ole 1.111.4 German and Eastern European Jews, Italians, Irish, Germans, Slavic peoples and

lit .44141i Lebanese. Between 1880 and 1930, the to II MI0001 3 "not alter ...,1 !0111 population of Birmingham and the 6444 4r4 h la w 11.10I ,r111.11 tioo to the .41;4 14 4 .41-44 surrounding suburban region increased following 1441-44te.-14311 1.14.001 St.414 the 4.111 into the from 4,000 to 260,000. wit:All :diem 44,er .441toii4414 therein. to But it seems the Southern and Eastern t III\Clio,..1 1411y.h-Jily eapalde 44treading of ay.:, %SM. are eot,.,., i Europeans who toiled in the city's or the limmiageof the Eitgli,h language industry and the Mediterranean gand von oot reml phy:onte. anditl,i. - :thew. of p0,11' immigrants who came to own many of some other 0011101. year, of age:aid ore ae- are wider ten the city's shops were not the immigrants tiles. exeept ..1144t a, 10 father Or father or mother,or whose that the white ruling class had in mind. companied by their 11 Stateo a the date The key issue for white society in 1e441ent of the I'Mted mother is alrenay 0 12 eighteen Birmingham's years of rapid expansion 1111 male alien, over 441 thi, rt; 111141 1S of the approv.41 at leag thirty was how to facilitate economic growth In their Own right N% hot 4" WA 14 drawing on labor that would accept long hours, low pay and unfamiliar as well as unpleasant working and living conditionswhile at the same time, maintaining the color line. The percentage of blacks living in Birmingham at this time In 1907, Rep. John Burnett introduced a bill was kept stable (approximately 40 into the Congress that sought to exclude percent), while comprising between 65 Asian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern percent and 75 percent of the actual work peoples by way of requiring an English force. But the newer immigrants to the city, literacy test as a prerequisite for entry into perceived as "colored" (the Lebanese were this country. After a "fact-finding" mission considered part of the "yellow race"), through all of Europe and the complicated this maintenance of the color Mediterranean, Burnett reported back to the line. The great influx of Mediterranean and Eastern European immigrants sparked Congress his findings: "God made only the an era of racist immigration policies in Caucasian to rule this country; and I, for Alabama, the South and finally the United one, look with apprehension upon any States. Birmingham's own representative effort to introduce those thru whose to the U.S. Congress, Oscar W. ... Underwood, raised the immigration veins flow the blood of any other than the question in the House in 1905, lecturing 36Caucasian race." his colleagues on the dangers of allowing

BEST COPY AVitiLLEE those without pure white blood in their of Any Race and Superior to Many." The veins to enter the United States. writings detail the positive attributes of While the fight went on in the Syrian immigrants and the positive Washington, Alabama state role the Semitic race and its descendants representatives in1907were busy "the Syrians, Hebrews, German Jews, enacting their own immigration laws: Russian Jews, and Sedentary "Immigrants shall be sought," one section Arabs"had played in history. stated, "from desirable white citizens of El-Kourie was "A born orator," says the United States first, and then citizens Fred Melof, a local historian and retired of English-speaking and Germanic safety engineer for U.S. Steel. "He loved countries, France, and the Scandinavian his people. And everybody worshipped countries, and Belgium as prospective him." But El-Kourie's arguments were citizens of this state ...". drowned in the maelstrom of racist In1907,a bill in Washington was activities throughout the country. To be Syrian and Catholic was to be reported to the House by Alabama Rep. twice removed from John Eurnett, a member of the House Birmingham's white Committee on Immigration and Protestant ruling class. Naturalization. The bill called for St. Elias Maronite prospective immigrants to pass a literacy Church (below) and St. George Melkite test before being admitted to the United Church provided States. T.J. Brooks, representing the Birmingham's Farmer's Educational and Cooperative ostracized Lebanese- Union (FECU) which claimed over1.5 .#4111_ Americans a place of million members in the Southern states worship and unity during the turbulent alone, and 3 million nationwide, spoke for years. Elizabeth the bill. In1909,FECU had passed a Boohaker grew up in resolution at its national meeting in Birmingham in those Birmingham to limit immigration by years and later encouraging a literacy test and other became secretary for St. Elias Church. 11. preventatives. "Certain countries," said Moto, Brenda McCallum for Brooks, "furnish a much greater the Arnerkan Folk Lifeenter. percentage of undesirables than others." I tbrars ( ongre... He was quick to list them: "The Sicilian, the Southern Italians, the Greek, the Syrian, and some from that belt of Africa 1 and Asia surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and farther east, including all Mongolians and Hindus." In the same hearings, Dr. H.A. El- AMMON Kouriethe same Dr. El-Kourie that had I: delivered Josephine Sharbelspoke against the bill. El-Kourie had become involved in the conflict as early as 1907 after Alabama's Congressman Bumett announced upon returning from an immigration fact-finding mission in Europe, "I regard the Syrian and peoples from other parts of Asia Minor as the most undesirable." In defense of his people, El-Kourie wrote two letters to local newspapers defending the Syrian-Lebanese (who at the time were considered Syrians). Later, he wrote a short essay entitled "Facts Establishing That the Semitic is the Equal 37 39 Terror and the Klan state to be courageous and bold in their beliefs, displaying their faith through By 1924, U.S. legislation was passed outdoor processions and the like. But such that effectively restricted immigration to a displays had their price. "See," one slow trickle. The Ku Klux Klan and Lebanese-American responded, "people Christian fundamentalism ruled the day here were even afraid to say theywere throughout the South, with Birmingham Catholic at one time. Down South, you reputedly housing the largest Klavern in know, that is Baptist country. If you said Birmingham's the country. A single Klan group in the you were Catholic, you got it." city boasted 10,000 members! Perhaps steel brought The Lebanese Catholics were not the only workers from another 10,000 residents of Birmingham endangered group. A member of around the world (out of a population of less than 220,000) Birmingham's Jewish community who to the southern belonged to other, rival KKK-Klaverns. lived through those days wrote, "Most The base of attack against city. From 1880 to Jews were horrified, but they felt helpless Birmingham's Lebanese was not only 1930, Birmingham in the face of the Klan whippings, was one of the directed at their birthplace or heritage. floggings and kidnappings that were "The city at that time discriminated fastest growing, commonplace." Those Klan members, he most ethnically against Catholics, against ethnic groups-- wrote, also harbored a psychopathic diverse cities in against anything," reports Elizabeth concern for "drinkers, Negroes, friends of the country. Boohaker, who at the time "was just a Negroes, Catholics, friends of Catholics, little girl." The Roman rite Catholic bishopimmigrants, Sunday movies, divorce, and I `1,.! 11.gm.lIghan, ,b at the time encouraged Catholics in the non-conformity in general."

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frorls -"*"4,ifevurp, - Anti-Catholic and anti-"colored" some brothers and first cousins came," feelings put the Lebanese, as shop owners remarked one second-generation Palestin- catering to both blacks and whites, in an ian-American. "They used to go around awkward position. Not only were they selling, you know, and they came on rejected by whites as the "yellow race" Birmingham and they liked it. So they (they were even called "dagos" by some), stayed." Soon they, like the Lebanese but their faith also set them apart from before them, brought their families over. the blacks. Philip K. Hitti'sThe Syriansin By the early1960s,the Palestinian com- Americaquotes the text of a handbill that munity numbered almost150people. But circulated during a1920political the political problems of the past20years campaign. The handbill trumpeted, "For have driven many more Palestinians from Coroner, Vote for J.D. Goss,"The White their homes. Today, the Palestinian com- Man's Candidate. It went on, "They havemunity of Birmingham, mostly Melkites disqualified the negro, an American by faith and store owners by profession, citizen, from voting in the white primary. numbers around300members. The Greek and Syrian should also be Almost without exception the entire disqualified. I DON'T WANT THEIR community is related and from Ramallah. VOTES. If I can't be elected by white "It's just a family here," remarks Nadin men, I don't want the office." Rumanah, who operates a Middle East The1920s?nd1930ssaw the greatest imports grocery store with his brother degree of racism directed against the Nabeel. The store was formerly owned by Lebanese. Although the problem Josephine Sharbel's husband. Today it remained until after World War II, by the serves both the Lebanese and Palestinians 1930s,an additional problem faced the of Birmingham with Middle Eastern Lebanese shop owners as well as the rest culinary items. of Birmingham and the United States Relations between the two groups are the Great Depression. At one point, not always close but remain friendly, Birmingham became known as the through the art of Southern diplomacy as hardest hit city in the nation. Thousands adopted by Lebanese and Palestinian- of steel workers were laid-off. Elizabeth American alike in Birmingham. Boohaker's father owned a grocery store at As elsewhere in the South where the time. Arab-Americans have settled, "My father used to only take in$2or Birmingham's Arab-American community $3a day," she recalls, "That was in has done so under the pressure of being comparison with$50or$60a day before perceived as different. In response, the the Depression. ...He'd give the (laid-off) overwhelming tendency is to keep a low workers food on time so that made it evenprofile, mind your own business and stay harder....but he kept them alive. Along close to your family. Even the politics of with us." the Middle East are put into the Only a few of the shop owners closed background for the sake of survival. down their businesses though. Josephine "We don't get involved in politics Sharbel and her husband (a travelling here," said one member of the salesman) were one of those exceptions. Birmingham Arab-American community. They moved to Georgia for two years and"Everybody gets along. It's a family place. then returned after the worst of times People got to work at7,get off at6(or)7 were over. o'clock in the evening, they go home, they take care of their families and they get The Palestinian Family together sometimes and drink coffee, and ...It's just a family here." As the Depression days were ending and life in Birmingham returned to Information concerning Lebanese immigration to Birmingham was provided by Nancy Faires Conklin and "normal," a new group of immigrants Nora Faires in a paper entitled "Colored' and Catholic: began trickling inPalestinians. Initially, The Lebanese Community in Birmingham, Alabama." The paper was presented at the first Philip K. Hitti they came to the United States to support International Symposium on Near Eastern American their families back home. "At first just Studies held lune 3-4, 1q83. 39 4i Min 'fIr71;11.1.111'WX1"Zal."-nniNSVN4"4.71.117116.."17;A... _ _ _._

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Dream ofa Good Land

by Evelyn Shakir

gN1630,while still on board the good ship Arabella, John Winthrop reminded his fellow Puritans that the colony they were about to establish would be "as a city upon a hill," he said. "The eyes of all people are upon us." Two hunc:red and fifty years later, in the development Winthrop could have neither foreseen nor desired, Middle Eastern peasants began making their way to that city on the hill. Like later immigrants to Boston, these "Syrians" did not always share the intense sense of mission that had driven the Puritans to Massachusetts, but they did share the dream of "a good land" where despite hardships, homesickness and hostility, they might prosper and be happy. In1910,when Middle Eastern immigration to America was at its height, more Syrians and Lebanese lived in Boston than in any other city in the country, save New York. Most of them came from Mount Lebanonthe earliest contingents were from Beshari and Zahlebut many, too, came from . The best known of their number was Kahlil Gibran, who emigrated to Boston at the age of twelve and who, throughout his life, maintained close ties with the Boston community. In Gibran's day, that community was centered in Boston's South Cove a small area which is the site of present-day Chinatown. In this neighborhood of narrow, tenement-lined streets, coffee 41

4 3 Faces of Boston shops dotted each block, and bakeries with wood-burning stoves turned out stacks of "Syrian" bread. ln the cold-water flats, women in kerchiefs and voluminous 2Palestinian who communications consultant aprons pounded meat in one bowl, grew up in Lebanon, in the Boston public schools. and salt in another. Outside, old men on Fateh Azzam came to Several years ago, she orange crates played backgammon and America with his family in helped found the William G. smoked water pipes while dark-eyed 1966 when he was 16. Abdalah Memorial Library children raced through the streets and Today he works for Oxfam in memory of her brother, Eastern music whined from a Victrola. America and attends the which provides information But despite the familiar sounds and smells, University of Massachusetts on the and the "Little Syria" was not home. One woman where he is working toward Arab-American experience who emigrated to Boston in 1912, with a a degree in community to teachers, parents, and husband she had known only three planning. He also leads the librarians in the Boston months, recalls that she was terrified of Al Watan Contemporary area. "A good self-image the noise and dirt of the city streets and Music Ensemble, which helps a child to do his best," so lonely that for the first year, she wrote features "progressive and says Evelyn. "That's been her mother a letter every day. politically conscious" music one problem in the Homesick or not, the first order of from Palestine, Lebanon schoolswe haven't given business for most immigrants was to find and Egypt. "We dail play children a pride in their work. At the turn of the century, when belly-dancing music," said own ethnicity." the New England textile industry was still Fateh, "we play music that flourishing, the mill towns of eastern expresses the human MassachusettsFall River, New Bedford, situation in the Middle East Lawrence and Lowellrelied heavily on right now." immigrant labor. Syrians and Lebanese Kahlil Gibran, cousin helped man the looms and sometimes and namesake of the poet, became involved in the angry labor is a sculptor of distinguished disputes that punctuated efforts to reputation who grew up in unionize mill hands. In Lawrence, just 30 the South Cove, site of miles north of Boston, the Syrian- Boston's earliest Syrian- Lebanese helped lead the famous Bread Lebanese settlement. "My and Roses strike of 1912. earliest images," he said, "are of a tightly knit Hannah Sabbagh Shakir Factories and Coffee Houses community which was very emigrated from Mount calming and secure and Lebanon in 1907 at the age Syrian-Lebanese men and women protective." But survival of 12. Two years later she often worked as stitchers, cutters, or was a struggle, he added, so began working 12 hour pressen; eventually, as they invested in everyone worked. Even he days in a textile mill; later factories of their own they came to share and his brother, when still she became a stitcher, and with the Jews a near monopoly of the small children, used to go later still started her own city's needle industry. Many Syrian- into the garment district on successful sewing factory. Lebanese avoided factory work altogether, Saturday morning looking Since 1917, she has been an choosing instead to open neighborhood for discarded crates, then active member of the groceries, confectionary shops, bakeries, chop them up, pile the Syrian Ladies' Aid Society. coffee houses, and dry goods stores. But wood in their toy wagons "Once the club put on in Boston, as in the rest of Massachusetts and take it home to fuel the Madame X," she recalled, and, indeed, throughout most of the kitchen stove. "and we put on Russian country, almost all of the immigrants who Evelyn Abdalah plays, too. In one I played a came before 1900 (and many who came Menconi, the daughter of man and shot a gun. The after) were peddlers, at first of notions, Syrian-Lebanese women used to take all the dry goods, and religious objects, later (if immigrants, holds a Ph.D. male parts; we were too shy they were successful) of expensive lingerie in education and was long a in those days to act with and linens. 42 teacher and then a men." But peddlers aroused suspicion and 44 irritation in the city's predominantly neighborhood, was a good neighbor Anglo establishment. In its 1899 report on indeed, providing clubs, classes, and Syrian-Lebanese, the Associated Charities companionship, especially to women and of Boston saw little distinction between children. And the community itself soon peddling and begging and complained that spawned its own churches as well as a Syrian-I ebanese "always find an excuse spate of social and cultural organizations for refusing work, even when offered that helped cushion the impact of new them, as long as they can earn more by ways on old. peddling." The fact is that to the The best known of these dubs, no descendents of the Puritans, the Syrian- doubt because of Gibran's association with Lebanese seemed incorrigibly alien. it, was the Golden Links, a group of men "Next to the Chinese, who can never better educated than most of the be in any real sense Americans," one community, who met to discuss books and Boston social worker wrote in 1898, 'the ideas and to share their own writings. By Syrians are the most foreign of all our the late 1920s, if not before, the Syrian foreigners. Whether on the street in their Press of Bosi.on (later the New Deal Oriental costumes, or in their rooms Press) was publishing works by immigrant

1 ,k_alitaglibfiAdt AbliatrAliat rin#.0% The Boston Arab- American community was well represented at the Jobs, Peace and Freedom March in Washington, D.C. on August 27, 1983. Seen here -A carrying the ADC banner are Evelyn Menconi (see Faces, opposite page) and Mushtague Mirza. gathered around the Turkish pipe, they workers. Over the years, the community are always apart from us ... and out of all also supported several newspapers and the nationalities would be distinguished journals including, among others, Surin for nothing whatever excepting as ledeeda (published as early as 1910), El Fatal curiosities." Boston, and Al Ra,ul. Such sentiments are less surprising These literary and journalistic when one recalls that it was in Boston ventures were male-dominated. But the that the Immigration Restriction League women in the community had their own was born in 1894, and that its forces were causes to pursue. In about 1917, they led by Massachusetts Senator Henry began organizing to send humanitarian Cabot Lodge. aid to people in the old country and to provide charitable services to the Clubs, Churches and Charities immigrants and their children in the Boston area. The dinners, plays, outings, Fortunately, other institutions in the and Imflis the women sponsored city were more humane. Denison House, contributed in a major way to the social a settlement house staffed by women life of the neighborhood and helped from local colleges and situated in the promote cohesiveness. One such club, the heart of the Arab immigrant Syrian I adies' Aid Society, owned an 43 elegant South End townhouse at 44 West Slowly and sometimes reluctantly, the Newton Street, which for 30 years was churches have followed the people. In the the central meeting place for all groups last decade or two, St. George's Orthodox within the community. It was there in Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of 1931 that Gibran was waked, and it was the Annunciation (Melkite) have moved to there, a year later, that leaders met to West Roxbury; Our Lady of the Cedars organize the Syrian American Federation (Maronite) to the adjacent suburb of of New England, the country's first Jamaica Plain. St. regional affiance of Arab clubs and a Orthodox Church is even now building an forerunner of the National Federation, edifice in Dedham, also across the line established in 1950. from West Roxbury; Norwood has long Meanwhile, as the community grew had its own Orthodox church, St. and prospered, it was shifting its center, George's, as has Cambridge, St. Mary's. St. Matthew's, established just a couple of years ago in West Roxbury, is a non- Chalcedonian Orthodox church which conducts services in . New Immigrants

Moving to the suburbs has given the churches a new lease on life as has the recent influx of immigrants from the Middle East, many of them attracted by Boston's world famous colleges and universities. In some cases, too, these new immigrants have founded new churches to meet their own particular spiritual needs; the Arabic Evangelical Church in West Roxbury is a case in point, as is St. Mark's Coptic Church in Newton. Muslims among the newcomers have first to the Shawmut Avenue area (where found a home in the New England Islamic a remnant of Syrian-Lebanese remain) Center in Quincy, which was established and then to West Roxbury, a street car about 20 years ago by several Lebanese suburb, which is best known as the site of families, and which today draws the Brook Farm, the experiment in worshippers of many nationalities from a communal living made over a hundred radius of up to a hundred miles. years ago by the New England Partly as a result of this new wave of transcendentalists. One woman, Gladys immigration and partly as a result of the Shibley Sadd, who was a child when her ethnic revival which has swept across the family moved from the South Cove to country, second-, third-, and fourth- West Roxbury, remembers the suburb as generation Arab-Americans lately have a rustic paradise. "The wide open spaces developed a heightened ethnic were our playground," she says. "We consciousness and a stronger sense of picked berries in the woods behind the connection to the lands of their ancestors. house, we gathered wild flowers, we An added impetus to this development climbed the trees, waded in the nearby was the telecast in 1976, as part of the brook and skated on the pond in winter." Bicentennial celebration, of a program Though many Arab-Americans still live inwhich traced the history of the city's Arab West Roxbury, which is less rural than it community and which was beamed to a used to be, the last decade or two have large audienLe throughout eastern seen a further dispersal of the communityMassachusetts and Rhode Island and parts into Norwood, Westwood, and other of New Hampshire. Four years later, an towns to the southwest of the city. hour documentary on Boston's Syrian-

G Lebanese, broadcast over a local public showall aimed at heightening the radio station, served a similar purpose. community's consciousness of its ethnic The Arab community is learning to identity. Two of the newest groups, make better use of the media to reach its whose membership includes people of own people, if not others. Boston has long non-Arab descent, direct most of their had at least one weekly radio program to attention to the Near East itself. One, the play and announce North American Friends of Palestinian commtmity news such as deaths, picnics Universities, works to promote and and hallis. Lately, more issue-oriented defend academic freedom in colleges on programming has emerged in the form of the ; the other, Women for a 30-minute radio program, "Middle East Women in Lebanon, collects funds for Insights," sponsored by the National sewing workshops and other small Association of Arab-Americans, which enterprises that help Palestinian and holds in-depth interviews with people Lebanese women, whose lives were from the Arab world or from the Arab- devasted by the Israeli invasion, to achieve American community. On television, the economic independence. Sunday morning "Arabic Hour" presents Finally, national Arab organizations mix of interviews, news reports and have made their way to the Boston area. analysis, cooking instruction and The Association of Arab-American . University Graduai es and the Institute of Arab Studies share an office building in Belmont, just a stone's throw from Jld and New Boston; the American-Middle East Peace Research Institute has moved its The institutional life of the community headquarters from Washington, DC to continues to evolve in other ways as well. Boston. And in the last few years, the Older organizations persistsome local chapter of the American-Arab Anti- women's clubs, some village clubs, many Discrimination Committee opened its church clubs, the Nicholas G. Geram regional office in Boston. Veterans' Association, the American- A century after the Arabella made port Arabic Association (AMARA) which, in Massachusetts, New England was through Project Loving Care, aids children swept by the "Great Awakening," a in Lebanon and in Jerusalem. At the same religious revival that urged a return to the time, new organizations, reflecting the piety and commitment of Winthrop, changing concerns of the community, are Bradford and other pioneers who had born. The American Arabic Benevolent risked so much in coming to America. Association, for instance, is raising funds Today, a century after Middle Eastern to build a home for the elderly in the emigration to America began, Arab- community, and the William G. Abdalah Americans in and around the "city upon a Memorial Library is collecting and housing hill" are also reassessing the present in materials on Arab heritage and the Arab- light of the past. They, too, are awakening American experience. to a new appreciation of their culture and Some of the newer organizations are to a new understanding of their history in made up of more recent immigrants or this country. sojourners from the Middle East. In this category are the Arab student unions at Two works that provide valuable information colleges like the Massachusetts Institute of on Boston's Arab-American community are Jean Technology, Harvard, Northeastern and and Kabul Gibran's Kahlil Gibran: His Life , which sponsor lectures and World (Boston: New York Graphic Society, on Arab culture, history and politics. The 1974) and Elaine Hagopian's "The Institutional Syrian Club of Boston works closely with Development of the Arab-American Community of these students and engages in a variety of Boston: A Sketch," in The Arab-Americans: other activitiesthey hold classes in Studies in Assimilation, ed. Elaine C. Arabic, for instance, and are the moving Hagopian and Ann Paden (Wilmette, Illinois: force behind "The Arabic Hour" television Medina University Press International, 19691. 45 4 7 A .

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On Freedom's Shores

by Alan Dehmer

wiRBRAHAM Mitrie Rihbany arrived in New York in 1891, like most Syrian immigrants, without friends or relatives to greet him. He spent his first nights in the United States in . His sleeping accommodations, for which he paid a nickel, consisted of a wooden platform he shared with two other men. A cot and mattress and a cold water tap were available for an extra dime. Rihbany was like thousands of other immigrants at the turn of the century, who left the political and economic turmoil of the Ottoman Empire for the dreams of a better life in America. After months at sea, the first land sighted by the immigrants was Brooklyn's tree-lined ridge facing New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. Those fortunate enough to have a relative or friend waiting for them to complete registration at Ellis Island would be offered the comforts of home, but most spent their first nights crowded into Syrian-owned boarding houses on Washington Street. Even for those who eventually moved on to other parts of the country, New York was the place of first and lasting impressions, where the dream of the New World was realized. And New York provided more than fond memories. Many early Syrian settlers earned their living by peddling, and achieved financial success by opening up their own retail stores in a town or city. For those 47

Photo: Paul Darby Faces of Brooklyn merchants, New York represented a wholesaler's heaven. Many contacts were made on Washington Street among the AY Rashid, co- become something of a local wholesalers and future retailers that later manages Rashid Salescelebrity and has been proved valuable when the peddler finally on Atlantic Avenue interviewed byThe New York settled down and opened up his own with his brother Times and several Arabic business. Stanley. The store, begun newspapers. Those who moved away from New by their father in1934, Litia Namoura, a dancer York relied on the many Arabic houses the largest and political activist, has newspapers circulating after1892from inventory of Arabic records spent the greater part of the New York area to keep them abreast and tapes in the United her life involved in the arts. of the news from "back home." The likes States. A second-generation Her parents came to the of Kahlil Gibran and his New York circle Arab-American, Ray takes a United States from of Syrian literati, Phillip Hitti in nearby great deal of pride in his southern Lebanon in the Princeton, N.J., and other educators and heritage. "I never had to early part of this century intellectuals made New York the center of deny the fact that I was an and settled in New England. Syrian culture, art and letters. For the Arab...I'm proud of being Litia was born in society of "old immigrants," the New York Lebanese," said Rashid. Massachusetts and grew up metropolitan area was the center of in New Hampshire, where business, culture and intellectual pursuit she was educated in for Arab-Americans through the1940s. Anglican schools. Litia says she had little or no knowledge of her From Washington Street to Brooklyn Arab heritage until the 1930s,when Alice Jaoudi For the thousands of immigrants who encouraged her to form the made New York home, Brooklynwith Fine Arts Guild in its ethnic neighborhoods, Middle Eastern

1 Brooklyn. The Guild bakeries and Syrian churcheswas the catered to Syrian-Lebanese likely choice. Moving to Brooklyn from girls and for the first time, Washington Street simply meant packing Litia was making social up the meager belongings they had contact with other Arab- brought on the ship, boarding the nickel Americans. During this ferry and crossing the East River. So Ray Rashid is co-manager of period she also met and appealing was that ferry ride to Brooklyn Rashid Sales on Atlantic Ave. later married Habib that by 1900 it is reported that Photo: M. Bardakas Katibah, a writer and editor approximately3,000Syrian immigrants forThe Syrian World. had crossed the East River, establishing Besides the records and It was not until the1967 Brooklyn as the largest Syrian community tapes, Rashid Sales also war that she began to in America. carries a large selection of develop her political The first place the Syrians settled was Arabic books, newspapers, awareness. "The1967war Atlantic Avenue. With its famous magazines and other Arabic shocked me," she said. "And restaurants, Arabic book stores, bakeries paraphernalia. With mail I began to say, well what and record shops, Atlantic Avenue is, to orders from around the have you done about it." So this day, considered "the Arab section" of world, it has become she began reading every Brooklyn. something of an Arab day "way into the night" to One of the early settlers of Atlantic institution. educate herself on the Avenue was a man who arrived at Ellis Ray, tc,,, has gained Middle East. She has since Island bearing, as he had from birth, the recognition as a spokesman become active in various name Nahra. His grandson, Ed Alvarado, for the Arab-American organizations, including the relates that his grandfather, who like most community of Brooklyn. U.N., and would like to immigrants of the time spoke no English, Having worked around write abo,..,t the Middle East. was asked his name by immigration Atlantic Avenue for officials. "Nahra," he replied. "Kanatous?" 48 nearly 25 years, Ray has Continued page 50 came the response. "Nahra, Nahra," he

5 0 (- Ed Alvardo (left) bakes bread and other Arabic delicacies in the same ovens his grandfather built in 1910 beneath the sidewalks of Atlantic Ave.

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Photo Alan Dehmer answered And thus, Kanatous Kanatous became a registered U.S. immigrant In 1910, Kanatous opened one of A Brooklyn's earliest bakeries, with ovens that lie beneath the sidewalk of Atlantic Avenue. His children and grandchildren, who still live in the Atlantic Avenue area, The Old Immigrants In this Lebanese- continue to bake bread daily in the same owned bakery in ovens Kanatous Kanatous built in 1910. The faith of the old immigrants Bay Ridge, a Unlike the Kanatous family of Atlantic those who arrived before World War II Syrian woman Avenue, most of Brooklyn's Arab- w,a primarily ChristianMaronite, who moved to the American community has changed Melkite and Antiochian Orthodox. By U.S. three years neighborhoods in the past 80 years. tracing the changing locations of the ago makes her Economic success accounts for many of various churches, the demographic shifts daily purchase the movesfrom Atlantic Avenue to within Brooklyn become evident. from an employee Brooklyn Heights, to Park Slope and Brooklyn's first Syrian church was of the store, finally to Bay Ridgebut the moves also established in a renovated building near another Syrian illustrate changing attitudes from one Atlantic Avenue. Virgin Mary Melkite immigrant who generation to the next. The churches that Church, only recently torn down, served has lived in serve the Arab-American community of the Melkite community of Brooklyn until Brooklyn for 15 Brooklyn have bem remarkably adept at 1951. By the 1920s, members of the Arab-years. keeping pace with the constant changes. American community began moving to Photo Al3n Drhtner 49

5i BEST COPY AVAILABLE Faces of Brooklyn,cont'd to Arab culture." Brooklyn Heights, just north of Atlantic Dr. Philip Kayal has Kayal has been active in Avenue. The new and more affluent explored the role the Melkite Church. He neighborhood took them away from their that Syrian churches was formerly the editor of shops, but it also separated them from have played in Arab- the church's national their "immigrant" image. Responding to American communities. His newsletter and the Melkite the population shift, father was born in Digest, which has since Maronite Church and St. Nicholas and came to the United become known as Sopheia. Orthodox Church were foundea in States as a boy in the early Today Kayal represents the Brooklyn Heights in the 1920s. part of this century. His 40,000 or so Arabs mother, born in Brooklyn, scattered throughout New A New Generation is a second-generation Jersey as president of the Syrian-American of the Arab Cultural The first 30 years of this century Kassar family. Dr. Kayal Institute. presented many difficulties for Arab- received his Ph.D. from Americans. Congress was considering Fordham University in immigration laws that would effectively 1970. His dissertation, halt further emigration from the Middle which he later published as East. The debates were loaded with racist a book with his brother Joe, barbs directed at the Syrians, as well as was called The Syrian-Lebanese other immigrants, that put them in the in America. "I discovered my curious position of defending the honor of roots as an eastern their heritage by demonstrating how Catholic," said Kayal, "and "American" they could be. from there I was introduced The greatest toll of such enforced assimilation was on the second generation. Philip Kayal (top) is a According to accounts written at the time, third-generation the advantages to the second generation Brooklynite. His of their parents' move were scant. "Our maternal grandparents, 4- George & Wadia Kassar youth have not gained from their (center) came to environment," began a familiar sounding Brooklyn from Syria letter of complaint published in New around the turn of the century. By 1912, the York's Meraat-LII-Gharb, the Orthodox Kassar family had newspaper established in 1899. grown to six children. In the 1920s, a popular topic of discussion was whether to teach Arabic to the American-born children. A corollary to that question was why, when Arabic classes were offered, did so few show any interest? Al-Hoda, the Maronite newspaper established in 1898, was an active proponent of maintaining heritage in the United States. In 1928, it offered

a , Yit free Arabic lessons to all corners. Onlya . Os' handful of students showed up. Fear of losing touch with the "home country" permeated the immigrants' lives, Ala a and the Brooklyn community was at the center of the cyclone. The second generation displayed little pride in their parents' heritage. Brooklyn's churches "t suffered a high rate of attritiona repork.... 46 percent of second generation )./ 7 Melkites in Brooklyn left Virgin Mary Church to attend the "more American" 50 Roman Rite churches. 5 2 The second generation tended to be shifts from one neighborhood to the next apolitical. They seldom married other and in terms of their identification with Syrian-Americans. Their parents' heritage Arab traditions, the third generation had meant little more than eating hibouleh come full circle. The move to BayRidge and kibbee and dancing the dubkee at brought the newest generation to the yearly gatherings. One trait the second same wooded banks the first immigr,ints generation shared universally with their had sighted upon entering New York fathers, however, was a knack for harbor. business. Like their parents, they too moved to better neighborhoods even farther away from Atlantic Avenue, this New Wave time to Park Slope. The third generation came to At the same time Bay Ridge was being ascendancy after World War II. They were populated by the grandchildren of the old better educated: many completed college immigrants, new immigrants were and moved into professional work. This coming to Brooklyn. Again it was to third generation began to rediscover their Atlantic Avenue these newcomers grandparents' heritage. In 1952, Virgin gravitated. Yemen provided the largest Mary Melkite Church moved to Park influx, and over 5,000 Yemeni live in Slope with the hope of becoming a Brooklyn today. In fact, this figure is neighborhood church again. St. Mary's misleading. Over the past 30 years many Orthodox Church also moved in the more have lived in Brooklyn, but unlike 1950s, to Bay Ridge, the newest migration their predecessors the Yemenis seldom site. Thus both in terms of the physical emigrate for life.

Each year in Brooklyn, local Arab-Americans sponsor the "Atlantic Antic" festival, offering a taste of Arabic food and enter- tainment to the ethnically diverse Brooklyn com- munity. Atlantic Avenue has served as the first home for Brooklyn's Arab immigrants throughout the century. 51

BEST COPY MILAN Yemenis, mostly men, move to this Americans from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, country for the express purpose of and elsewhere, have chosento put earning a better wage than theycan at political and religious differences asideto home. A large portion of their earningsis pray and work together for one common sent back to their families. Meanwhile, thegoal. The St. Nicholas Home for the Aged ever-changing Yemeni population works stands as a rock of unity that couldserve in small shops and businesses. Thereare to show the way to the future for other seven Yemeni restaurants in the Atlantic Arab-American communitiesacross the Avenue area. United States. The next largest immigrant "They said this place wouldnever be community is Palestinian. Although they built," said Dick Zarick, chairman of the have been arriving since the end of World board for the home. "Ninety-fivepercent War II, the Palestinian community of of the Arabic-speaking people said that." Atlantic Avenue has swelled since1972 St. Nicholas Home is a testimonyto when immigration quotaswere opened the possibility of a united Arabic-speaking up. Today, Palestinians in Brooklyn numbercommunity. Zarick believes this and between 3,000 and 4,000. Mostoperate wants the world to know it. supermarkets and superettes throughout It was Father Gregory Abboud who Brooklyn, but Atlantic Avenue remains came up with the idea of a home for the their favorite place of residence. aged in Brooklyn to be operated jointlyby In the past few years, Brooklyn all the Arabic-speakinggroups. Father Heights has begun renovationas new, Abboud, who came to Brooklynas an upwardly striving immigrants follow the Orthodox priest at St. Mary's,was path of earlier immigrants who foundthe revered by the whole community andso neighborhood a welcome change from the was successful in getting his project off commercial bustle of Atlantic Avenue. the ground, but illness prevented him With the new immigrantscomes a new from seeing it completed. faith. The Muslims of Yemen and Zarick, who playeda central role in the Palestine are responsible for the Islamic construction of the home, said he madea Center in Brooklyn Heights. Thecenter is vow to Father Abboud and to God tosee a few blocks from Our Lady of Lebanon the project to its end. Goodto his word Maronite Church, whichnow serves as and to Abboud's dream, the St. Nicholas the Cathedral of the MaroniteDiocese. Home opened its doorson November 21, The See of the Diocese of St., 1982, with two residents. It has expanded formerly in Detroit, moved its officesto to full capacity-77 residents witha full Brooklyn in 1972. time staff, including an award-winning The old patterns persist, circlesare chef who keeps everyone satisfied. drawn to a close and A new patterns emerge simple tour of the homeatwo-story in Brooklyn. One consistent pattern is the complex with kitchen, diningroom, process of dissociation and separation of conference rooms, chapel and recreation one ascending generation and class from roomsdemonstrates that is the previous one. Separationseems to be the key to life there. Roughly one-fourth a function of environment as well. of the residents are of Arab heritage,but "Brooklyn'tes tend to knowvery little according to one Italian resident, 'There about ther own territory," commented are no nations here. We live from the one native of that borough. "It'sso large heart." and New Yorkers are... well, you know The board of directors of the homeis how New Yorkers are." made up of the full spectrum of Arabic- speaking groups. Besides meeting "We Live From the Heart" regularly for business, board members and residents join forprayer services, But in Brooklyn, the old patternsare which are conducted alternatively bythe never erased entirely. At the St. Nicholas many different faiths in the area. Said Home for the Aged on Ovington Avenue, Zarick, "We have combined intoa unity and Muslims, Arabs and Arab- like you've never seen." 5 Open to everyone, Dick Zarick, the is shown here St. Nicholas Home Home's founder with some of for the Aged in and director, St. Nicholas' Brooklyn has been provides able 77 residents. called a gift to the guidance and city of New York leadership to this from the Arabic- "rock of unity." speaking people. Zarick (left) Photos Alan Dehmer

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qTiiii"HAT blonde girl studying piano in the affluent Detroit suburb Grosse Pointe ... hat autoworker in Dearborn, cra- dling a cup of ,,!a in grease-stained hands in the hole-in-the-wall coffeehouse ... That middle-aged grocer with the slightly wary look that comes from one too many robberies in a tough Southfield street .. . They all have something in common. They are part of the complex, growing and changing Arab-American community of Detroit. Some call Detroit the Ellis Island of Arab-Americans. It's the biggest concen- tration of Arab-Americans in the countrysome 250,000 in the 4.7 million metro area. Immigrants have been arriv- ing since the 1890s to the industrial center. Immigration is a living fact in Detroit. These days, three of every five new immi- grants to the area comes from the Middle East, totalling some 10,000 arrivals a year. In fact, Arab-Americans now make up the fastest-growing minority in the area. One schoolteacher in the bilingual program of the public schools noted, "You can see it here; 42 percent of our students last year were Arabic or Chaldean speakers." One sad fact unites most immigrants over the years to the Detroit area:They left their homelands because of political and social upheavals there. But as well they are united by the faith and hope they place in their new land. As one recent 55 . 5 7 Faces of Detroit refugee from the violence of Beirut, sheltering his young daught,,r in his arms, by Kathy Eadeh put it, "I feel like I've been born again." These are not the best times to come to Detroit, though with unemployment OCIAL worker andregular comment"There high and the future bleak for industrial (.5community activist, is no civilization like the recovery. Still, many benefit, even in hard Dr. Katherine Naghei cameArab civilization"she times, from the existence of thriving to Detroit in 1969 after particularly enjoyed a trip to Arab-American communities, where they receiving her Ph.D. in 1962 her parents' homeland. can find familiar languages, familiar foods, in International Relations Adil Akrawi, a 42-year- perhaps a social service tailored to their from the University of old Chaldean grocery store needs, and possibly even friends and Pennsylvania. (Nagher is a owner, is also president of relatives from "home." Pennsylvania native, havingDetroit's Iraqi Democratic Only recently have the different been born in Wilkes-Barre.)Union. He is a survivor of peoples of the Arab world who settled Nagher enjoys the political repression in Iraq, here come to term themselves "Arab- harmonious working where he came from in Americans," to make first steps toward relationships among 1969. Going to work in raising a united voice. But as long as different parts of the Arab-Detroit for Chrysler, he Arab-Americans haw, been arriving, they American community in was fired in 1974 after have vigorously asserted their own Detroit. "I believe all leading a protest walkout regional and local identities. mankind are brother and on health and safety issues. sister," she says. "I believe inHe opened a grocery store Kahlil Gibran's words, 'Youin 1975, and although he Strong Identities are all fingers on the lovinghas experienced tension hand of God." between Arabs and blacks, First to come were the Syrian- Nagher, whose parents says, "Both blacks and Lebanese, who today make up nearly half came from Lebanon, also Arabs share the problem of the Arab-American population, with appreciates the richness of being hurt by 'the system.' 100,000 people. (Most came from what is Arab civilization. now Lebanon.) First arriving in significant Remembering her father's Continued page 58 numbers in the 1890s, they tended to come in "chains" of friends -.nd neighbors from the same region and religion. They live mingled in among other 1 LE 6f1 ethnic groups throughout Detroit's eastern suburbs. Atai6UfC 41111 Next to arrive were the Chaldeans, who began immigrating in 1910 and dramatically increased in the late 1950s and 1960s, as political upheavals shook their native Iraq. Many more have arrived since 1967. The Chaldeans, speakers of a language derived from ancient Aramaic, are distinctive even within Iraq, and those 4 who came to Detroit are more distinctive still. Many come from one village within IraqTelkaif. Chaldeans now make up 20 percent of the area's Arab-American

t Melfttt population, and they mostly work in retail business. Chaldeans own fully 80 percent of the area's 1,400 mom-and-pop grocery Adil Akrawi moved to the United States to escape stores. Their strong regional and linguistic persecution in 1969. An established Detroit store owner, identity is well-represented, especially in Akrawi says he still has not adjusted to American life st)les. the Southfield neighborhood, where the 56 community founded the Southfield Manor. It is an impressive new social offered Yemenis a six-month leave to center where, many parents hope, their arrange for their families to immigrate traditions will endure despite assimilating too, many Yemenis found the very idea of attractions of mainstream culture. permanent migration offensive. Palestinians make up 12.5 percent of Other ethnic pockets in this Arab-Americans in the area. First arriving community suggest the rich diversity of in the1920s,they followed a familiar Arab culturefor instance, the Egy ptian pattern of Arab immigrationone family . Once widely scattered throughout member brought over others, until entire Michigan, in1976this small but family networks and village networks determined group built the first Coptic were re-created in the New World. Many church in Michigan, in Troy (a northern Palestinians in Detroit came from the suburb of Detroit). Members of the

Many members of Detroit's diverse Arab-American community are shop owners. 80% of the 1,400 mom- and-pop grocery stores in Detroit are owned by Chaldean- Americans alone. l'hoto. Maien Eadeh

West Bank town of Ramallah. (Detroit is community have settled in Detroit, the national center for the nationwide, Flint and Saginaw. One of the ways they 20,000 member American Federation of stay in contact is through the American Ramallah, Palestine.) Since the1967Arab- Druze Public Affairs Committee, whose Israeli war, Palestinian immigration has chair Kamal Shouhayib often has the job, soared. these days, of explaining to the media just The highly-distinctive Yemeni who the Druze are. population makes up some 5 percent of the Arab-American community. Nine- tenths of them are men, and they come Community Life Flourishes from one rural area in Yemen, where they usually own land. They come for a year, Over time, Detroit has become a or two, or several, to earn money and center for Arab-American institutions. return to their families. "We are saving Among the associations with chapters or money for our futurein Yemen," says offices in Detroit are the American one. They are so unified in that goal that Federation of Ramallah, Palestine; the when the United Auto Workers, which American-Arab Anti-Discrimination counts some4,700Arabs among the Committee; the Association of Arab- 35,000 workers in their Rouge plant, American University Graduates; and the 57

5 Faces of Detroit, she says, "I have the best of National Association of Arab Americans. continued two worlds. I can appreciate Several student groups meet the needs of the beauty of two very Arab students studying in the area, and of That's where the problemsdifferent cultures." She is university students who are learning are, not among the taking pre-law courses at about Arab culture at such institutions as minorities." the University of Michigan, . The Palestine Mil is proud of the Dearborn. Aid Society and the Arabic Center for Arab-American community 19-year-old Nabil Cultural and Social Services help out of Detroit: 'It is unique Khoury's parents moved to Arab-Americans in urgent need and social we are all keeping our the U.S. to give their clubs proliferate. It is, then, no surprise to culture alive, and working children a better life. His find a wealth of media serving the special together. People are proud mother is from Damascus, needs and interests of Arab-Americans in because they are Syria and his father is from the areathe newspaper Iraqi, the Palestinians, or Yemenis orJerusalem, Palestine. Now magazine Hathahe Ramallah, the television Chaldeans, but we must allNabil is studying medicine show "The Arab Voice," and radio be proud of the fact that in the hopes of returning to programs "" and "Middle first we are Arabs." Still, hethe Middle East as a Eastern Melodies." says, there is no substitute physician. He has visited the Lifestyles of Arab-Americans are as for home, and he stills feelsMiddle East several times diverse as their heritages. Perhaps most like a stranger in the U.S. and, he says, "I identify first distinctive is the near-enclave of When Teghrid (Terry) as an Arab and then as an "Southend" in Dearborn, where the Ahwal, a 27-year-old policeAmerican. Maybe because I population is 75 percent Arab, where officer who also works at feel deprived of a homeland, Sunni dot the neighborhood and the Yemen Arab Republic I emphasize my ethnic where you may need to be able to read consulate, first came to theidentity." Nabil feels that Arabic to read the signs on the street. If U.S. a decade ago, "Life wasthe Detroit Arab-American the locale seems to border on a ghetto to very lonely." She came withcommunity must "pull some, it means close-knit community to her sister, and her family together" because "we need others. One bakery owner says proudly, from Ramallah, Palestine, an identity, a background "Where else could you live and know joined her in 1974. "Now," and cohesion." everybody within a 20-block radius?" With continuing immigration comes constant change, as the recent history of the Muslim mosque testifies. Over the course of generations it has more and more come to resemble a middle- American style church. When new immigrants flooded into the area in the 1960s and 1970s, traditional fundamentalists began attending and influencing the mosque's policy. Now, stricter dress codes and sex segregation during services reflect the dominance of a more fundamentalist Muslim tradition.

Fighting for Recognition

Racism and ethnic discrimination have consistently marred the immigrants' experience. Some Chaldean grocers, for instance, have found themselves in conflict with members of the black communities where they have their shops. Recently a group trying to buy a building 58 for a mosque encountered what one -A them called "vidous anti-Arab attitudes." The problems of one Yemeni auto worker suggest an endemic problem. When he reported to his supervisor that his Detroit's ethnic foreman regularly insulted him, the diversity is foreman declared, "You think you scare portrayed in its me going to the super visor, camel variety of religious jockey?" Indeed, the mart was fired. There expression. The is also pervasive discrimination that social life of many children face. Kathy Eadeh, a Palestinian- Arab-Americans American in her 20s, now working as centers in their Detroit coordinator for ADC, recalls, church or mosque. "When I was growing up, the kids would call me A-rab and a PLO terrorist." Finding a political voice---that basic tool of self-defense for American subcultureshas not been easy for Arab- Americans, even in the ethnic stronghold of Detroit. They are close to invisible in Michigan politics; only five Arab- Amer ican surnames appear on the rolls of 1,000 state bureaucrats, for example. But Arab-American leaders exist among different subcommunities. For instance, two Chaldean political leaders ---Joe Solaka and Sarni Jihad were among those who wurked on the campaign of the current governor. Jihad is now deputy personnel director for the governor. Abdeen Jabara, a boar d member of ADC and all activist civil rights , regularly investigates violations of civil and political rights of Arabs and Arab-Americans in the Detroit area. I ie once waged a campaign to get cohesive force in the Arab community." Arabs the status of a legally protected he Detroit ADC chapter's role has minority, thus making them eligible for recently reflected the several facets of the affirmative action pr ograms. organization. ln a rally for Jesse Jackson Now there is a growing self-- which had an overflow crowd of 1,000 consciousness. One evidence of it is a ADC enwuraged Arab--American voter registr ation drive that the Ramallah par ticipation in electoral politics. ADC has club is organizirrg of Arab-Americans also been involved in defense of civil and across the country for the I q84 elections. political rights of indi iduak, for instance "We have a golden opportunity," says new forcing an investigation of incidents at the Ramallah president Isa I lasan. "It's too bad American-Canadian border where Arabs that the Middle East crisis has forced us to repor tedly received disa iminatory concentrate our energies or, that, because treatment. As well, Al X: has sponsored there are so marry other areas, especially educational and cultural events, including the involvement of Arab Amer in the readings. Now ADC is formalizing American politkal system." Druze an ad flc c. practice, organi7ing a speakers spokesman Slioullayib echoes 1-Licari's bureau for area schools. sentiment, saying, "The Dr ctzes are Arab- Aniericans have met the known for being loyal to the country they challenge to survive in America's live in; we want to perfor m our industrial heartland. Now they are citizenship responsibilities." I le has found meeting the new challenge, to grow arid ADC "an inspiration," because it "acts as a unite. "ab,:e.:#.;e'mwa:Ke.s:176ZWY.4"";;::::rgaVY.:":1;`,

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In the Heart of Texas

by Jane Peterson

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OUSTON has changed a lot," notes Ruth Ann Skaff, a native daughter recently returned. After years away in the Peace Corps and graduate school, she finds, not only the city, but also her own Arab-American community much enlarged. "The texture of the community has changed a great deal," she adds. To the old established Houstonites who came from what was then known as Greater Syria at -1- the turn of the century, a new element has been added, Palestinian and Lebanese for the most part, though there are Egyptians and Iraqis as well, and smaller numbers of Saudis, Moroccans and Tunisians. "I was in Houston," laughs an Arab- American resident of Austin, "and there was an Iranian or Arab on every street corner." Houston claims more than half of the Arab-American population of Texas, about 15,000 to 20,000. It is a vast, sprawling city of more than one and a half million people and, as everyone knows, a boom town. Not only foreigners come to share in Houston's opportunities, but many Americans from other parts of the country as well, including Arab- Americans. The ground-breakers came to Houston in the 1880s from Greater Syria, part of a steady flow that continued until the early 1020s, when restrictive immigration quotas stemmed it. 61

VIMIta Faces of Houston Peddlers to Professionals Like their fellows in other American ThPlry to separate the Beirut "in more of a cities, the early Arab immigrants often curch from politics," humanitarian nature than a began as peddlers, a pursuit they managed says Father Joseph Shahada, political one." to trade in rather quickly for their own a relatively recent arrival to When plastic surgeon small business establishments. In many Houston from Allentown,Pa.Dr. Abdul-Kader Fustock cases, they journeyed back to the old In Allentown, Father volunteered his services to country to fetch . Some became Joseph worked closely with the Save Lebanon program, extremely wealthy. the Monsour Medical he felt it was "the least" he These early settlers sent most of their Center and ADC's Save could do. "But of course I many children to college. Although figures Lebanon program. He also am not satisfied. When you are not readily available, it is thought that helped organize the ADC see a few children, you at least half of the Arab-Americans in chapter in Johnstown. know hundreds more are Houston today are college graduates, and Father Joseph's still out there.' many are professionals. congregation at St. George Born and raised in Professional associations, however, are Greek Orthodox Church in Aleppo, Syria, Dr. Fustock relatively small. The Texas chapter of Houston is comprised studied and practiced Arab-American University Graduates primarily of Palestinians, medicine in France before (AAUC) has only 100 members, according Lebanese and Syrians. "The coming to Houston. He to chemist Samir Ashrawi, "though there church continues to believe went through the training are many more out there." The same is in the inalienable rights of program at St. Joseph's true of the Arab-American Medical man, and speaks out againstHospital, where he sensed Association in Texas, which has the atrocities of man and some bitterness among 103 members. political justice," says Father. .other residents: "Many Although the original Arab-Americans Joseph. He says that his ...felt I had taken the place expe:ienced discrimination at first, their interest in ADC and Middle of someone else." descendents widely report that they have East affairs was heightened not personally encountered prejudice, by the 1982 assault on --Continued page 64 though one first-generation Lebanese-- American recalls being mistaken for a Mexican as a child and thus discovering racism. Whereas the earlier arrivals were almost exclusively Christian, newer immigrants represent both the Islamic and the Christian faiths. Most newcomeis have fled political strife in the Middle East, particularly the occupation of the West Bank and the civil conflict in Lebanon. Like the earlier inunigrants, they are very industrious and successful, but they are also already highly educated and many are professionals. They tend to be a little more politically active and considerably more concerned about events in the Middle East than their predecessors. For the early group, explained one Lebanese American, Lebanon and Syria are "80 years and 7,000 miles away." The exact size of the Arab-American population is not known. Although the Bureau of the Census recently put out an ethnicity study, it is considered incomplete 62 for several reasons. "When the census came out," recalls are not recognized "as a community" in Joanne Andera, a first-generation Houston. There are prominent individuals Lebanese-American who directs Special who are not known to be Arab and many Events &Ad the Texas Folk life Festival at members of the group do not know each the Institute of Texan Culture in San other. Antonio, "we said, 'What do we put?' I ADC has done a "very creditable job" said, 'I'm gonna put Lebanese.' But a lot of in changing the situation in the last three our friends said, 'I'm Anglo,' and that's years, observes Ruth Ann Skaff, who what they put." finds it "very encouraging." But, she adds, Perhaps the highest degree of "there is still a long way to go .. . We can assimilation is seen among Arab- and should be more prominent given the Americans who joined Roman Catholic significance of the community and the and Episcopal churches. Many of these, importance of Houston." according to several Orthodox pastors with long experience in the community, no longer maintain ties with their past. 17ALTATATATAIFLT The greater part of the population, however, does cling to its roots. They are proud of their origins and take pleasure in carrying on folk traditions, particularly the food and the dances. Their social life tends to revolve around family and the Arab- American community. Festivals and Clubs A weekly radio program on Houston's station KPFT, the "Arab Hour," celebrates Arab culture, and last year's Mediterranean Festival sponsored by St. George Greek Orthodox Church enjoyed so much success that it will berepeated this year. At the University of Houston, students held a Palestinian festival in May. The Southern Federation of Syrian Lebanese American Clubs, a social rab-Americans in other Texas cities organization founded in 1931 to celebrate have much in common with those in and promote the cultural heritage within Houstontheir pattern of immigration, the community, is strong in Houston. So their prosperity, and their involvement in are the Lebanese Med Club and the family and culture. If anything, they may Jamail Club, to which members of the be slightly less visible in the community at extensive Jamail family belong. The large. Ramallah and El Nassar clubs are increasingly active, and numerous Arab Austin student organizations have sprouted on the university's central campus. Primarily Christians from Greater Houston's Arab-Americans enjoy Syria, many of Austin's early settlers came considerable success in retail from the village of Elmina near Tripoli. establisments, real estate, and oil, as well Gene Attal, director of the Seton Fund as the professions. Some of these are and a third-generation American on one represented in the "Arab-American side, second on the other, describes it as a Business Directory" put out by ADC and "laid back" community. "There is AAUG. tremendous interest in the culture," he And yet, says former ADC chapter says, "the food and the dances," but they director Ellen Mansour, Arab-Americans focus on it, not politics. 63

1; 5 Faces of Houston, among Arab-Americans in The visibility of Arab-Americans, who continued Houston, introducing now number about 1200, is undoubtedly Dr. Fustock helped newcomers to the older higher than it was 20 years ago. Noted found the local chapter of residents. anthropologist Elizabeth Fernea recalls the AAMA and also served Ms. Drooby and her arriving in Austin in 1966 and venturing as president. He finds the husband, Dr. Ala Drooby, forth with her husband to find the local organization professionally left Beirut in 1973, Syrian club. They found it, only after and socially valuable. He perceiving that the civil great difficultybehind an unmarked praises the role of ADC in strife would worsen. They door. the community and feels settled briefly in Australia, Dallas-Ft. Worth Like Houston, the Dallas-Ft. Worth area has attracted many of the recent Arab-American immigrants as well as the internal migrants, Arab-Americans from 4- other parts of the United States. About 2800 live in Dallas and Ft. Worth and the "mid-cities." Early immigrants came to Dallas from Greater Syria, beginning with a small group of families who travelled from Marjayoun via Oklahoma City. More recent arrivals stem from modern Syria, Jordan, and Egypt; Dallas-Ft. Worth is also home to the largest number of Palestinians in the state outside of Houston, perhaps 50% of the total Arab- American community. There is also a small number of Chaldeans and Assyrians. "People fin the community] do not Dr. Abdul-Kader Fustock, then came to America for know each other," observes Father born and raised in Syria, feels the sake of their three McLuckie, the Orthodox pastor. He Arab-Americans need to co- children. describes the churches as the primary operate more. Dr. Fustock is a Ms. Drooby has seen an social centers in the community. The plastic surgeon in Houston. improvement in the level of Islamic Center is primarily Pakistani. understan&ing, but says "it's There is also a mosque in Ft. Worth, and that Arab-Americans need no: fasf enough. Maybe I both centers offer instruction in Arabic. to cooperate more. want too much. I think that According to Samir Pasha, who started "If we want to care the war has made people a chapter of the NAAA in Dallas in about each other, we have aware that there are other November 1983, Arab-Americans there to know about each other," people and that these people tend to socialize informally. Perhaps 30% says Nabila Drooby. Widely suffer, but I think it's a are married to non-Arab Americans. known in the community asshallow awareness." One interested observer sees a great one who gives of herself, Ms. Drooby would also need for ADC: "If people in this area Ms. Drooby sees her role in like to see greater knew of ADC, they would recruit the five years she and her awareness among Arab- themselves." Others, Palestinians who family have lived in Americans of their own have lived in the area for 15 years or Houston as one of roots. "We have a more, state that they have never "facilitator," helping to wonderful heritage of three experienced discrimination. further understanding of major faiths, with a wisdom Dallas, like other urban centers in her culture among which evolves from these Texas, boasts a number of prominent Americans. She also served faiths ..We have much entrepreneurs, oilmen, lawyers and 64informally as intermediary to offer." doctors. Dr. Mich el DeBakey, a cardiovascular surgeon of national honorary king in the annual LULAC prominence, is the son of Lebanese (League of United American immigrants. was well Communities) festival last year. known as a leader in aviation, both in the Citing other prominent members of government and the private sector, when the community, Ms. Andera points out, he became the father-in-law of King "Every one of these men had a woman Hussein of Jordan. pushing them. .all the wives were working in the kitchen when their husbands started." Mr. Karam's wife, El Paso Josephine, actually ran a tamale factory before the restaurant was opened, and it El Paso's Arab-American community was her brother, Joseph Curry, who The Maronite comprises roughly3,000people, or less invented the machine for stuffing tamales. Christians of San than 1% of the city's total. Most arrived Ms. Andera, who speaks Arabic, says Antonio, who between1914and1921via Mexico, but a that many of her peers do not. She recalls comprise some 80 number came in the last decade. It is a their disappointment over the refusal of percent of the tight community, according to its leaders, their parents to teach them the language. Arab-American and yet assimilated to a high degree. Recently, there was an uproar in the community in that Father John Elias, pastor of St. George Maronite congregations over attempts to city, formed their Antiochian Orthodox Church, estimates switch to English, a shift that was made parish and 600-700Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians and long ago in many Orthodox churches. A established their Palestinians in his congregation. In the compromise resolved the conflict, and church in 1925. larger community there are people from now the liturgy is celebrated in English Photo. n'he Syrians and Egypt, , and . but the consecration is inAramaic. Lebanese in Tea as- There is a new mosque in El Paso, and local Catholic and Protestant churches are attended by some Arab-Americans. Father Elias estimates that80%of the community are engaged in business; the rest are professionals. Attempts to launch chapters of the Southern Federation and NAAA have been unsuccessful because, thinks Father Elias, "of the crisis in the Middle East." St. George's holds a festival to celebrate Arab culture each year, and Father Elias hopes to establish an Arab cultural center someday.

San Antonio

San Antonio's Arab-American population is unique in that it is closely connected with the Hispanic community. "All of us speak Spanish," says Ms. Andera. "My mother learned Spanish before she learned English." The Lebanese immigrants who arrived in San Antonio around the turn of the century settled in the city's west end, a Hispanic district. "Half the Mexican restaurants are owned by Lebanese," adds Ms. Andera. One of the city's most prominent restaurateurs, Ralph Karam, was voted 65 04;":";zirov,Azdhlwx.4;0614VeNreandly.eaVy.0,1=41"..rizior4rx 1611161AA

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lli JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

As Salaam Aleikum,

by Anthony Toth

F a Jacksonville, Fla., sandwich shop owner delivers a molass?s-smooth "Y'all come back :le 0.0111.0111t, now," as you walk out his door, lyr don't be too sure that he's a Floridian from way back. His ethnic rootsmay just as well be in the south of Lebanon as the Deep South because this North Florida city has the largest Arab-American community in the southeast. Residents estimate that in the metro area of half a million people, there are between15,000 and20,000Arab-Americans. Jacksonville's Arab-American community is as varied in composition as any in the United States. Approximately 70percent of the Arab-American population there traces its ancestry to Syria or Lebanon, and another20percent to Palestine, mostly from Ramallah. The remaining 10 percent come from other Arab countries, among them Iraq, Jordan, 11.1. Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Arab-Americans have built social institutions that preserve some of the traditions of the "old country," but they have assimilated and are an integral part of the Jacksonville community. Some Syrians have family trees whose roots reach back a hundred vt. ars in the history of this large north Florida city. In 1968, Duval and Jacksonville governments merged into one city which boasts the largest geographic area in the US and has a population of540,000. Jacksonville Arab-Americans estimate that members of their communityown and 67 Faces of )ecksonville operate between 300 and 400 commercial establishments. They are prominent in the restaurant business, real estate, insurance, CrOMToney's been president of the law, medicine, construction and a host of grandfather was among Salaam Club and remains enterprises that have fueled the area's the first dozen Syrian an active member. economyincluding politics. immigrants living in Before moving to In 1915, Tommy Hazouri's parents Jacksonville in 1895, and Jacksonville, because he had came to Jacksonville, where his father Tom and his children have "enough of the North," he operated a grocery store. In 1974, Hazouri a keen awareness of worked at the Ford Motor became the first Florida legislator of Arab their roots. Company near Detroit, like descent. After his re-election to the Tom's grandfather many other Arab- Florida House in1976,he became the retired in 1927 after Americans. Abraham's youngest chairman of a standing House building the city's largest committee.

wholesale produce :1 w- faU40 Jack Demetree's construction firm has company. The produce contracts for tens of millions of dollars in business was sold and building projects all over the southeast. Tom's father went into the George Helow, whose parents emrated retail business. Tom from Lebanon in1908and then moved to continues the family's Jacksonville in1932,is now president of a involvement in the chain of almost 30 convenience stores in commercial activky of the southeast. Jacksonville by running Toney's Sandwich Shop. Peddlers Find a Home Before buying the shop six Father Nicholas Dahdal ministers to the Antiochian Orthodox parish of years ago, Tom worked in St. George. The church h a nucleus Although the first Arab immigrants the accounting department for Arab-American cultural and settled in Jacksonville nearly a century of Seaboard Coastline social activities. ago, little has been written about the Railroad. Photo. Tony Toth origins and growth of the community. Tom has been active in father came to the United The most recent and comprehensive Jacksonville's Arab- States from Syria in 1905 to treatment of this subject is a study, now American community as earn enough to bring his in the process of publication, by Gladys president of the Salaam wife over after World War Howell, a former Jacksonville resident Club, and sat on its board I. Abraham's three children who taught sociology at East Carolina of directors for 13 years. Heare grown now, and don't University in Greenville, N.C. Reporter says, "My heritage is one participate in the Salaam Kerry Duke related some of her findings thing I am very proud of," Club's family activities like in an article that appeared in the Florida though he speaks little they used to, but Abraham Times-Union in1982. Arabic. "If I'm in the midst speculates that when they Howell reports that Arab immigrants of a group (of Arabic begin raising their own came to Jacksonville in three waves. The speaking) people, I can pick families, they will go back. pioneer group arrived between 1890 and it up," he says. "My father Mudelellah Elias was 1920,a second group came between1920 always said 'Talk to me in born in Ramallah in 1922 and the end of World War II, and a third, English." and has worked as a nurse consisting primarily of Palestinians, began After running a small for much of her lifefour to immigrate in1948following the construction firm, Big Dot years at Jacksonville's St. creation of Israel. Builders, for 37 years, JoudiLuke Hospital and 10 years The earliest Arab settlers formed the Abraham is preparing to at Methodist Hospital, cultural nexus of the Jacksonville Arab- turn over the reins to his where she works now. American community. Most were son. Abraham contributed Before coming to the Christians who came to the United States his time and skill.to help United States in 1960, she seeking greater economic and religious build St. George Orthodox was head nurse at an freedom. But why Jacksonville? Church. "We all pitched in Amman hospital. One version of the story is that an to build the church," he Arab who owned a household wares b8 says. Abraham has also Continued page 70 business put new immigrants to work 70 peddling his merchandise around the Around the turn of the century, many country, with the recommendation that Arab-Americans still spoke Arabic and had Jacksonville might be a good place to not fully assimilated. When the Great Fire wind up. of 1901 destroyed nearly 2,400 buildings The story has a chance of being more and left 10,000 homeless, Arab-Americans than apocryphal. Many immigrants did were among those who cleared away the begin life in the United States as peddlers, mountains of debris and helped rebuild traveling from town to town, learning the the charred remains of the city. language and earning money to provide a life for their families. And Jacksonville's Societies and Clubs balmy climate is similar to that of the regions the immigrants left behind. To promote cooperation and Hanna J. Batteh, a Jacksonville resident fellowship in the Arab-American for more than 30 years, began his life in community, to help new members adjust this country as a traveling salesman. and to perform charitable works, the Batteh was born 80 years ago in Syrian Ladies Society was established in Ramallah. Two of his older brothers had 1910. Two years later the Syrian- come to the United States and taken jobs American Club of Jacksonville was selling rugs, linens and other household organized with nearly 50 charter items for the Ramallah Trading Company members, according to an article in the of New York, which was operated by MaylJune 1978 issue of Jacksonville cousins of the Battehs. Hanna joinedis Magazine. Descendents of these Sandwich shops brothers in 1923 and himself became a founderswho bore family names such as are the bread and traveling salesman. Batteh said, "I've been Abraham, Barket, David, Elias, Kouri, butter for many through thirty-five states." In 1953 he said Musleh, Saba, Zahrastill contribute to Lebanese and he "got tired and retired" to Jacksonville, every aspect of life in Jacksonville. Palestinian where his brothers had already settled. For the first 20 years, club members businessmen in When J.K. David, Gladys Howell's opened their meetings by singing the Jacksonvi:le father, arrived in Jacksonville in 1899 "America the Beautiful" in Arabic. In 1927 area. The Desert there were already 10 or 15 Arab- the club moved into its first building in Sand, pictured American families living there. Assad downtown Jacksonville, which the mayor below, is owned Sabbag, who owned a store called the called "the most modern building in by a Lebanese New York Grocery Company, let David Jacksonville." By 1932, J.K. David became family. peddle trinkets and small wares in front of a "prominent Syrian of the city and Photo Tonv 1 oh his store. Howell recalled that her father "arrived at time and was able to survive on that." Sabbag and David became partners for a time, and then David struck out on his own and founded the Duval Ice and Coal Company in 1925. Stories like David's and Batteh's multiplied through the years. A young man from a village would be sent to the United States to work as a peddler or tradesman, saving his money to bring othei members of his family to live and work in his new community. Japour Toney told the Times Union that his father and two brothers worked around the clock at the Cumberland Lumber Company. They rented a room with one bed, and as each brother finished -111. a shift he would wake the other, send him off to work,and take his turn in the bed. "The bed never did cool off," Toney said. 69 Faces of Jacksonville, became one of the founders popular among Syrians and Americans continued of the Ramallah-American alike," according to The Syrian World. The Club. He opened yet weekly newspaper, the Jacksonville Elias is an active another grocery store and American, praised a speech delivered by J.K. member of the Ramallah- ran it until his retirement David at the Syrian-American Club's 20th American Club and St. in 1973. anniversary celebration. "Mr. David's George parish. She came to How has he spent the remarks breathe the purest patriotism and Jacksonville to join her past 11 years? "I've been devotion...The really significant thing to sister, who had been here doing what my wife tells remember is that these people exemplify since 1945, so that she me," Sallah says with a in their daily lives the aspirations which could earn money to bring laugh. "I do odds and ends Mr. David has so fittingly described." The the rest of her family to thearound the house, run article went on to say, "America and area. When her father errands at the store, visit American institutions will be forever safe started a grocery business, the kids." at the hands of such as they." she worked in the store for For Nellie Akel, During World War ll the Syrian- 10 years. Jacksonville has "always American Club turned its building over to the USO and American Red Cross. In the late 1950s, the increase in immigration of 041CAIN., Lebanese, Palestinians and Arabs of other nationalities so altered the composition of # 4 the club that its members renamed it the v4r-r-P' Salaam Club. Today, under its roof, other Arab-American groups, such as the Molaka Club, the Fahocha Club and the Syrian Ladies Auxillary, operate independently. Arab-Americans of any national origin can join the Salaam Club. Its building, N which occupies a large piece of land on ;7N1wf jerilliggr .14 Beach Boulevard, is the center of many community activities. The recreational facilities include a basketball court, tennis courts and a playground. According to one Nadia Michaels (left) and Ann Duffy display handcrafts at the club leader, Danny Abdullah, membership annuai Middle Eab:5wn festival which attrads thousands of now stands at between 200 and 300 local residents. families. Abdullah says the club's hall can seat 300 people for picnics and dinners. "I came to this country been home." Her family left Once a month, the women make in 1931 during the Jerusalem in 1947 when she hundreds of pounds of beshweb to Depression, so I had to was 11. They traveled first serve at a club dinner. The skills and create my own job," says to Texas, then to Florida. traditions of preparing Arabic food are Abraham Sallah, a Akel married in 1954 passed to the younger women from their Ramallah-born resident of and had four children. She elders. Jacksonville. First Sallah and her husband spoke Since 1966 the club has provided peddled door to door, then Arabic with their children scholarships to promising college-bound he opened up a restaurant or at least they tried. Akel's students. And every year the club holds a in Little Rock, Arkansas, in husband was a pharmacist. forum at which members can discuss 1938. About a year later he He died in 1970, leaving issues with political candidates. moved to Macon, Georgia, Akel to make sure the where he owned simultan- children were educated. eously a restaurant, a Akel succeeded admirably. From Ramallah to Jacksonville grocery store and an ice The oldest is now an cream shop. optometrist, and the others While early Arab immigrants came Sallah came to are studying law and pre- from towns and villages in Syria and 70 Jacksonville in 1947 and med. LebanonHoms, Nabek, Minyara Akkar 7 2: and Jezzinemost of the later Arab immigrants came from the Palestinian town of Ramallah. Jacksonville residents who trace their roots to Ramallah have two centers of social activity: the Ramallah-American Club and St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church. These , organizations together have hosted several Arab festivals that have attracted ,...... :i it thousands of local residentsArab and non-Arab alike. Th e. last festival, in MIL October 1982, featured a three-day exhibition of the work of Arab craftsmen, artists, musicians and dancers. St. George Church hosts parish picnics and other social events for the Orthodox comn unity. St. George's pastor,the Reverend Father Nicholas Dahdal, proudly said, "All our traditions are kept alive." In the baptism and wedding ceremonies, "we Jacksonville's use the same songs, same folk dancesand club," Batteh said, "but after a while Palestinian same arrangements, with the exceptionof people lose interest. In California they community fixed marriages." teach the young ones Arabic, and in gathers at the The groom at a Palestinian wedding is Detroit, but not here any more." He Ramallah carried on the shoulders of the male mused, 'It's nice to know your language." American club for revellers to the music of the and other wedding Arabic instruments. The older women receptions, surround the bride and dance with Arabs from Other Lands dinners and other swords. To an outsider, Dahdal said, this celebrations. The may look like a riot. Jacksonville is also home to modern building St. George parish was established in immigrants from Iraq, Jordan and Egypt. is nestled in quiet 1973, and Dahdal, himself a native of The parents of George Ossi, who runs Jacksonville Ramallah, came to Jacksonville in 1979. Of Ossi's Apothecary, came from Mosul, suburbs under tall approximately 300 families in the Iraq. As many as 30 families in pine trees. Orthodox community with ties to the Jacksonville trace their origins to Iraq. In Photo Irony Toth church, Dahdal said at least half are active addition, students from all over the Arab participants in parish activities. world study at area colleges and The Ramallah-American Club, which universities. Many remain in the 'inited is affiliated with the American Federation States after they have completed their of Ramallah, Palestine, occupies a schooling. beautifully landscaped modern building in Fred Hassan and John Rukab, another a quiet suburban setting. Club leaderFred Ramallah Club member, are active ADC Hassan estimates there are just over 200 leaders in Jacksonville and are busy members. Members gather for picnics, organizing the diverse elements of the wedding receptions, community Arab-American community into celebrations, or in small groups just to committees for media monitoring and chat. Hanna Batteh occasionally joins his membership recruitment. The Jacksonville friends at the club to reminisce about their community hosted a founding ADC event past in Ramallah and to play pinochle and in 1981 featuring National Chairman whist. Batteh recalls the 300 dunurns of James Abourezk. The Jacksonville ADC orange groves he and his cousins worked chapter held a 1982 fundraiser for that are now given over to other owners. Congressman Paul Findley and promoted Ramallah elders talk about how to a speaking , attended by some keep their cultural traditions alive. "There 350 people, by noted Israeli human rights used to be classes to teach Arabic at the advocate Professor Israel Shahak. 71

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The Pride of Reawakening

by Mary Ann Fay

OHAM Darwish of Portland made her first trip to Lebanon in 1969,six years before the outbreak of the Civil War and13 years before the Israeli invasion. On the apparently placid, cosmopolitan surface of Lebanese life in1969,there was nothing to arouse Darwish's political consciousness or sharpen her awareness of herself as a woman of Arab heritage. In Lebanon in1969,said Darwish, she taught English, lived with English women and felt more American than Lebanese. Then, last year, Darwish returned to Lebanon as part of her work toward a master's degree in intercultural management. For Darwish, the trip would be a turning point in her life both personally and politically. In the Palestinian refugee camps of Beirut and southern Lebanon, Darwish worked with the women and taught English. In southern Lebanon, she returned to the villages her parents had left in1936when they emigrated to the United States. At the Bourj al-Barajnah camp in Beirut, where she lived for a while, Darwish saw Lebanon through the eyes of Palestinians who, without their fighters, felt helpless and defenseless when the camp was shelled. At the Shatila camp, she saw Lebanon through the survivors of last year's massacre. In the south, where she stayed with her aunts, she saw the Lebanon of Saad Haddad and the Israeli occupiers. 73

1,1111 1'1,1111ml inntnIton (IIII4.1 and \ ndol. N., In, 75 Faces of Portland Before she went to Lebanon, said Darwish, she believed she knew more by Paul Rask and Mary Ann Fay about the country and the political situation than the average American. "When I got there, I realized how little I WisoHALILAtiyeh, born than an immigrant's scrawl. knew," she said. "My whole political more than 95 years Today he speaks his awakening came out of this trip. It really ago, in the adopted tongue with barely changed my life." sunparched village of Amar a trace of Arabic accent. Darwish left Lebanon in September al Husn, Syria, was one of In 1916, jobless but when heavy fighting was renewed around the countless millions imbued with American the capital. Since she returned to Portland, whose personal stories patriotic fervor, Atiyeh she has been giving presentations to became American 20th enlisted and was trained at various groups about her experiences in century history. Atiyeh Fort Slocum, New York. Lebanon. became an American When the 6th Calvary was And she is determined to return to doughboy during World dispatched for overseas Lebanon, to live and work there and to War I suffered in America's combat, Khalil Atiyeh become fluent in Arabic. "In spite of the Great Depression, lent a remained in the United harshness of life there," said Darwish, hand 3S a defense worker States. Convoluted military "there's also a warmth, a connection during the second World thinking concluded that between people that really got to me." War, raised a family and because he had been born in lived long enough to share Syria, then under Turkish in the pride of seeing a Continued page 76 Personal Journeys cousin become Governor of the State of Oregon. In the Arab-American community of There is still a bitterness Portland, there are others like Darwish born of frustration when assimilated and integrated into Atiyeh recalls leaving Beirut mainstream American societywho have in 1902. His country was made their own personal journeys under the oppressive yoke towards a rediscovery of their roots and of the decaying Ottoman their heritage. Empire. America offered For Darwish, the journey was physical. escape. For others, the journey is a spiritual and "When I put my feet on emotional one that can begin for a variety the ship in Beirut, I raised of reasons--political events in the Middle my hand up like this. I said, East, an incident of anti-Arab racism or a 'God, don't let me see this craving for identity and roots in a rootless country anymore.' The oldest member of American society. AndKhalilAtiyeh Portland's Arab-American In Portland, as in other cities with never did. community, Khalil Atiyeh, 95, sizeable Arab-American communities, this He arrived at Ellis Island poses with a great grandchild. Arab-American re-awakening is also a at the age of 12 in the Born in Amar al Husn, Syria, product of the new wave of immigrants company of older cousins, Atiyeh immigrated to who brought with them a well-developed became part of the young Oregon in 1906. Since then sense of Arab nationalism and an assertive country's notorious child he has watched his country- pride in their heritage. labor force in a cigar factory men write a new chapter of Nadia Kahl, a second-generation Arab- in Allentown, Pennsylvania the Great American Story, American, believes that the attitude of the and searched out starting from humble begin- Arab-American community has changed opportunity in the raw nings to where his cousin, significantly. "They used to be ashamed. timberlands of Oregon. It Victor Atiyeh, rose to They spoke Arabic in private not in was in Portland that he become Oregon's first public," said Kahl. "They were afraid attended night school to governor of Arab descent. people would think they were gypsies or learn to read and write Still hale and vigorous, he dirty Turks." English. He forced himself and his wife, Aniese, con- Arab immigrants began to arrive in 74 to write English with more tinue to reside in Portland. Portland sometime in the 1890s and

713 Graduation Day

Graduation from grade school was an event which many Syrian immigrants looked forward to with pride for their children, especially if the child was born in the "old country." Typical is the graduation of Aziz (Ike) Azorr. Born in Syria, he immigrated to Portland in 1920 at age six. Though he spoke no English at the time, he entered Arleta school, By the time he graduated in 1928 (3rd row from bottom, 3rd from right), Aziz had "skipped" a grade and graduated near the top of his class. Now de- ceased,A-Z2-MTA had been a labor 4, zz4 relations mediator , it& for the federal government. 75

BEST COPYAVAILABLE Faces of Portland, St. johns, other Syrian and continued to arrive in relatively large continued Lebanese immigrants numbers until the 1920s. When the settled. number of immigrants was reduced to a rule, Atiyeh might be a The first social club in mere trickle during the 1920s, this was security risk if he was sent Portland was called the not because the Arabs already there did to France. Atiyeh accepted Syrian Club. Atiyeh believes not want to bring over family members his lot. He was assigned to it started in 1906 or 1908, they had left behind or that their family the 5th Calvary Regiment but he's not really sure. He members did not want to join them. at Fort Ringo, Texas until is quite certain, however, Restrictive laws attempted to preserve the he was discharged in 1920. that George Atiyeh, his ethnic homogeneity of American society The Portland Arab- cousin and father of and were directed primarily against American community of theOregon's present governor, immigrants from southern and eastern early 1900s was closely knitVictor Atiyeh, was one of Europe and the Middle East. along the lines of villages ofthe founders. George was The drastic reduction in immigration origin. Khalil's cousins, one of the few educated coupled with the generally intolerant George and Aziz Atiyeh, men in the community. He attitude of Americans towards ethnic and had already established served as community racial minorities threw the Arab-American themselves in Southeast banker and dispenser of community back upon itself, hastened Portland as Portland's advice. The club, which assimilation and caused a decline in spoken leading oriental rug attracted most Arab- Arabic and the Arabic press. Kahl, whose merchants. Others opened speaking men, met at the parents left Syria in 1950 and whose grocery stores or brother Sami Jr. was born there, established peddling routes. remembers an incident in the life ef her Ten miles to the north, in Continued page78 family that is illustrative of the prevailing attitude towards ethnicity and the desire of hyphentated Americans to preserve their heritage. Kahl's parents spoke Arabic at home and because her older brother could not speak English well, he was held back a year in school. "The teacher told my par nts never to speak Arabic to us, only Engush. So, they stopped speaking Arabic to us," she said. "My father wanted to visviE H/140 protest but my mother said the teacher must know what's best." ORIENTAL RUGS As a student at Portland State University, said Kahl, she was classed with the foreign students even though she was born in the United States.

A New Generation

Immigrants trickled in over the years, with the largest wave coming after 1965 when immigration laws were revised. The father of Oregon's present governor stands in front of This new wave coincided with the black his newly established store (circa 1900). George Atiyeh was civil rights movement, which was making one of the first Syrian immigrants to settle in Portland. He Americans generally more tolerant of became one of the most successful merchants in the city and ethnic and racial diversity. served as counselor and guide to the Syrians who followed The new generation of immigrants is him to Portland. His son, Victor, is currently in his second proud not ashamed of its heritage, said term as Oregon's governor, the first Arab-American to ever Kahl, and this has had a spill-over effect 76attain a state's highest politkal office. on the community as a whole. In addition, said Kahl, their arrival increased the size club to make you feel like you belong." of the community and ended its sense of For another thing, said Kahl, the isolation. community's heightened political "Before the 1960s, the community was consciousness has sharpened political small," said Kahl. "It's much easier to be divisions, particulary between the city's proud of your background if you're not Syrian and Maronite communities. alone." Kahl, who is 30, said she has been In Kahl's opinion, the re-awakened active in the Arab-American community ethnic pride of the community and its since shf! was 12. She believes her heightened political consciousness have activism is due to the importance her had some negative as well as positive parents attached to preserving the effects. For one thing, said Kahl, she has family's cultural heritage and to being seen a decline in activism in institutions involved in the community. like the Arab-American Community Paul Rask, a third-generation Arab- Center. American, is another community activist "When the community was small we who is president of the Arab-American had to rl ng to each other. We didn't have Community Center and co-ordinator of anyone else," said Kahl. "This is probably the metropolitan Portland ADC chapter. why the community was so close and so Rask's family settled in Butte, Montana active. When you're in small numbers and in the 1890s because at that time, said you don't have your family, you need a Rask, Butte was a boom-town of about

The first really high-society affair for the property management business, he and Portland Arab-American community was Mrs. Bitar still preside over some of the 1931 wedding of Robert A. Bitar to Portland's most publicized social events. Mabel Asmar. Bitar has been honorary The wedding banquet pictured here was in counsul for Lebanon in Portland for more the historic Portland Hotel. than 25 years. Though semi-retired from his

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4.106 " r. 5. lb4; le we 411 .. ""1."0111111.1.--- Faces of Portland, permits, he stops in at their 100,000 people. Another part of the continued modest bungalow and pays family moved to Portland in the1940s. his respects. According to Rask, the original Arab- house of each member Today, the community American immigrants arrived in Portland every two weeks. Each in Portland includes second in the1890sfrom Syria. One of the first successive meeting site wasand third generation Arab- was George Atiyeh, father of the state's selected in alphabetical Americans like Richard governor, Victor. order. Unis, the first Arab- George Atiyeh was the brother of Today, the club has American to become a judge Aziz Elias Atiyeh, the first person to leave gone through a in Oregon, as well as a new the village of Amar in Syria for the metamorphosis. After first generation of Arab- United States. Aziz Atiyeh arrived in World War II, it was knownAmericans like Farida Allentown, Pa. in1895and others from as the Syrian-Lebanese- Derhalli, a businesswoman the village, including his brother, George, American Club. Today, it isand president of the state's soon followed him. Eventually, however, called the Arab-American United Nations Association. George left Allentown and settled in Community Center and Unis is the son of a Portland. Atiyeh approves of the newBohemian mother and a The village of Aram- is one of30or so name, for immigrants fromLebanese father who was in Syria's Christian Valley north of the Syria and Lebanon no 14 years old when he came Lebanese border. Dominating the hills longer make up the entire to the United States in 191.2 overlooking the valley is the centuries-old fabric of Portland's Arab with his grandfather. Only French Crusader castle, theKarkdes community. There are six months after their Chevaliers. others from Palestine, arrival in Salt Lake City, the After several centuries of relative Jordan, Egypt, , Saudigrandfather died. Probably isolation that allowed the villagers to Arabia and Iraq. by falsifying his age, Unis practice their religion in peace, the village Atiyeh and Aniese suspects, his father joined was penetrated by the outside world in Haddad, who also came the army during World War the form of missionaries of the American from his village, were I and became a U.S. citizen. Presbyterian Church. The missionaries, married in 1928 in Cuba. When he was growing who arrived in the1890s,offered the Except for a brief time in up, said Unis, the Arab- villagers a Western-style education and Allentown, Pa. where the American Portland was so tales of a different and more prosperous Depression of the 1930s small it could fit into one of way of life across the seas. Today, there shut the doors of the local parks for a picnic. are more men and women in the U.S. and employment, he and his The community was also South America who can trace their roots wife returned to Portland, struggling to survive, back to Amar than there are in the village. where both of them still especially during the hard reside, healthy and times of the Depression. vigorous. "All of us were taught Rich Community Life Daily they can be to work hard," said Unis. To seen, walking briskly support his family, Unis' The community that the first together to the father worked as a ditch- generation of Arab immigrants built in supermarket, several blocksdigger and in restaurants Portland today numbers about7,000in away. Their two freezers and eventually became a the metropolitan area, including are always brimming with construction foreman. Unis Vancouver, Washington. A few of the Arabic food prepared by himself worked his way original immigrants, like Halil Atiyeh, both of them, ready at an through seven years of have lived to see their hard work and instant whenever their college and law school at willingness to sacrifice for the next chidren, grandchildren, Portland State University. generation crowned with success because great-grandchildren or Unis was the first Portland's Arab-American community is other guests drop in. Lebanese-American to be predominantly middle-class, prosverous They have been admitted to the bar in and professional. honored guests at Oregon and to become a Portland's Arab-American community Governor Atiyeh's two judge. He has been on the has given the state its Republican inaugurations. When the governor, Victor Atiyeh, and the city two 78 governor's busy schedule Continued nal page circuit court judges, Phillip Abraham and 80 Derhalli is the mother of Richard Unis. The community also Faces of Portland, includes a member of the State Racing continued two sons, one a landscape architect in Muncie, Commission, Sami Kahl; his daughter, and another a pre-dentistry Nadia, the Arab-American community's bench for 17 years as a co-ordinator for Folkfest of Portland, Inc., municipal, district and student at Oregon State University, and a daughter an umbrella organizationof 60 ethnic circuit court judge. president of the Farida Derhalli, the who is married and living in groups; Farida Derhalli, Bahrain. Active in the 1 Oregon Chapter of the United Nations; ighter of a Palestinian prominent businessman Daniel J. Hanna, father from Jaffa, grew up Portland community, Derhalli is the president of owner of Hanna CarWash Industries; and in Ramallah and has been in Studies Portland since 1969. the U.N. Association, served Dr. Nohad Toulan, dean of Urban for two years on the World and Development at Portland State Derhalli was educated in University. Dr. Toulan has been appointed co-ordinator of an international team of experts developing a masterplan for the Muslim holy city of . About 80 percent of the Arab- American community traces its origins to Syria, Lebanon and Palestine and the remainder to Egypt, Iraq and Libya. The community also includes between 400and 500 students at Portland StateUniversity. There are two mosques in Portland and three Christian denominations Syrian Orthodox, Maronite and Syriac. The Orthodox community worships at St. George Antiochian Church and the Maronite at St. Sharbell's. The Syrian community at present does not have a church building or a priest. The home of Charles (Khalil) and Mary Isaacs(circa 1912), the The heart of the Arab-American perhaps following the baptisms of their three sons, community's cultural life is the Arab- youngsters in white. The Isaacs immigrated tothe U.S. from the century, and lived in American Community Center, formerly Amar al Hum, Syria near the turn of the Syrian Club and then the Syrian- Allentown, Pa. for a decade before moving toPortland. Their Lebanese Club. Some of the center's home had been open to young Syrian men,newly arrived in found work, members are intensely interested in the community, who boarded there until they preserving the traditions of thehomeland, obtained their own lodgings or married. said Rask, while others are "totally Yankee." Europe and the United Affairs Council and has In addition, the Arab-American _worked with the local community has participated in Folkfest States and spent 15 years Council of Churches. since its inception in 1975. According to working for American and Kahl, Folkfebt began as an ethnic festival international companies in As a professional Bicentennial. and other countries woman and a community to celebrate the country's activist, Derhalli has The first festival occurred in 1976 and in the Middle East as a encountered some Folkfest has continued ever since. marketing specialist. Although Portland shares many of the This year, Derhalli will difficulties. "Being a professional is difficult for characteristics of other Arab-American see one of her dreams come communitiespredominantly Christian, true when she opens the all women," said Derhalli. boutique she has named "As an active, involved predominantly Syrian and Lebanese, Arab- middle-class and professionalit would be "The Penniless Aristocrat." woman, it's harder in typical. As Paul "It's been the dream of my American circles because erroneous to describe it as they expect me not to speak Rask said when describing Portland's life," said Derhalli. "I've been Arab-American community, "It is as working for others for so out. But I think I have gained their respect." 79 diverse as America." long."

81.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94"; 44"a61:7;":"^:16-16:'""dildQr/NiZiliSVNIN

Arab Culture in the Bay Area

By Randa Sifri

Vr1ITH a climate similar ito the Mediterranean countries, San Francisco has been attracting Arabs since the early 1900's. Many came directly from the Middle East, but a large number have moved from Detroit, New York, and Canada in search of jobs. The community is growing rapidly and now nears 40,000. Although the immigration patterns among the different nationalities are similar, certain groups predominate in the Bay Area. As with most Arab communities in the United States, the Syrian-Lebanese were the pioneers. Lebanese are reported to have arrived in Oakland in 1906-1907, and once they were settled, relatives and fellow villagers soon followed. They came as merchants and peddlers, and were quick to set up businesses on their new land. Many continued the orange-growing traditions they had left in the Middle East. This first wave of immigration, which included Orthodox and Melkites as well as a few Palestinians, lasted until the early 1920s. The inter-war period did not bring a change in the Arab-American community. It was not until post-WWII that the second major wave was to begin. Primarily since 1948 and 1967, the Bay Area has witnessed an influx of another Arab group, the Palestinians. Fleeing political persecution at home, many Palestinians :_ame to seek an education or simply tG improve their lives. Today their 81

Photo 'andor Balaton! F3 Faces of San Francisco occupations vary. They are professionals and they are laborers. Many have entered business, evidence being the vast number of Palestinian grocers in the Bay Area. 1r)VtAY "Nebbr continues her work for the Numbering near 20,000, the Palestinians Stephen spent most Arab-American community. comprise over 50-percent of the Arab- of her life on the East Coast Born in Dahour- American community, with almost 30 and did not come to the San Chware, Lebanon, Father percent of these Palestinians coming from Francisco Bay Area until Paul Muawwad came to the Ramallah alone. 1970. May's mother is United States in 1962 as a During the 1960s, the Assyrians and Syrian and her father is student. He received his Yemenis also began establishing the roots Lebanese. She grew up in degree in theology from Manchester, N.H. Although Catholic University in 1970 she fondly remembers her and set out for Portland, Manchester home as a Oregon, to establish "Grand Central Station that missions for the Maronite was open to any Arab who community. Within seven needed help," May's dedica- years, Fr. Paul was not only tion to her work did not successful in starting a leave time to become active church in Portland, he also in the Arab-American com- established churches in munity. She received her and Utah and undergraduate degree in started missions in San Jose, sociology and psychology Stockton and Las Vegas. from the University of After arriving in San North Carolina. Francisco in 1978, he After doing some became involved in the graduate work in Chicago, Arab-American community she moved to Washington, and established Our Lady of DC, where she married and Lebanon Church in Milbrae bore five children. She in 1981. Fr. Paul's open worked for the National personality attracted Institutes of Health and the 'worshipers of other of their communities. Whereas the National Institute of Child denominations to his parish. Syrian-Lebanese and the Palestinians are Health and Human Develop- He has since left San located all over the Bay Area, the ment unti 1970. May was Francisco and is now the Assyrians are concentrated largely in working for the NICHD pastor of St. George in Turlock and Modesto, 100 miles east of during the 1967 War, and Rhode Island. Though he San Francisco. The first settlers remembers hearing anti- has been in Rhode Island immigrated in 1914, but it was the later Arab remarks. It was at since August 1983, he says wave of immigration that increased their that time she "became an there is no place in the numbers to the 10,000 they are today. instant Arab." world like San Francisco. Turlock and Modesto are agriculture May's many accomplish- "The people are great," he areas, and consequently Assyrians went ments resulted in a job at laughs. "I really did leave into farming. Now, many are in blue- and the Stanford Research Insti- my heart in San Francisco." white-collar jobs and are entering into tute, where she worked for Au Saleh came to the business. Sam Lazar, an Assyrian from ten years as the Senior United States in the 1950s Iraq, has noticed a drop in immigration Social Psychologist. She also for an education. A North since the Iran-Iraq War: "Now Assyrians became involved in the Yemeni, he arrived in Los are coming only by way of Europe," he Palestine Human Rights Angeles in 1954 and worked says. Campaign while in Palo his way through school. Immigration laws have affected the Alto, and the American-Arab After receiving his bachelor's Yemenis as well, but they still maintaina Anti-Discrimination Com- degree in vocational and significant community. Coming mostly mittee. May is now retired. from North Yemen in the late 1960s and 82 She enjoys poetry and --Continued page 84 19705, they today number near 2,000. The first Yemenis came from Detroit and Buffalo, but during the Vietnam War, Yemeni Arabs many came on ships thatlanded in the San Francisco port. Initially, they were asFarmworkers farmers, but as their English improved, many began to open grocery stores.In East Bay alone, there are now nearly 200 by Jack Matalka Yemeni grocers. Though at first many came alone with the intentionof returning to Yemen, more and more are VERY year The camps are scattered settling here and bringing their families. from mid- all over the San Joaquin Although noticably smaller than the July to late Valley, and are usually other Arab nationalities, the Egyptian November, located on the grape population is increasing. Siham el-Din has some 7,000 Yemeni Arabs grower's property. A typical been in the Bay Area since the early join the migrant camp houses approximately 1960's, when her husband was the farmworkers labor force in 100 farmworkers and . Egyptian consul. "I don't remember there central California's lush San contains a central kitchen being many Egyptians back then," she Joaquin valley to perform and a central bath house. says. "But the numbers haveincreased the tedious work of hand- Some camps have a TV dramatically in recent years." The majority picking 700,000 acres of room and some have of Egyptians are professionals, and though ripening table grapes. separate sleeping quarters. not geographically isolated in one spot, The task is vital to the A foreman usually manages many can be found in San Mateoand San economy of the fertile/ the camp and assumes Jose. valley, which has a urm responsibility for order. Despite the differences in size and geographic location am. A Yemeni farmworkers' immigration patterns, the Arab mild climate that enables industry and skill are much nationalities share many of the same traits growers to produce multiple in demand by growers in and ideas. They are hard-working and harvests of wine and table the area. They also value envision America as a place where their grapes. Machines perform the Yemenis' willingness to dreams can be realized. Their children the bulk of the harvesting live on the property, which intermarry with other Americans and in the winery vineyards, but provides the grower a though assimilation is becoming a way of the delicate table grapes readily accessible work force life, there is still an appreciation of Arabic require the gentler touch of that responds on demand. music, tabouleh, and hummus. SamirAmis human hands. The Yemeni Arab works an imports, one of the largest Middle Easern The Yemeni Arab eight-hour day, six days a stores in the Bay Area, had to expand in workers are young men week, with Sundays off. 1972 to accommodate the desires of the who come to the United During picking and packing community. Americans do frequent his States with dreams, hopes, season the workers are paid store but Samir Khoury says 90 percent a suitcase, no money and a $4.90 an hour plus a 30 of the clientele are Arabs or Arab- piece of paper that tells cents per box bonus. The Americans. them where to go when season runs from July immigration has finished through November. with them. Many cannot In 1975, California speak, read or write English, passed the Agricultural United by culture but they have mastered the Labor Relations Act (ALRA) art of signing their names to protect agricultural Nightclubs like the Casbah, Pasha and which they readily do. workers' rights to be Baghdad also cater to Arab-Americans. The workers know represented by a labor Started in 1969 by Kamal Ayoub and Fadil whom to report to and union. The United Farm Shahin, the Casbah provides live Arabic when. They are part of a Workers, long a force in the entertainment for the mixed Arab and society that is organized and area, became dominant. The American audiences. In any one night, a well-informed. Information UFW was, in turn, Lebanese businessman might meet an travels quickly between the dominated by Hispanics, Egyptian doctor, a Palestinian poet, or an different camps where the Armenian-Lebanese couple. workers reside. --Continued page 85 83 15 Faces of San Francisco, Fulfilling his dream of The Arab Cultural Centerwas set up continued marrying "a nice Arab girl" in the middle 1970s to unite all Arab- in 1948, he now boasts two Americans. The idea has met with varied grown daughters. Bill results. Because of the widerange of technical education at San established the San political ideologies and social backgrounds Francisco State University, Francisco chapter of NAAA among Arab-Americans, efforts to he went on for a master's in in 1979, and since that time consolidate the community are not always Education Administration. has been chairman of all successful. Instead, there is a tendency He teaches at Chabot five of their major events. toward separate social organizations. The College in Hayward, Cali- Retired after 30 years of oldest is the American Syrian-Lebanese fornia, and is a general sales service, he devotes most of Club, and over the years groups suchas agent for Yemeni Airways. his time to the Arab- the Rama Ilah Club, the Yemeni Ali is respected for his American community. He is Association, the Assyrian Civic Club, and optimism and unwavering also active in the Press Club the Beit Hanina club have formed. devotion to the Arab- and the Commonwealth Still, some events, like Palestine Day, American community in the Club of California. Asked which is held annually in Golden Gate Bay area. He is the former why he spends so much Park, attract a diversity of Arab- president of both the Associ- time with those organiza- Americans, and charitable and academic ation of Arab-American tions, he quoted Abraham organizations appeal to wide audiences. University Graduates and Lincoln: "If you observe a NAJDA has been meeting for manyyears the Yemeni Association, and wrong, you have an obliga- and is made up of Arab and American is currently the president- tion to correct that wrong." women of all backgrounds. Schools for elect of the Arab Cultural Fuad Ateyeh is one of children also allow crossing of ethnic Center. Before the weekend over 500 Arab grocers in the boundaries. The Weekend School in East school was shut down be- Bay area. Born in Jerusalem, Bay has been teaching Arabic to Arab- cause of a lack of funds, Ali he came to the United American children for years. helped teach Arabic to States in 1969. Although "The best way to bring Arab- children. Father of two the American culture and Americans together is through the arts," children, he feels it is impor- language was a shock, Fuad says Samir Haddad, a Jordanian tant that the Arab heritage adapted quickly and worked immigrant to San Francisco. By de- is continued in successive his way through four years emphasizing the political and generations. Though most at San Francisco State strengthening the cultural, he feels, the of his family is in the United University. He was able to community can become united. Samir, States, Ali still returns to maintain his grocery store, who recently made a film on the Arabs in North Yemen periodically to which he started from San Francisco, sari thereare not enough visit his parents and scratch, at the same time he Arab-American musicians, dancers and maintain his roots there. was completing his master's singers in the United States. "By becoming Though he grew up in degree in business in 1978. more involved in the arts, not only will we Canada, Bill Ezzy describes From 1980 to 1983, Fuad increase the visibility of our people,we himself as an American. His served as president of the will find commonalities that bringus parents came to Canada Independent Grocers together and make us proud to be from Syria in the early Associationan organiza- Americans." Samir recalls a theatrical 1900s, but the poor tion that protects the presentation put on through the Arab economic conditions there interests of the store Cultural Center in 1980 to celebrate the led Bill to come to San owners. He also teaches pre-Islamic festival,SailaOkas, with a night Francisco after he finished Business Management at of poetry, music and fashion which drew school. After four years in the City College of San a crowd of over 600 people. the Navy, he went to work Francisco. Over the years he The founder and motivating force of for the U.S. Army Quarter- has come to feel much more the NAAA in San Francisco, Bill Ezzy, master Corps where he comfortable with American feels the potential of the Arab-American remained for ten years. He customs. When he is not community lies in the children and then went to work for the working, Fuad enjoys grandchildren of the immigrants. "There General Services Adminis- spending time with his wife, have to be groups that attract theyoung tration as a Quality Control also a Palestinian, and his or the heritage will be lost." Osama 84 Representative. six-month-old daughter. Doumani, head of the ADC regional 86 office in San Francisco, agreed with the Yemeni Arabs, they were able to provide necessity for further cooperation among continued translation, transportation the various groups. May Stephen, an and mediation. In 1983, active ADC member, stressed that it is most of them from Mexico. ADC expanded its services the young who break down the barriers. The Agricultural Labor to include various forms of "We need to stick together," she says, Relations Board (ALRB), insurance, lobbying at the "because if we stand separate it's much established under the state capital in Sacramento, easier to knock us down." ALRA, employed large and reduced air fare to numbers of Spanish- Yemen. As a result of ADC speaking personnel to assist ,fforts, ALRB has hired Beyond Old Stereotypes Hispanic laborers. Not so ivalified Arabic-speaking for Yemeni laborers and personnel to assist the Recently, the Arab-American others so the Arabs and farmworkers. community has become involved in local politics, after an unfortunate incident almost five years ago. In 1979, an Arab- American, George Corey, was running for Congress in San Mateo. As part of his campaign, he attended an Arab-American reception held in his honor. The next day, the local news media began an assault on his character, and he was labelled a P.L.O. sympathizer because of his association with Arabs. Michael Nabti, Director of the Arab Information Center in the Bay Area, thinks Arab-Americans need to learn to be political activists. "We need to learn how to organize, campaign and do grass- roots work before we can become available political force." Most of the religious institutions for Arab-Americans have social and youth clubs that serve their communities. other minorities remained A large number of Orthodox churches in the area include St. ignorant of their rights Yemeni Arab workers are Nicholas in San Francisco, St. John in East since they could not merchants at heart, and Bay, and Church of the Redeemer in Los understand the English work and save to achieve Altos. The Maronite church in Milbrae, language explanations the ultimate success, which Our Lady of Lebanon, was established by offered by ALRB staff. is to own and operate a Fr. Paul Muawwad in 1981, and attracts In 1981, ADC opened market in any town in the some Meikites and Orthodox. To serve an office in Bakersfield to U.S. Because they did not the Assyrian community, there are assist the Yemeni have access to the upward Chaldean churches and Churches of the farmworkers in the dealings mobility available to East in Turlock and San Jose. Muslim with the UFW and to rectify Hispanics through the Arabs, particularly the Yemenis, attend some of the inequities in UFW, the Yemenis chose an the Islamic Center in downtown San the receipt of services from urban route to success, and Francisco. such government agencies within the last decade some Arab-Americans in the Bay Area have as the Employment 43 grocery stores have had to work hard to get where they are. Development Department, sprung up in Bakersfield and there is still a fight against Social Security alone--all of them owned discrimination. May Stephen has noticed Administration, Fair by Yemeni Arabs who got that violent anti-Arab sentiment is no Employment and Housing their start in this country as longer obvious, and that like many other Department, medical clinics farmworkers. minorities in the area, Arab-Americans and the ALRB itself. Jack Matalka, an employee of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board are no longer made to feel ashamed of In 1982, ADC moved its since lq75, was an organizing member their differences. offices to Delano, where of ADC in the San Joaquin Valley. 85

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Mt. Lebanon to I the Mohawk Valley

HEN Anthony Shaheen, a Republican attorney of Lebanese descent, was elected a New York State Supreme Court Justice last November, it was a source of pleasure but not surprise to many in the Utica Arab-American community. "We went all out for him," commented a member of that community, a Democrat. "It was about time," commented a Republican. "I'm not surprised. You know, this could serve as an example to the younger ones coming up." Shaheen's election is a thread that ties together several strands of life for Americans of Arabic descent in the small Mohawk Valley city, which has about 130,000 residents in the metropolitan area. About 5,000 of them are of Lebanese and Syrian descent. In just a couple of generations, the Syrian/Lebanese community of Utica has moved from the status of immigrants to assimilation into American society, economic success, and accept ince by their fellow citizens. Since the achievement of integration there is also a resurgence of ethnic pride. One fact stands out about Utica's Arab-Americans: they have succeeded in business, the professions, government service, white collar employment and agriculture. The greatest part of the migration from the Middle Eastmostly from 87

Photo Id Maier Faces of Utica Lebanonto the Mohawk Valley occurred in the first half of the 20th century, with most coming in the 1920s and 1930s. CBENEDICT Koury is a He received his However, there is a reference to a Syrian retired farmer. A first PharmaCy degree from the mass performed in St. John's Roman generation Lebanese, Koury University of Buffalo in in 1882, hinting at earlier ran a 1,000-acre farm in the 1927. "I started out to be a immigrants whose history has nearly been Utica area with two doctor, but couldn't afford erased from memory. brothers. His primary crop it," he said. For many years, The earliest record of Syrian-Lebanese was beans. George's Pharmacy was names in the Utica City Directory was The farm was started by located next door to the 1895, when two businessmen were listed his father, and Koury and office of Dr. Brahim as living ahd working on Bleecker St., his brothers took it over in Mandour, one of Utica's once a center of Arab immigrant culture. 1930. He also was on the first Lebanese physidans. Today, there are large concentrations in Executive Committee of the Dr. Mandour passed away the Capron section of Utica, a former Oneida County Republican recently after 40 years of suburb annexed to the city eariier in the Committee. Since practicing medicine in Utica. century, and in Clark Mills, a village about retirement, he spends The Chanatrys five miles from Utica. winters in Florida, where "I represent a prominent Like many new arrivals to America, play a little golf and go to Syrian family that has these people thrived on hard work, thrift the track once in a while." become well-known in and family cooperation. Many of the first Today, a third generation of business and the group worked in the textile industry, one Kourys, William and professions. Dr. Joseph resident recalls. He is proud of their George III, take an active Chanatry, a gynecologist, contribution to what he boasts of as "once role in the farminb graduated valedictorian the textile capital of the world." business. from Proctor High School But usually they only worked in the Edward George, first in East Utica and has long mills long enough to accumulate enough generation Lebanese, been active in civic affairs capital to start a business or purchase a started the first Lebanese serving as chairman of the farm. Brothers often went into business pharmacy in Utica in 1930. Utica Charter Reform or farming together, a tradition that He now runs George's Commission in 1975. persists. Pharmacy with his son, Edward. Continued page 90 Tradition of Hard Work The attraction to business reflects a mercantile tradition that goes back centuries to the Phoenician sea traders and Armenian caravan traders of the area, according to a book by John Moses, From Mount Libanon to the Mohawk Valley: The Stony of Syro-Lehanese Americans in the Utica Area. Often, the new Americans would work in a factory until they earned enough money to become peddlers or other businessmen. From these painfully acquired savings, they were able to establish permanent businesses groceries, restaurants, bakeries, jewelry stores, and dry goods stores, to name a few. At George's Pharmacy, a long tradition of service to the A substantial number of Lebanese community is passed from father to son. Edward George entered agriculture. At one time, they 88 and Edward George, fr., share the work at George's Pharmacy. owned 48 farms in the Utica area, Moses reported. Interestingly, wi .n Lebanese that year, a dentist and heating engineer war victim Hanan Saleh and her father, entered the professions. By 1940, the list Sami, flew into Utica in early 1983 from of professionals increased to 11, but nearby Syracuse, both were reported to growth took off after World War II, have looked down and said that the area according to Moses. By 1981, the number looked just like northern Lebanon. That of professionals had reached 95, including stretch of land is filled with farms owned 24 educators, 14 physicians and surgeons, by Kourys, Acees, Abdellas, and other 11 attorneys, 10 dentists, 10 scientists and families who hail from the village of engineers, 6 accountants, 5 nurses, 3 Akkar. clergymen, 3 social workers, 3 artists, 2 One woman, a first generation podiatrists, a psychologist, and a Lebanese-American, who lives in Clark chiropractor. Mills, described life on the farm where she grew up. "It was run by my father and uncles," Bridges to the Past she said. "We all lived together in a complex. The boys had a dormitory on the One of the most predominant and third floor; the girls had a dormitory on persistent Arab-American traditions is the first floor." food. Restaurants serving traditional Everything was done as a family, she Lebanese fare (tabouleh, kibbee said, induding the celebration of holidays, meshweh, and baklawa) cater to the entire such as Christmas. community. But even the restaurants 7 "The children would visit the oldest reflect the increase and decrease of ethnic uncle first, and then the next oldest," she businesses-10 Middle Eastern explained. "But it was always as a family, restaurants in 1940; 4 in 1981, according never as individuals." to Moses. In her family, Christmas also was The oldest restaurant-bakery is run by marked by a "large, festive dinner of the Barady family. Charles Barady, Jr. Lebanese food." ("Butch" to the many friends and patrons), The family tradition persists in the and his wife Donna, provide residents, economic life of the Syrian-Lebanese stores, and restaurants with Middle American community in Utica, with Eastern bread and specialtiesa tradition relatives continuing to own businesses that began in 1946 when Charles Barady, together and passing them on to their Sr. established the business. That first children. bakery was located on Third Avenue, in One first generation man started the the heart of the "old neighborhood." first pharmacy operated by an Arab- Much of the old section was leveled and American in 1930. His son now works in modernized by urban renewal in the the pharmacy as well. 1950s. Barady's is now conveniently The combination business-profession located across the street from St. Louis of pharmacy represents a turning in the Gonzaga Church. economic life of Arab-Americans in the It stands as a bridge with the past M-iawk Valley area. along with Sfeir's meat market, which The number of businesses peaked in specializes in lamb :uts. Gone is the Third 1940, with more than 110 listed in the Avenue "kah-wee" (coffee shop), where City Directory, of whom 66 were grocers. men played cards and talked politics. Gone By 1980, the number had dropped to 70, also is the ULA (United Lebanese with only 26 grocers. Association) building which housed Utica's The hard work and thrift of the social club for the early Lebanese. immigrant and first generation provided The churches have provided an the means to provide their children with important source of cohesion and culture the education necessary to enter the for Syrian- in the professions. Utica area. Church rolls show that there Until 1925, the only Syrian-Lebanese are 3600 Maronite Catholics, 1200 professionals in Utica were clergyman. In Melkite Catholics, and 200 Antiochean 89

on Faces of Utica, to Utica in 1971. He came Orthodox. Members of. each of these continued to the United States to visit churches first conducted their worship a brother, and stayed when services in Roman Catholic churches in the Dr. Francis Chanatry, a broke out in Lebanon. city. But over the years, each congregation surgeon, serves on the Saber teaches the dance built its own church, and the Maronites board of St. Luke's troupe of St. Louis Gonzaga and Melkites built a second church when Memorial Hospital, and Church and works for they outgrew the first structures. played a key role in treating Joseph and Price, a company The largest church, St. Louis Gonzaga, Hanan Saleh. Chanatry that makes sports jackets. will commemorate its 75th anniversary in Brothers markets are the He helped start the dance 1985. At the same time, members will largest of the many AA troupe, he said, "to help the celebrate 50 years in its current location. supermarkets in the Utica kids know something about The church building was completed in area. The family has Lebanon." 1935the result of a massive volunteer distinguished itself in Robert Joseph, a second effort by church members. Many of the business and medicine, and generation Lebanese, lives hardy immigrants laid the bricks and has members who are in the Capron, a mostly sawed the boards on Saturdays and engineers, educators, artists, Lebanese, section of Utica. evenings in the early 1930s. Today, it is and social workers. He has taught at the New common to hear Lebanese residents say Ellen Aces Romanus York State School for the with pride: "My father built the church." grew up on the family farm Deaf in Rome, NY, for 14 Indeed, Monsignor Francis Lahoud, the run by her father and two years. He graduated from pastor, himself cut the marble for the altar. uncles near Clark Mills. A Hamilton College with a Recently, Monsignor Julien Eliane, first generation Lebanese, bachelor of arts degree. pastor of St. Basil Melkite Church, Mrs. Romanus owned and Joseph is active in the celebrated his fortieth anniversary as a operated a restaurant in Maronite Church, the priest. New York Mills for eight American Lebanese League, Culturally, a dance troupe of 8 to 14- years. and the ADC. He is also a year-old children has been formed by the Now retired, she has member of the National Maronite church to acquaint young people both children and Apostalate Maronites, a with their traditions. The group's teacher grandchildren. Though a secular arm of the church, says dancing wzc important in the annual member of St. Louis where he teaches Sunday festivals that were held in Lebanon for Gonzaga Church, she school. He served as a centuries. Interestingly, there was a attends the Roman Catholiccommitteeman for the theater group in Lebanon around 1920 Church of the Democratic Party for a that performed both native Arabi,: plays Annunciation in Clark Mills.number of years and likes and Shakespearean tragedies in Arabic Elias (Louis) Saber "fishing, skatingoutdoor translation. The plays were directed by immigrated from Lebanon type of stuff." Brahim R. Salamey who for years also served as Oneida County's court interpreter for newly arrived Lebanese RB Pady's Ker and Syrians. Today, several pictures of the players in costume are treasured by their At, 111.--- families. taLIPJ

Resurgence of Pride

OP. As with other immigrant groups, there was some falling away from 4fir identification with the country of origin as the immigrants sought to become full- fledged American citizens. But they recently have exhibited a resurgence of interest and pride in their Lebanese origins. Charles and Donna Barady's Syrian-Lebanese Bakery and In part, the abandonment of language 90Restaurant flourishes in Utica's well-established Arab- and culture of origin was due to pressures American community. from the society to which the Lebanese United States, immigrantsand the first had immigrated, againan experience similar to that of other generation experiencedsome discrimi- important groups. nation and strongpressures to assimilate. "You know, teachers wouldcome into The local ADC chapter the homes andsay that the children focuses on cultural issues andon combating anti- shouldn't speak Arabic," saidone second- Arab stereotyping. The generation Lebanese. ADC worked hard to stagea Kahlil Gibran exhibit at The woman in Clark Millssees some the local museum. When falling away from the old the museum ways in family cancelled the planned show,ADC life, particularly in regardto food. She said submitted over 3000 she continues tocan and preserve food, petition signatures. as The museum is planning theshow in the her family didon the farm. near future. In 1915 production of "Hamlet" in Arabic presented by the United Bashinta Society of Utica. These actors and actresses were some of the early immigrants to the Utica Area. The play was presented as a fund raiser for their organization.

The next generation,she said, prefers It also succeeded inremoving to buy food at the supermarket,"TV dinners and quickies." defamatory Niagara-MohawkPower commercials that blamed "the But the third generationis much more Arabs" for costly relianceon f;reignnilIn fact, interested in its origins.Many continue to make religion central Arabs produce onlyseven percent of the to their lives. One oil used in New York resident said he teaches State. The ADC's Sunday school to "Save Lebanon" project alsoraised more young people, and he is takingArabic with his children. than $15,000 and broughttwo wounded children to Utica for medical He said he knowsmany people who treatment. are trying to trace their roots By and large, the UticaArab-American in the community is homogenous in Middle East. Before thecurrent war, a terms of number of Uticans returned nafional origins, successfuleconomically, to Lebanon and loyal and patriotic for visits to thecities and villages of their Americans, sending ancestors. many young men into the armed forces. With assimilation intoAmerican society Discrimination is less ofa problem in and culture Utica today than in now almost complete, they many other American are again turning to a study and cities for the Arab-Americancommunty. However, like all celebration of their origins and newcomers to the traditions. 91 9 3 :^:"'":0::-.6%"0.;#Z61174:::17an^:0;a617.^:0"ZaTas:^4::^:0,

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Lively Ethnic Mix

by Anthony Toth

gN Worcester, Massachusetts, ethnic pride and tradition still reside beneath the hallowed roofs of its churches. For its citizens of Syrian-Lebanese heritage, the Orthodox, Melkite and Maronite churches in the large New England community hold the treasured history of many immigrant families. Ninety percent of Worcester's estimated3,500Arab-Americans belong to these Christian denominations. A recent group of Arab immigrants from the Persian Gulf states accounts for the remaining 10 percent. There is a mosque that serves the growing Arab Muslim population. In the first quarter of the twentieth century Worcester was becoming a "league of nations and religions," according to Morris H. Cohen, a Clarke University professor who has studied the city's ethnic groups. By1926Worcester's population of190,000included an amazing70percent who were foreign-born. Today Worcester retains the strong multi-ethnic character to which Irish, Italians, French- and British-Canadians, Poles, Swedes and Arabs have contributed. In this respect, Worcester is typical of the New England towns and cities that attracted immigrant laborers to their burgeoning industries. In other parts of New England immigrants flocked to humming textile mills, but Worcester depended upon the metal-working industries which churned 93

Photo Worcetter Area Chamber of Cornmerte t1 out hardware such as screws, nails and Faces of Worcester wiring. Some Arab immigrants worked in these factories, and hundreds of others toiled in the huge Graton & Knight CstHRIS Coury, 25, She took charge of the leather processing plant. udied history at Thomas Auto Body Shop in Worcester is the site of one of the Worcester State College Worcester after her oldest Antiochian Orthodox communities and went on to husband died and ran it in the United States. The Orthodox Georgetown University in until her recent retirement. parish of St. George is the largest among Washington, D.C. to earn a Her son now runs the shop, the religious groups in the Arab-American masters degree n Arab and she spends her time community, accounting for roughly half Studies. He is now New between chairing the its number. England director for the Women's Guild at Our National Association of Lady of Mercy Maronite Arab-Americans. "My Church and the local Syrian heritage," he said, chapter of St. Jude "One of the Lucky Ones" "pushed me on into political Children's Hospital. "We tr action." to keep the Lebanese George Wood's father came to this The Coury family is heritage goingthe food, country from Damascus in 1890. Even attuned to its ethnic the holy days..." she said. though George Wood had to start traditions, and Chris has Mrs. Thomas' parents came working when he was 16 years old in always had an interest in from Lebanon before World 1928, and didn't stop until his retirement Middle East affairs. In 1978 War I, and she was born in (at age 65, he says he was "one of the he responded to a letter in a this country in 1918. lucky ones" in Worcester's early Syrian- local paper which expressed Marie Hilow says that Lebanese community. A year after he anti-Arab sentiments, and when she visited her began working, the Great Depression cut he has been actively father's village of Aley in the livelihoods from under many involved in his community Lebanon in 1959, she had a breadwinners in the Worcester ever since. beautiful time. She was able community, as well as in the rest of the Amen Esper, Jr., has to speak fluent Arabic with country. Wood's first job at the Melville lived his 63 years in her aunts, uncles and Shoe Company, which supplies Thom Worcester. He taught cousins. Her knowledge of McAn Shoe Stores, h-lped keep his family himself to read and write Arabic is rusty now from fed during that time of hardship. Wood Arabic. Now that he is disuse, but it still creeps started as a clerk and worked his way up retired from the back when she has to the organization until he retired a few Massachusetts Department describe something from years ago as a distribution supervisor. of Public Works, where he her past. "We were brought W pod recently became the first Arab- was a design and up in a very closely knit American in Massachusetts to become a construction engineer, he Lebanese community, and 33rd Degree Mason of the Scottish Rite. spends his time traveling, when someone asked me to This is the highest degree that is awarded, skiing, swimming and describe something about it, signifying a respected position within playing golf. I could only tell them in that organization. St. George's parish Esper's parents, who Arabic. I didn't know the celebrated Wood's honor with a gathering fled Lebanon because of English." of 300 well-wishers. Ottoman conscription, are Mrs. Hilow's father Wood recalls how the early Syrian both still living in came to the United States community lived in a neighborhood Viorcester. Esper has seven around 1920 and settled in clustered around St. George's church. grandchildren. "I'm very Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Arab immigrants settled on Wall, Suffolk conscious of my heritage," where Mrs. Hilow was born and Norfolk streets on Dungarvin hill. At Esper said. in 1927. She moved to one time, Dungarvin Hill was nicknamed Genevieve Thomas saysWorcester in 1960 when "French Hill," because of the many that after she became a she married and now works French-speaking immigrants who lived widow 38 years ago, she as a billing clerk at Fairlawn there, among them the early Syrian- has been so busy she "has Hospital. Lebanese who spoke both French and 94 not had time for hobbies." Arabic. Syrian-owned dry goods stores, Today approximately 430 families bakeries and coffee shops sprang up on support St. George's parish, according to the hill, and the immigrant community its pastor Father George Shahin. The began to prosper. Their prosperity present church was built in 1956 on Anna eventually enabled them to move to other Street. The women's club holds dinners, parts of the city, but they never ceased to haflelts and where hPndcrafts and contribute time and money to their baked goods are sold to raise money for churches. the church. The Knights of St. George and the Teen SOYO are the parish's other active social and service groups. At Worshipping and Celebrating the yearly celebration of the Feast of St. George, parishioners serve Arab food and St. George Antiochian Orthodox dance to traditional music, and even the church was the first in Worc_ster. Dr. Bishop makes an appearance. "We've had Najib Saliba, who teaches at Worcester a lot of good times at the church," says State College, says the church was George Wood. "We're a tight-knit group." established around 1902 and that "the The second largest group among whole life of the community revolved Worcester's Arab-Americans is the around it." In 1905, the community Melkite community which worships at founded the Syrian Orthodox Society. Our Lady of Perpetual Help. In the years The society served the Syrian before World War I, the Melkites did not community by assisting new immigrants have a church or priest. According to the and providing traditional burial services. Inpresent pastor, Father James King, in 1923 these early years, the Orthodox they found a priest from Holy Savior community did not have a permanent Monastery to perform services for them. priest or church building, and it was the About 80 percent of the early Melkite society that raised funds for both. By immigrants came from the Lebanese 1905, St. George's occupied a building on mountain community of Mashkara. Many Wall Street, and a school was opened found their way to Worcester because there to teach English and provide they were skilled leather craftsmen, and religious instruction. when they arrived at Ellis Island they

Native Arab dance, dress and music drew admiring looks from Worcester residents who watched the Caravan Band perform in front of city hall in 1959. 95 Photos: Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Inc Photos: Worcester Telegram ec Gazette, Inc.

Worcester's Christian Arab- Americans are well-served with three Syrian Rite churches in the city. Shown here and on the opposite page are two of them. Above, Our Lady of Perpcival Help Me lkite Church features hundreds of crosses in relief on the twelve-sided structure. The pastor, Father James King, right, celebrates liturgy. Opposite page, a bright accentuates the clean lines of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral in this 1970 bird's-eye view. The St. George community is the largest Christian denomination of Arab-Americans in Worcester.

96 Photos. Worcester Tekgram & Gazette, Int

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 4 8 were told to go to the Craton & Knight mahrajan every year, and the most recent leather works in Worcester. outdoor Arab festival drew nearly 2,000 Joe Aboody, a Melkite whose father people. came from Mashkara, remembers the Worcester's third Christian "awful, awful smell" that floated through community is the Maronite parish of Our the hillside homes of the Arab immigrants Lady of Mercy. The pastor, Father Joseph from the factory's tall smokestacks. At Saidi, recalls the first Maronite, John Isaac, one time, he says, hundreds of Lebanese came to Worcester in 1893. By the turn worked at the plant, which tanned hides of the century there were several and produced finished leather products. Maronite families who attended services Some Me lkite families have their roots at other Catholic churches. It was not in the Syrian communities of Aleppo and until 1906 that the first Maronite service Damascus. There has been extensive was held by a pastor who came to the intermarriage among the Melkite and area from Boston. Orthodox communities, and the religious Most of the Maronite families came to homogeneity that was true in the Worcester after 1910 from Beirut, , homeland has diminished in this country. Al Islah and other Lebanese towns and Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a cities. In the 1920s, when there were unique twelve-sided brick structure about 70 Maronites in Wor.:ester, Father located on a shady five-acre lot. Its pastor Paul Rizk became the first pastor and the describes it as "one of the most striking parish moved to what had formerly been buildings in Worcester." It is a far cry a Protestant church on Mulberry Street. from the humble wooden church that was purchased by the parish in 1923. Father King says that although the Clubs and Societies church no longer offers instruction in Arabic, the language is kept alive through Since its inception, the Arab-American its use in Sunday services. "I try to community has looked back to its roots in incorporate some of the religious the Middle East and forward to its traditions of the old country into the growing involvement in American service," King said. "The people appreciate language and customs. Syrian-American this very much. For instance, many of clubs sprang up wherever there were them were surprised to learn that Arabs significant numbers of immigrants and are Semites, too." The Melkites have a big their children. Some Worcester residents

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97 Photos Worcester Telegram Ea Cavette. Inc from the South Lebanese village of Mhaiti Guild began in the 1960s and continues its formed the Mhaiti Society in 1917. This work today, holding social events and group is still active arranging burials and running a bingo game. engaging in charitable works. Its members collect money to send to relatives and the church in their home village. Morocco--An Institution The Worcester Syrian-American Club was established in 1930 and participated The best restaurant in Worcester ... that year in the tricentennial festivities of club extraordinaire ...playground of the city. The club entered a float depicting celebrities... aninstitution ...El "an American historical scene," according to Morocco Restaurant is a family operation Syrian World Magazine, and won second that has grown from humble origins to prize. Two years later, the club was become Worcester's premier place of represented at a celebration of George dining and entertainment. It is a landmark Washington's bicentennial anniversary of the social landscape of the city. held by the Boston Syrian-American Club Joe Aboody is the president of the at which prominent political leaders were restaurant, which was run by Paul present. Aboody, his father, since it opened its Saidi remembers a few of the clubs doors in 1945. Though Paul died in the that were established over the years by summer of 1983, his memory is still fresh local Maronites who wanted to socialize in his son's mind as he describes with and to help the church raise money. The vivid detail the history of El Morocco. first was the Cedar Club, established in "My father came from the Lebanese 1937. In 1948 came the Maronite Club, town of Mashkara," says Joe. he was one followed in the 1950s by the Men's Club. of many immigrants sent to work at Finally, Our Lady of Mercy Women's Graton & Knight. Paul Aboody left the

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The El-Morocco Restaurant Photos: Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Inc. 1 L factory after a short while to hold various restaurant. "He used to tell his chauffeur to jobs, including a stint as a bartender. "He bring him here after a concert, and he worked hard to feed us," recalls Joe. would go back into the kitchen to fix a In 1925 the family was able to buy a steak," recalls Aboody. "About three building on Wall Street which had been a weeks before he died, he spent a long home for some French nuns. In the first evening with my father." floor storefront they opened one of the When Joe's father passed away last first Middle East bakeries in the United summer, Worcester mourned the passing States. Aboody's cousins still operate of one of its most popular citizens. Kalil's Bakery, which has since moved to Lengthy obituaries in local papers and Hamilton Street. On the roof of the Wall thousands of mourners paid tribute to the Street building the Aboodys built a grape Lebanese immigrant from Mashkara who arbor, reminiscent of those found by made good. many hillside homes in Lebanon. The The El Morocco still thrives on its family gathered beneath the arbor for popularity, with Aboody family members long happy hours of conversation. working in the kitchen, in the office and The Aboody family soon opened a serving patrons in the dining rooms. "We coffee house where locals would sit to never advertise for the business," says Joe. drink strong Turkish coffee and eat ice "The other restaurants in town couldn't cream and pastries. "Some of the understand how we made it. We were the customers would play cards, using old smallest, dumpiest place, on the wrong decks as chips so if the police came side of the tracks." they couldn't tell they were betting," El Morocco is a shining example of Aboody said. who Arabs are, what they eat, how they El Morocco was established in 1945 as entertain and how they can succeed. "1 a small family restaurant that served remember when I went to school the kids Arabic food. Patrons were occasionally didn't know what Lebanese was," says Joe. treated to impromptu musical The Arab-American community entertainment by Paul Aboody and his appreciates what the El Morocco has done musically inclined friends. "My father had for the community's image. "They say, a knack for entertaining... . He was very 'Thank God for the El Morocco. well liked," said Joe. "Dad would take out his Arab drum and play into the wee hours of the morning with other musicians." The restaurant got a boost one day from a favorable review. The day after it appeared in the newspaper, about 100 people descended on the tiny five-table eatery. From then on, it was expand, expand, expand. First the Aboodys annexed the store nevt door, then dug out a basement beneath the 1.,uilding. Today's El Morocco at 100 Wall Street opened six years ago with festivities to which the whole city was invited. And practically the whole city came. Thousands thronged to the restaurant, and Joe says the local police volunteered to handle the traffic. Truman Capote, Liza Mmdli, Estelle Parsons and Bette Midler are just a few of the celebrities who have enjoyed El Morocco's fare. The late Arthur Fiedler, conductor of the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra, called El Morocco his favorite Photo Arabic Mueurn, Cairo 1 01 .tr-At* /4A C' ipt j+1, 4),.'Iftc,f4!! 'lir", 1,,t op- tc7 zi` ' 37,- 2, t' ta+., 4417417,""Zawitalln^:"Z617:^: .017/117;^:Xv/ Arab Muslims in America: Adaption and Reform

by Yvonne Haddad

oIGNIFICANT Arab Muslim migration to the United States ccurred in severalwaves-1875 to 1912, 1918 to 1922when SLebanese Arabs came to work in the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan,1930 to 1938, 1947 to 1960,and1967to the present. The two world wars and changes in U.S. immigration laws were principally responsible for the interruptions in the flow of immigrants. The first permanent group arrived from what was then called Greater Syria, now the combined area of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. Mostly uneducated, unskilled, and of peasant stock, this group left their homes in the mountain areas of Lebanon in response to favorable reports from Lebanese Christians who had worked as immigrants in the United States. The economic situation in the Middle East from1890to World War I gave impetus to immigration.Farminghad become unprofitable because of a general decline in the price of agricultural products. The opening of the Suez Canal in1869destroyed the land route to and resulted in the loss of income levied on transit shipments. The Japanese competition in silk production led to the flooding of Lebanon's traditional French market, cheapened prices, and practically eliminated the silk industry of Mount Lebanon. To further aggravate the situation, the vineyards of the area became infested with disease. 101

1(13 BEST COPY AVAILABLE .....,-- .'",111111011 Around 1900, the number of Muslims women and pursued integration into the who entered the United States increased, general society. Many of them now teach especially among the Shia and the Druze. in colleges and universities and can be Apprehension about traveling to a non- considered to have achieved intellectual as Muslim country dampened the well as social integration. motivations of many, but continuing Mainly from urban areas, most of this success stories of other immigrants group arrived with the intention of r-ovided the necessary incentive. settling permanently. They had attended In the United States, several factors western or westernized schools in their worked to impede the flow of immigrants. home countries. Some had experimented Many were turned down by immigration in representative government or officials at Ellis Island. Discrimination remembered their frustrated efforts to appeared in various localities where Arab institute freely elected governments in immigrants settled. One court found their countries. Their ethnic identities persons from the Arab world ineligible for were thus influenced by national, rather citizenship because they were neither than religious considerations. Caucasian nor African. Although a higher It is estimated that about 50,000 Arab court overruled that decision, the debate Muslim intellectuals entered the United about the size of head and nose as States in the decade between 1957 and determinants of race continued in the 1967. Of these, 73 percent had received press. higher education in Europe and the The immigrants also faced new laws United States. Their impact on Islamic that restricted the number permitted into institutions in this country appears to be the United States. Preference was given to marginal, however. The majority were relatives of previous immigrants, as either "un-mosqued," that is, did not evidenced in the flow of immigration after attend the mosque, or were "Eid World War II. Intermarriage and the Muslims," those who participate in influx of relatives from the Middle East mosque services on the two main Islamic helped to preserve old country ideals and feasts, Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. customs and to slow down the process of There are no reliable statistics on the acculturation and assimilation. number of Muslims in the United States By the 1950's, most of the Arab most of whom are non-Arab. Estimates countries had gained their independence have ranged up to half a million. and were undergoing radical changes due to the failure of the institutions implanted by the colonial powers. This resulted in a new kind of immigrant arriving in this The Development of country. A growing number came from Islamic Institutions the capitalist classes, the landed gentry, and the influential urban-based families of The development of Islamic various countries, who had been replaced institutions in the United States came by new leadership. Many were about slowly because the number of Palestinians displaced by the creation of Muslims in proportion to the total the state of Israel, Egyptians whose land population has been relatively small. had been appropriated by the Nasser Immigrants who came to amass wealth regime, Syrians overthrown by and then return to their homelands were revolutionaries, and Iraqi royalists fleeing not interested in establishing institutions. the Republican regime. Their allegiance remained with their The majority of these post-World War families at home, which they helped II immigrants were westernized and support financially. fluent in English. They sought higher Those Muslims who decided to settle education, advanced technical training, in this country, however, began to think and specialized work opportunities as well of developing institutions and as ideological fulfillment. About two- organizations to preserve their faith and 102 thirds of the students married American to transmit it to their children. Individuals in different areas took the initiative: States. In 1957, the Islamic Center of Abdullah Ingram in Cedar Rapids, ; Washington, D.C. opened to serve an Muhammad Omar in Quincy, American congregation as well as Massachusetts; J. Howar in Washington, members of the Muslim diplomatic corps D.C. In other cities, like Dearborn, residing in the capital. Today, there are Michigan, a small but determined group over 400 mosques and Islamic associations backed the effort. in the United States. The earliest recorded group of Moslems who organized for communal prayer in grivate homes was in Ross, Adapting Islamic Practice In America North Dakota, in 1900. By 1920 they had built a mosque. Later, they became so As in other areas of the world, the integrated into the community that they initial growth period of Islam in North assumed Christian names and married America reflected "mixing" or Christians. By 1948, the mosque was acculturation. Severed from traditions abandoned. accumulated over centuries, the In 1919, an Islamic association was immigrants attempted to create their own established in Highland Park, Michigan, Islamic institutions. For this, they followed by another one in Detroit in borrowed institutional forms from the 1922. A Young Men's Muslim Association local inhabitants. The role of the mosque (Arab) was established in Brooklyn in in North America is closer to that of 1923; and the Arab Banner Society in denominational churches than to mosques Quincy in 1930. The first building in the Arab world. designated as a mosque was in Cedar Historically, the mosque has Rapids in 1934. The mosque founders also functioned as a gathering place for the purchased the first Muslim cemetery, community, where Muslims expressed believed to be the only one in the United their religious and political allegiance Recognizing the need to keep the Muslim heritage alive, Islamic Institutes f throughout the country offer education for the children which helps reinforce the values of Islam. Shown here is the Cedar Rapids mosque.

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15 during the Friday service. In the new Right: Brooklyn TITUTE FOR TV.. 1-.',.OPAGATION ' ARABIC ENtitIE "4`t:: ISLAMIC rt country, it acquired a social and cultural Heights, N.Y. meaning as the A rab Muslims struggled Islamic Institute to maintain an Arab and Islamic identity Below: Detroit, in an alien culture. Not only are Michigan's Islamic and funerals conducted in the mosque, in Center of America keeping with American practices, but even Botton right: fund-raising activities, directed primarily in Great by women, such as mosque bazaars, bake Mosque of sales, community dinners, and cultural Cordoba, Spain events have been adopted as well. Women participate in other aspects of mosque life generally not open to them in the Middle East. They att,nd the Sunday service and teach Sunday school. Interviews with second- and third- generation Muslims indicate the very active role assumed by pioneering Arab Muslim women in the construction and maintenance of the mosque. This role has been curtailed in areas where more recently arrived immigrants predominate. A coalition between illiterate traditional rural men and highly educated young students or immigrants committed to a strict Islamic order has formed, and, as one third-generation Arab-American Muslim put it, appears to be operative in wresting the leadership of the mosque" away from those who labored long to bring it into being. In an increasing number of Arab Muslim mosques where traditional have been installed, women have seen their participation in mosque functions reduced and restricted, a restructuring aimed at conforming to patterns idealized in the Arab world.

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Moslems who settled in this country applied the principles of architecture so familiar in the Middle East to the mosques they built here. Shown on these two pages are some American mosques and their predecessors in Cordoba and Jerusalem.

104 The Movement for Reform

Since the beginning of the1970s, there has been a return to normative Islam, sometimes referred to as "reform." Efforts are made to purge Islam of innovations which accumulated over the years and to eradicate unnecessary and un-Islamic patterns of acculturation. Reform has been heightened by the influx of new immigrants from Lebanon(1975- 82),many of whom are totally committed, to Islam as a way of life. This commitment appears to be a result of the sectarian strife in that country and its influence in stimulating, if not crystalizing, confessionalism. The dramatic increase in the number of Muslims in the United States in the last decade has heartened followers who remember a time when Muslim holidays went by scarCely noticed or observed. The celebrations in the various mosques and organizations have added a new dimension to the growing sense of dignity, identity and purpose of the Muslims. Perhaps S.S. Mufassir best captured the change when, on the occasion of the American Bicentennial, he wrote inIslamic Items:"But the technotronic cybernetic society which has put to death the false God of man's making has failed to render Islam irrelevant. Islam has survived in the very heart of the industrialized West, and has pushed forward with indomitable spirit without apology, compromise, assimilation or mutation."

This article was excerpted, with permission, from a longer article .hat appeared in Arabs in the New World: Studies on Arab- American Communities, ed. Nabeel Abraham and Sameer Y. Abraham, Wayne State University Center for Urban Studies. Copyright 1983.

Top: Cedar Rapids, Iowa Mosque *at? Center: , Jerusalem Bottom Right: Dearborn, Michigan Mosque 105

_1 7 .c: IzC TheWayWe are: ARegional Survey

RAB-American communities dot the United States, but they have, until now, gone unnoticed by outsiders. Until now, there has been no general survey of where in the U.S. 6.00RArab-Americans live. With this issue, ADC Reports inaugurates this service, with the results of its pilot projectfollowing in this section. This set of almanac-type entries offers ADC members a chance to get "the big picture," to realize how widespread and how diverse our communities are, and to begin to make the links between them. This is a first of its kind. And like any trial effort ithas gaps and room for improvement.And that is where you, and your friends, and your family, come in.Please become a contributor to the ADC Regional Survey. We assembled this information as a result of atelephone survey to Arab-Americans, manyof them ADC members, in 10 regions of the U.S. We learned manythings, only a small part of which we had room for in this survey.One of the things we learned was that there were many more of you that we didn't contact than we did. And next year we want you to be in it. So pleasetake a few minutes and fill out the questionnaire at the end of this section. Tell all of us,all over the U.S., about your part of it. Of course, the life of every community rests on theliving history of its older members. And that is where another ADC project begins: the recapturing of our oralhistories. Next to the questionnaire, you will find another form, one that lets us know that you are collecting the memories of someone from the group of immigrantswho first established Arab-American communities. ADC is looking for members of two generations to tell us all about our past.First, we want to hear from people who made The Passagethe journey from the Middle East to this country at the turn of and inthe early part of this century. Second, we want tohear from those who made up The Exodus, the journey in flight from political persecution and refugee status to a new home. What ADC Reports offers here is a rough sketch for what you will make into "the big picture."

1 0 9 LOrthodox Women's Club and Men's New England Club,the Knights of St. George, Our Arab Americans in New ady of Purgatory Maronite Lebanese England (Connecticut, Rhode 1 Veterans' Association, the Lebanese Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Community Center, the Arab-American Vermont and Maine) number 210,000 Benevolent Association, the American among a total population of close to 10 Arabic Association, the Syrian-Lebanese million. Most trace their origins to Women's Club, the Syrian-Lebanese Lebanon and Syria. Others came to the Ladies' Society, the Syrian-Lebanese Club, region from Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, the United Lebanese Society, the Lebanese and more recently, and Kuwait. Association for Elderly Housing; the They live in Danbury and Bethel, American-Lebanese Awareness Connecticut; Manchester, Portsmouth, Association, the Deir-el-Qamar Nashua, Lebanon, and Berlin, New Association, the Sons of Lebanon Club, Hampshire; and Fall River, Lawrence, and the Mheiti Society, all in Boston, Worcester, and Pocas9et, Massachusetts. Local chapters of most Massachusetts. The majority of New national Arab-American organizations, England's Arab-Americans are Christian including the National Association of Arab and belong to the numerous Eastern rite Americans and the ADC, have chapters in churches scattered throughout the region. major cities throughout the area. The A number of mosques in Connecticut and Association of Arab-American University Massachusetts cater to the smaller Graduates is headquartered in Belmont, Muslim communities. Approximately 60 MA. percent of the Arab-American community Programs and activities sponsored by in New England is second generation, 30 the various organizations, both religious percent third and fourth generation. The and secular, include ethnic festivals, remaining 10 percent consists of recent church bazaars, fund-raising dinners, immigrants. traditional haflehs, scholarships for Arab- Arab-American religious institutions in American youth, and the construction of New England include Maronite churches: 40 units of low-cost housing for the Arab- St. George in New Hampshire; St. American elderly. Anthony, Our Lady of Mercy, Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon, and Our Lady of Purgatory in Massachusetts; St. Anthony in Connecticut. Greek Orthodox Churches; St. George in New Hampshire and St. George in Massachusetts. Antiochian Orthodox churches: St. George in New Hampshire and St. George in Connecticut. One Syrian Orthodox church: St. Mary in Metropolitan Massachusetts; Melkite churches: St. Joseph, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, New York Cathedral of Our Lady of the The total population Annunciation in Massachusetts; St. of the New York metro Stephen Mission in New Hampshire; St. area, which includes the five Anne in Connecticut. There are Islamic boroughs, northern New Jersey and centers in Boston, Quincy and Springfield, Yonkers, is more than 8 million. The Massachusetts, and Hartford, New Haven estimated Arab-American population of and Stamford, Connecticut. the New York metro area is 180,000. Other Arab-American organizations in The earliest Arab-American settlers in the tri-state area comprise the Lebanon- New York arrived from the region of American Club, and Maaser Society in Greater Syria between 1880 and 1924. Connecticut; the Lebanese Society in New Today they are scattered throughout the 108 Hampshire; St. George Antiochian area, with concentrations of Syrian-

u Lebanese in Brooklyn and Yonkers. A percent is third; and the upcoming fourth large group of Syrians lives in Patterson, generation makes up the remaining 20 N.J. Since the 1960s, thousands of percent. Palestinians have immigrated to the Organizations and religious United States, making them the third institutions catering to Arab-Americans largest group of Arab-Americans in exist throughout the New York metro greater New York. They live in Patterson, area. The Arab Women's Council, Islamic upper Manhattan, Brooklyn and in the Cultural Society and the Arab-American Bergen City and West New York areas of Women's Friendship Association are Hudson County. Several thousand women's social, cultural and political Yemenis also live in Brooklyn's Atlantic organizations. Other organizations include Avenue section, though they tend not to the Muslim World Organization for settle there permanently, returning to Political and Social Change, the Muslim Yemen after a period of earning money World League, the Egyptian Professional for their families. Organization, Palestine Congress, The Arab-American community is American-Arab Anti-Discrimination broken down roughly as follows: Syrian- Committee, Palestine Red Crescent, Lebanese, 65 to 70 percent; Palestinians, Muslim Arab Community of Northern arourd 15 percent; Yemenis and New Jersey, Association of Arab- Jordanians, 5 percent each; and Egyptians, American University Graduates, Muslim 2 percent. Approximately 40 percent of Organization Committee and several the Arab-American population is first American organizations concerned with generation; 15 percent is second; 25 Middle East affairs.

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109 Photo. NY Convention and Visitors Bureau -t Arab-American religious needs are Buffalo, respectively; St. George served by a variety of institutions. Melkite Orthodox Church in Albany; St. George churches are located in Patterson, Syrian Orthodox Church in Utica; and St. Brooklyn, and Yonkers. Coptic churches Michael Orthodox Church in Geneva. in Jersey City and Brooklyn serve the Maronite Churches include St. Maron in recent Egyptian immigrants. The Williamsville; Our Lady of Lebanon in Maronite cathedral is located in Brooklyn. Niagara; St. Ann Maronite Church in Syrian Orthodox churches are located in Troy; and St. Louis of Gonzaga in Utica. Brooklyn and Patterson as well as The two Melkite churches are St. Basil in Bergenfield and Yonkers. The Muslim Utica and St. Nicholas in Rochester. There community has mosques in Manhattan, are Islamic Centers in Schenectady, Brooklyn, Westchester, Jersey City, Buffalo, Lackawanna, Syracuse, with one Patterson, Newark and Pasaic. being built in Rochester.

Upstate New York 41:;%T.- - ---''''-, ;".".4likao.,

',., There are an estimated 7 ;. ,:1;.;:, ktilij:2+1/4.N: :al 1 k-11 90,000 to 105,000 Arab-Americans in , .11:*A 1..*44 .. '. . 7. ::.4.1;% -. s, t 404,11.....: I *--`-:,' upstate New York. Total population of the ..:,:solti,lie re' _ ;...;-4. area is estimated at 5 million. , -!----...44 k4;,+ , ,zoif.f... :÷e4,;f40 Arab-Americans are concentrated in 4,....-___. ' k 44 .4.----:-. S.::-'-'444 Albany, Buffalo/Niagara Falls, Rochester, V. *,1,----11:.°A;'''''` Syracuse, Utica, with a small community in Binghampton. The vast maj, rity are Syrian/Lebanese of which most are Christian. All three major Christian Ira ,- denominations, Maronite, Melkite, and iv 11" ,.;:z ------,,, -1.--; Orthodox, are present, though certain "4 , ,,,_ A. .... 0- areas are fairly exclusive. Whereas most of the Lebanese in Utica are Maronite, most of the Syrians in Geneva are Orthodox. There are, though, some Muslim and Druze Lebanese. The second major group Whereas there are few, if any, Arab- is the Palestinians, most of whom came in American groups outside the church in the 1960s and 1970s. Of these Geneva and Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Palestinians, roughly one-half are Buffalo/Niagara Falls, and Rochester host Christian and one-half are Muslim. Other a number of organizations. National Arab- sizable groups include the Egyptians in American groups such as NAAA and Schenectady and the Yemenis in ADC are found in the major areas, and Lackawanna. Small numbers of Iraqis and often the memberships and activities Jordanians can be found throughout the overlap. There are other non-sectarian area. Arab-American groups such as the Arab- Of the three major Christian American Council in Syracuse and the denominations, the Orthodox have the Arab-American Federation in Buffalo. largest number of churches: St. Elias in Various nationalist groups also exist, some Syracuse; St. George Antiochian of which are the Cedars of Lebanon Club, Orthodox Church and St. George the Ramallah Club, the American 110 Orthodox Church in Niagara Falls and Lebanese League, the Yemeni Club, and the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. Student groups are mainly in Albany, Buffalo, and Syracuse, which have general Arab Student Organizations as well as smaller national groups. In addition to these groups, ethnic festivals in Rochester, Utica, Buffalo/Niagara Falls, and Syracuse bring the Arab-American community together.

Pennsylvania The estimated Arab- American population of Pennsyl- vania is 120,000, in a state whose total population is estimated at 12 million. Arab- American communities exist in cities in the eastern and western parts of the state. In Cultural Society and organizations to raise the east, these include the Philadelphia funds for the villages of origin metropolitan area, Allentown, Easton, (Allentown), the Northeastern Association Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. In the west, of Arab-Americans and the Knights of they are the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Lebanon (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), and the including Jeanette, New Castle, Johnstown"El Fityet Aliween" Club and Islamic and Altoona. The majority of Arab- Society of Greater New Castle. Americans across the state is second and The churches play a central role in third generationthe assimilated childreneach of the communities. In Pittsburgh and grandchildren of the Arab immigrantsand Philadelphia, there are several Eastern who arrived in the United States between Orthodox and Maronite Churches, 1890 and the 1920s. One exception is including St. George Eastern Orthodox Allentown, where immigrants who began Church in Upper Darby in the arriving in the late 1960s and in increasingPhiladelphia suburbs and Our Lady of numl-P..rs throughout the 1970s make up Victory Maronite Church in Pittsburgh as an estimated 65 percent of thepopulation.well as the largest Orthodox Church in In the other cities, the ratio of relatively Pittsburgh, St. George's. Other churches new arrivals to second and third include St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox generation Arab-Americans variec (rom Church (Wilkes-Barre), St. George Syrian 10 percent in the Johnstown-Altoona areaOrthodox Church (Allentown), Our Lady to 50 percent in Philadelphia. The majorityof Lebanon Maronite Church (Easton), St. of Arab-Americans in the state are of John Maronite Church and St. Elias Syrian and Lebanese origin. Most are Orthodox Church (New CastW and one Christian, eitner Eastern Orthodox or of the oldest Orthodox Churches in the Marmite. New Castle has one of the archdiocese, St. Mary Antiochian Church largest and oldest Alawi communities in in Johnstown. the country. There are mosques in Philadelphia and Each Arab-American community has Pittsburgh, and an Islamic Society for the its social or cultural organization, which Alawi and Sunni communities in New often serves as a center for community Castle and a small Moslem community activity. These include the Ramallah Club associated with Lehigh University in (Philadelphia), the Arab-American Easton. 111 Ohio

The Arab-American community in Ohio, estimated at120,000,is approximately40percent immigrant and 60 percent later generation. All five major

cities, Columbus, , Cincinnati, -;;-,),,fk:__.:,,-1,a._:. .7-4---,....,-. \t.....,..,.., Toledo and Akron, have large Arab- .4%.",...,.., .....- s--., . American . The majority of . . Arab-Americans in Ohio are Syrian- Lebanese, of whom most are Christian. I -%f ,,::\:S:0, The others are the Palestinians, of whom 14.-``'t'V.7rt.,...- two-thirds are Christian and one-third ..,-.

Muslim, and the Egyptians, of whom _ roughly half are Coptic and half Muslim. A small number of Iraqis also live in Ohio. Of the three major Christian denominations, the Orthodox have the "." most churches in Ohio: St. George and St. Elias in Toledo; St. Nicholas in Cincinnati; St. George in Cleveland; St. George in Akron. Maronite churches are: St. Anthony in Cincinnati; St. Maron in Cleveland; Cedar of Lebanon Maronite Church in Akron. There are three Melkite churches in the state: St. Elias in Cleveland; St. Joseph in Akron; one in Midwest Columbus. There are Coptic churches in both Cleveland and Columbus. The Arab-Americans first Muslim community is well-served by came to the Midwest in the Islamic centers in all major metropolitan early 1900s from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan areas. Non-sectarian organizations include and Palestine. Most of them immigrated the Cleveland Association of Middle East to America in search of work, and traveled Organizations (CAMEO) and the Arab- to Midwest cities after hearing of job American Associations in Cincinnati, opportunities from factory recruiters who Toledo, Cleveland and Columbus attract a often met them as they arrived at Ellis diverse group of Arab-Americans. Often Island. In the Midwest, the Arab- the memberships and activities overlap. Americans, invariably called Syrians, Major nationalist groups include the worked in many types of mills, peddled American Syrian-Lebanese Clubs in goods, or set up sm.:11 businesses suchas Columbus and Cleveland, the Kirby produce markets and clothing stores. A Kanafar Club in Akron, the Ramallah few even became homesteaders, like a Club in Cleveland, the Egyptian group of Lebanese Muslims who Friendship Society in Columbus, and the established the first mosque in the U.S. at Palestine Human Rights Campaign in Ross, North Dakota. Other early Muslim Cincinnati. University Arab and Arab- communities settled in Cedar Rapids, Iowa American groups abound, with Arab and Michigan City, Indiana. Today small student organizations in each of the but significant pockets of Arab-American major cities. Annual events such as the culture are found in North Dakota, South International Folk Festival in Cincinnati Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, as and the haflehs and festivals put on by well as in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, many of the churches are important Michigan and Indiana. Two of the largest functions that keep Ohio Arab-Americans concentrations of Arab-Americans can be 112 cohesive and proud of their heritage. found in Detroit and Chicago. . . Detroit Human Service Workes' Coalition, the Arab Women's Association, the Jordan Metropolitan Detroit's diverse Club, the Holy Redemption Club, the El- population of 4.7 million includes some Bakoora Club, the El-Watan Club, the 250,000 Arab-Americans. Of these, 50 Ramallah Club, the Palestine Aid Society, percent are first generation and 50 the Syrian-Lebanese Cultural Society, and percent second, third and fourth the Syrian Club. Local chapters of national generation. In the Detroit regions, Arab- Arab-American groups in Detroit include Americans come primarily from four the ADC, the NAAA, the AAUG. areas. Over half of the Arab-American population trace their ancestry to Syria and Lebanon. The first wave of Arab- Chicago Americans came from these countries in the early 1900s. There has been a new An estimated 120,000 of Chicago's wave of immigration from Lebanon since total population of 3 million are Arab- the Civil War began there in 1975. Americans of various national Approximately 20 percent of the Arab- backgrounds. While Lebanese- and American population is made up of Palestinian-Americans predominate, Chaldeans from Iraq. They began to others trace their roots to Egypt, Jordan, arrive in Detroit in the late 1950s Syria and Iraq. A number of churches following the 1958 revolution. Palestinians (Melkite, Maronite and Orthodox) and make up :llmost 13 percent of the Arab- mosques serve the religious needs of the American population. The first wave of community. Approximately 85 percent of Palestinian immigration to the Detroit the Arab-American population is second, area followed the 1948 catastrophewhen third and fourth generation, with virtually all the Arabs were expelled from immigrants constituting about 15 percent. eastern Palestine. The most recent Among the churches attended by community is that of the Yernenis who Chicago's Arab-American population are: make up 5 percent of the Arab-American Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite, St. population. Many Christian and Muslim George Antiochian Melkite, St. John the denominations are present in Detroit's Baptist Melkite, St. Michael the Archangel Arab-American community. Among the Me lkite, and two Chaldean churches. Christians are Maronites, Greek Muslim institutions and places of worship Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox, Coptic include the Islamic society, the American and Chaldean. Among the Muslims are Islamic College, the Mosque Foundation, Sunni, Shia and Zaydi. the Mosque of Umar, the Islamic Cultural Numbered among Arab-American Center, the Islamic Community Center, religious institutions are: St. Maron and the Islamic Society of Northern Maronite Church, Our Lady of Lebanon Illinois University. Maronite Church, St. George Orthodox Arab-American organizations in Church, Mother of God Chaldean Chicago include the Mid-American Arab- Church, St. Mark Coptic Church, St. American Chamber of Commerce, the Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, St. Phoenician Club, the Egyptian Club, two Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, and the Arab-American Ladies' Societies, the Arab Detroit Islamic Center. Arab-American Community Center, the Arab-American clubs include: the Beit Hanina Club, the Congress for Palestine, and the Arab Community Center for Economic Association for Arab Palestine. There are and Social Services, the American-Arab also local chapters of the United Holy Chaldean Center, the Iraqi Graduate l.and Fund, the Ramallah Club, the Society, the Federation of Syrian Association of Arab-American University Orthodox Youth Organizations, the Graduates, the Palestine Congress of Beqaa League, the American-Yemeni North America, the November 20th Benevolent Society, the Union of Yemeni Coalition, and the ADC. The Palestine Immigrants, the Islamic Association of Human Rights Campaign National Office Greater Detroit, the Arab-American is also located in Chicago. 113

15 There are mosques in Atlanta, Ga.; The Southeast Birmingham, Ala.; Miami, Fla.; , La.; and Charlotte, N.C. The major national Arab-American The combined population of the states organizations have chapters in the larger of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, southern cities. ADC, NAAA, PCNA, North and South Carolina, as of 1981, is ADS, AFRP, ALL and ALSAC are all estimated at 33.1 million. The Arab- represented. American population of this area is estimated at between 60,000-70,000. Most Arab-Americans in the South trace their roots to Lebanon or Syria. Palestinians comprise the third largest group. Small numbers of Egyptian immigrants are scattered throughout the region, along with a smattering of immigrants from Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf States. The Texas communities divide roughly as follows: Lebanese, 60 percent; Syrian, 22 percent; Palestinians, 10 percent; Egyptians, 3 The Arab-American percent; others, 5 percent. About 15 population of Texas, estimated to be about percent are first generation; 45 percent, 30,000 is widely scattered in a total state second generation; 30 percent, third population of more than 14 million. generation; 10 percent, fourth generation. Many Texan Arab-Americans are Scores of social clubs in the South are descended from settlers from Greater associated with the Southern Federation Syria who came around the turn of the of Syrian-Lebanese American Clubs. century. More recent immigrants in the Among them are numerous Cedars clubs 1960s and 1970s are Lebanese and and others that cater to the local Lebanese Palestinian for the most part, although and Syrian communities, such as the Al there are also people from modern Syria Kareem Club of St. Petersburg, Fla.; the and Egypt. Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, and Phoenician Club of Greenville, S.C.; the Saudi Arabia are represented by relatively Syrian-Lebanese American Clubs of Palm small numbers. Beach and Orlando, Fla.; and many others. These Texans are highly industrious In Jacksonville, Fla., there is a sizeable and prosperous. More than half of the community of Palestinians from Ramallah descendents of the original immigrants are who meet at the Ramallah-American college-educated, as are more recent Club. Those clubs open to persons of any arrivals Arab background include the Salaam Club The Arab-American community in of Jacksonville and the recently formed Texas asserts pride in its origins, and Middle Eastern Heritage Club of west many activities are centered on religious central Florida. institutions. As a community, their profile A partial listing of religious institutions is low, perhaps less so in Houston than in in the South follows: Maronite churches other cities. They are highly assimilated, include St. Elias, Birmingham, Ala.; yet, for many, social life focuses on family Archangel Michael, Fayetteville, N.C.; St. and Arab-American friends. Joseph, Atlanta, Ga. Melkite churches Many Arab-Americans in Texas include St. George, Birmingham, Ala.; St. belong to Orthodox churches: St. George , Atlanta, Ga.; Me lkite Greek Orthodox Church in Houston; St. Mission, Miami, Fla. Antiochian Orthodox Gregory and St. Elias in Austin; St. churches include St. George, Jacksonville, George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Fla.; St. George, Coral Gables, Fla.; St. El Paso; St. Constantine and Helen Elias, Atlanta, Ga.; St. Mary, West Palm Orthodox Church in Dallas; and in 114 Beach, Fla.; St. Philip, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Beaumont.

1 f; active, as is the Palestine Aid Society. Maronites support St. George Arab-Americans The Arab-American Association of Maronite Catholic Church in San Antonio in Texas tried as well as a Maronite mission in Austin. University Graduates (AAUG) and Arab- to establish Many Christians belong to Catholic and American Medical Association (AAMA) themselves in Episcopal churches, and one Palestinian both have chapters in Houston. ADC's business, freeing American family in Houston attends the chapter has about 500 members. NAAA themselves from Quaker meeting in Houston. There is also recently started a chapter in Dallas and is fadory life or the a Coptic church, St. Mark's in Houston. trying to set up one in Houston as well. hard times of Islamic centers are found in Houston, There are numerous Palestinian peddling. This El Paso, Dallas and Ft. Worth as well as in organizations on the university campus. 1920 shop of smaller cities. Arab-American culture is celebrated Mansour Farah Social activities center mainly on the by the churches, including the Orthodox producing work churches, but there are active social clubs churches in Houston and El Paso, and the clothes became as well, particularly in Houston. The Southern Federation. A Lebanese booth is the basis for the Southern Federation of Syrian-Lebanese part of the annual Folk life Festival, ard spedacular suc- American Clubs has a strong chapter Houston's KPFT boasts a weekly "Arab cess of the Farah there. The Jamail Club, the Med Club, the Hour." Manufacturing Ramallah and El Nassar clubs are also Company, maker of Farah Jeans.

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115 1.17 California

The Arab-American popula- tion of California is esti- mated at between 260,000 and 280,000 ina state where total population is 23,700,000. The Arab-American population is equally divided between foreign-born immigrants and later generations born in the U.S. The older communitiesare predominantly Syrian-Lebanese and exist throughout California. Recent immigrants tend to be of two groupsPalestinians, who came to the San Francisco Bayarea after 1967, and Yemenis, whoare concentrated in the Bay area, Delano and San Joaquin Valley. The larger number of Arab-Americans are Christian, the major denominations being Orthodox, Maronite and Melkite. There are large numbers of Assyrian-Chaldeans who are mainly in Los Angeles, , Turlock and San Jose. Other nationalities include Egyptians, Attitudes), which is connected to U.C.- many of whom live in the Bay area, San S.F., NAJDA in the Bay Area, which Joaquin Valley and Southern California, consists of Arab and American women,as and Armenian-Lebanese, whoare does SAWA (Sacramento Arab-American concentrated in Fresno. Womens Association) in Sacramento. Orthodox churches predominate, with Throughout California, there exist three in Los Angeles,one in San Diego numerous national groups, the oldest and three in the San Francisco Bayarea. being the Lebanese-Syrian American There are Maronite churches in San Society in Los Angeles and the St. Jude Francisco and Los Angeles, and Melkite Club in the Bay Area. Other major churches in Los Angeles and Sacramento. national groups include the Ramallah Islamic Centers have been established Club, the American Lebanese League, the throughout California, but the majority of Yemeni Association, the Palestine Arab members are non-Arab. Other religious Fund, The Egyptian Cultural Club and the institutions include Assyrian-Chaldean Assyrian Civic Club. churches in Turlock, San Jose and As California has a vast number of Southern California, Coptic churches in university campuses, Arab and Arab- Los Angeles and San Francisco Bayarea American student groups are relatively and a Druze Society in Los Angeles. visible. Most of the majorcampuses have Groups such as the Arab-American an Arab Student Organization, and the Club of Sacramento, the Arab Cultural majority have one or more national Center in the Bay Area, the Arab groups. Arab-Americans in business have Community Center in Los Angeles, and begun to organize, evidence being the the Arab-American Association of Orange large number of Arab-Americans in the County are non-sectarian. Other groups Independent Grocers Association in the such as the ADC, NAAA, AAUG also Bay Area and the Arab-American Medical attract multi-national Arab-Americans. and Bar Associations. The U.S.-Arab Prominent humanitarian groups in Chamber of Commerce, which employs California include US-OMEN many Arab-Americans, has an office in (Organization for Medical and Educational San Francisco, and allows for greater Needs) in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, communication between the U.S. and 116 SIHA (Study of Immigrant Health Arab World. 1:E such as Denver, Portland, Seattle and Las Western States Vegas. The Arab-American population, about which very little is known, follows In the states of , this pattern fairly closely. Approximately Idaho, Montana, Oregon, half of the community in this region can North Dakota and Washington, whose be found in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, total population is estimated at 13.8 Washington. million, the Arab-American population is There appear to be few religious, social roughly estimated at 45,000. and political institutions in the West to As in other parts of the United States, serve the scattered Arab-American the Arab-American population of the area community. However there are two is made up mostly of Christian churches in Portland catering to the immigrants from Lebanon and Syria from community, the St. Sharbel Maronite around the turn of the century. There are Church and St. George Antiochian also Palestinians, Iraqis and Egyptians, but Orthodox Church. Also in Portland is the these are in the minority. Unlike Arab Arab-American Community Center. In immigrants from many other parts of the Denver the Committee for Justice in the country, those who settled in the West Middle East and the Western Federation came either from Mexico or Canada. of Americans of Arab Heritage exist. In general the population of the There are Islamic centers in Denver, western states is sparse and scattered, Portland and Seattle. with large concentrations in a few cities The first convention of the Western Federation of Syrian clubs in 1918 was held in Williston, N.D., one of many early Arab- American communities in Western United States.

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The bustling mining community of Butte, Mont. attracted a large settlement ifr of immigrants from Lebanon before the turn of the century where they earned their living by peddling or o' owning stores. This was a birthday party for one of the many children of the community, Stephen George (the well-dressed young fellow in the very center of the group). - 117 BEST COPY AVAILABLE The Way We Were

In this section, ADC Reports draws upon publications in which our forebears found a forum during the early decades of this century. Our numbers have multiplied since then, and we seem to have come sofar, but our _concerns are not so differentfrom those trom whom we draw our heritage. This is part of their legacy to us. This is the way we were.

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The Way We Were

HE history of any group of people that exists within a larger group is essentially a chronicle of their ideas and how those ideas coalesce to represent a community of interest. We have chosen the articles reprinted in this section as illustrative of the community of interest that existed within the community of Arab-American immigrants in the early decades of this century. The publication which, more than any other at the time, set standards of literary excellence and provided an English- language forum for Syrian men and women of letters in this country, and from which many of these articles are drawn, was The Syrian World, established by Salloum A. Mokarzel in1926. Mokarzel filled his pages with poetry, plays, fiction, essays and reports from the Syrian press "back home." He drew upon the works of such luminaries as Philip K. Hitti and Kahlil Gibran. And he provided an outlet for the work of young, aspiring unknowns as well. Mokarzel established The Syrian World at a time when the unchanging East was changing fast. As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, Syria was marching inexorably from a tradition of feudal authority into an age of discovery and reason and progress. The great ideals for secularization and modernization wereno- where more prominent than among Arab- Americans of Mokarzel's generation. Philip K. Hitti wrote in the pages of The Syrian World in1927that many Syrians "of the present generation stand perplexed at 121

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`7., ft) 4-0 the crossing of the roads. Behind them lies contrib a rich and varied heritage of achievement He live representing ages past. Ahead of them fathers stand the results and products of Western the ten civilization with its blessings and curses, demeri its nationalism, democracy, imperialism, the qui commercialism and progressiveness. What started then to preserve of this past inheritance privatk and what to discard?" bundle We, their sons and daughters, find that wi ourselves asking similar questions, and right tc offer the following articles as testimony to are me the wit and wisdom of those from whom profess we draw our heritage. success

"Pioneers"

In a 1931 issue of The Syrian World an unknown author heralded the "unhonored and unsung" pioneersthe first generation of immigrants

who live in this CIZVEcountry are constantly reminded of the debt we owe our pioneer fathers. As this is a new nation we are forever commemorating some historical incident and the persons connected with it. All these things are commonplace to the citizens of a young country as ours, but nonetheless, praise and credit will never cease to be poured into the coffers of those who blazed the trail for our comforts, conveniences, and all that goes with our modern America. When we think of pioneers, we associate them with those rugged souls who helped build our country. But there is another pioneer to whom we have let pass "unhonored and unsung." His name is not shouted from the hilltops nor praised in books. Unconsciously, we have relegated him to oblivion. He is not a master of our rich 122 civilization, nor a certain individual that

1 by commercial standards, for the Dpportunities they made possible for us are beyond our fondest hopes to repay. As members of the new generation, we can perpetuate their ideas and ideals, tempered with our American traits. It is through young Syrian clubs that we can acknowledge the debt we owe our fathers. Those who serve the Syrian-American spirit also serve their fathers. Ours can be Most early Arab-American communities no ordinary venture, for via these clubs were established by travelling peddlers who we may let the world know who we are later chose to settle down and open up and what we propose to do, for we are businesses in a favorite town or city. but the products of our inheritance. 11 4:111.. r1 rt.,.

123 "The Syrian

The Syrian World was published in Americe le monthly from 1926 to 1931. It was na- by Dr. Talcott Williams tionally circulated Old In this 1930 article, one scholar noted the 1101AIPM. Lao, and, as the first SALLOtIll A. %out032 Yflall English-language historical importance of the region from which v literary journal to so many early immigrants came, and celebrated serve the Arab- the cosmopolitan note that its culture brought A Challenge America. GenerationSyrians American com- Tothe Younger munity, marked its By kl I. ICATISAN self-awareness. al of otterc4 tn World WV 2 rests SYRIA and Syrians constitute the Cl.O5F. of the trade 11. wgrar of thc Fast ha. and culture. and women in first land and the first people in SINCETHI.the civairatinow intelligent men hos waledand reflecting and Nad this. interest toot among keen rcreeccon, rnited State,. ',se mind, alla mut the outhwestern Asia who have ragland and thePerwk ni .cn.i t ienn.rhd tradninns row. eversince. tyranny of turned thor entered int3 modern civilization. eche agairrn the and tIVI orth.rdnrs.the arg.dling WitOK mauls nf convenunn .31,1112, from accepted authority humdtaiwol and hutran.11., Indirrerar They stand alone in this. If Syria were an with deer holocaust of ...II, I . faces away garpntuan The. turned 3.2, S tragedv with U. of dollar. gr. . 1.1.. untold ntilltnn, hoe. . ghls the ..1.nh 1 islanded-land, instead of being four able Icia in anuld permit..1 ,earthtugls , AIM thee curnine rnner 00011 a is 1 o., thousand years a thoroughfare of mist" on whION Ina ,It terrific het -tka,twtt conquering peoples, swept by many tides, thins, he in thiInt ot..t, the to fedlow. CON it would be, in its place, as striking an ,i i .. ( i i.l WCte,111, "V, n ENM ( CowArikyd .or hi' II I. 1 example of progress as Japan. and w t. .I w. \ lit. W....I, thrio t The Syrians have in the last seventy 1-teud 'AtiwIls ?..

t years added a new chapter to the loftier thett ,noteth tone of the Arabic literature. I can myself remember seeing even Moslem eyes brighten as the poems of Nasif el Yaziji were adequately read. A new field of fiction has been created in Syria which influences the Arab world as a whole. Modern journalism in Arabic has been almost wholly created by Syrians. A Syrian edits the organ of the Shareef of Mecca, who sits in the seat of Muhammad. The leading magazine at Cairo, foremost in the Arab world, was brought into being by Syrians. Wherever there are newspapers in Arabic, they are generally [tho] not always, edited by Syrians. The new literature of the Arab tongue, in science, in history, in the discussion of modern issues, is by no means as large, as effective or as widespread as the like literature in the newly awakened peoples between the Aegean and the Baltic, but the output of Syria on modern topics and the progress of to-day exceeds that of any land or people in Southwestern Asia. This is not due simply to access and 124 position. Egypt has access and position as

U BEST COPY !!OE much as Syria. Persia has as lofty a significance and weight to the Syrian tradition. Intellectual ability is still high in migration of our day. I know no American Mesopotamia. Narrow as is its intellectual city where I have not spoken Arabic and tradition, cramped as it has been by no port on the gulf or the Caribbean fanaticism, yet no one can fail to see that where the Syrian is absent. the Khanates have powerfully influenced No melting pot is the United States. It Moslem legalism. Let us not forget, this is never has and it never will reduce our one of the great systems of law, the population to a common amalgam. The weight of whose codes, statutes, stocks of many European peoples and traditions, decisions and precedents are most of the Mediterranean races have still cited and argued, and establish been grafted on our national stock. There property and personal rights, from the they will remain and retain their old life, Judicial Committee of Privy Council of strength, genius and flavor. They all, if Westminster to the far-flung fringing they abide in belief in liberty, shall be palms of the Malaysian Archipelago. grafted in and grow, maintaining an But the trading instinct of the identity through centuries to come. Phoenician has carried the Syrian trader So after three centuries, Hollander, over both North and South America as Huguenot, men of the Palatinate and both well as Africa and Southern Asia. He has banks of the Rhine, of Brittany and of penetrated to the head-waters of the Sweden and Switzerland retain their Amazon, he is to be found in all parts of identity in their descendants. A like the West coast of Latin America and service has Dr. Philip K. Hitti done in his more than one national legislature and book "The Syrians in America." His city ordinance has acknowledged the intimate acquaintance with Syrian superior commercial ability of the Syrian immigration, his sympathy with the life by trying to exclude him altogether. The from which this addition to American life trade of Brazil passes more and more into comes, all these things enable him to his hands and every year there appear at understand, to appreciate and to describe Beirut from the very ends of the Western the Syrian in America. For all these Syrian Before he moved world and the outer Eastern coast of Asia, traditions I have the deepest sympathy. to Birmingham, the sons of the alumni of the American There I was born and there to-day the Khattar Wheby University at Beirut. youngest of my father's descendants are had been trained This cosmopolitan note lends passing their childhood days. as a teacher in Lebanon. When he arrived in the United States he turned to peddling asa means of livelihood. When it was decided in Birmingham that the children of the settlers needed to be edu- cated in the language and ways of the old country, Khattar became the likely choice to teach them. Seen here with Khattar is his IL;, first Arabic speak- !- ing class in 1915. 125 l'hoto f4rend.1 Mil Awn Amemast !bra, v of

9 7 "A Challenge contentment, with its renewed vigor and forward-looking progressive outlook on the future, with its determined efforts to to the Younger create local cultures preserving all the good elements of progress which have Generation carried the West a long distance ahead of the East in material comfort and supremacy, is more and more in the Syrians" minds of serious Western thinkers and by Hi. Katibah writers of our present generation. Back of that interest, we think, is the feeling that In a cautionary article in 1932, Katibah, a East and West have mutually leading figure in the community, warned the supplementary forces and elements children of immigrants not to reject their necessary for a complete and wholesome "birthright," to know their ethnic history and to life, be it social or individual. "make something of a talent handed you by If that is the case, and there is no Providence instead of burying it timidly in the doubt in our mind that it is, then a special soil." duty, a special moral obligation, we believe, rests on the shoulders of a class of people who live amongst us in these (SPINCE the close of the World United States. If this duty, this obligation, War, a strong and acute interest is shirked by them, then a great spiritual in the East and things Eastern opportunity would have been missed by has been stirred in intellectual them, an opportunity which others, centers of the West. And the East, with its perhaps less qualified, would take up and more mature view of life, with its exploit. More than that, a great chance for instinctive emphasis on those human creative thinking and for contributing values which make for happiness and something worthwhile to the

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BEST COPY Pm 1 9 8 heterogenous and rich culture of this was an appropriate symbol, is giving way country, will pass from their hands. to a more natural, more vital conception, It is needless for me to say that I have one truer to life and its laws of growth. in mind the younger generation of According to this latter conception the Syrians born and brought up in this racial differences are not considered as country. I have in mind the second- undesirable elements to be eliminated, but generation Syrians of whom the late as desirable ones to be incorporated in the Gibran said: living body of the American nation. The "I believe that you have inherited from your colorless, standardized unity gives place to forefathers an ancient dream, a song, a prophecy, a rich variety in unity. True assimilation which you can proudly lay as a gift of gratitude of the foreign groups within the body upon the lap of America." politic of this country, which this writer It is the new generation of Syrians in has consistently and persistently whose veins the blood of the intrepid, advocated, does not mean the absorption adventurous Phoenicians and proud Arabs of one racial element by another. It courses through, and whom the beloved means, rather, the interaction of those poet of the Cedars earnestly and different elements to produce therefrom pleadingly charged "to stand before the towers of a wholesome unity rich in the New York, Washington, Chicago, and San contributions of the best and most Francisco saying in your heart, 'I am the descendant beautiful in all the races that threw their of a people that builded Damascus, and Biblus, and lot with the New World. Tyre and Sidon, and , and now I am here Hegel once predicted in his Philosophy of to build with you, and with a will:- History that the destiny of the world The once accepted view of will one day be determined on the shores Americanization, which essayed to melt of the New World. This prophecy is being the different racial characteristics and fulfilled in our own days, and before our differences into one homogenous own eyes, but not for the same reasons amalgam, and for which "the melting pot" advanced by the German philosopher.

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127 Photo. Bibbotheque Nationak, Pans 19.9 Instead of a bloody war contending for an Americanization which is effected not the only land still available for conquest in a semi-conscious effort of imitation, but and exploitation by overcrowded nations, with a fully conscious realization of the a new world idea, a world unity through process of adaptation and its application to international understanding and local needs and local problems. The Arabic internarional amity is the one illustrated weekly, patterned after the distinguishing mark of American popular American publications, is blazing leadership today which is holding the only its way, brushing aside the cobwebs of ray of hope to a distracted and haggard tardy traditions, enlightening the popular world. mind to social evils, oddities and scandals, And what a role the different nationals arousing the dormant conscience of enrolled under the banner of the Stars reform in serious-minded citizens, and and Stripes could play in this gripping reaching quarters of human response drama, in the realization of this glorious which the more literary organs left dream, could be left to the imagination of completely untouched. the perspicacious reader. But it is only This is a phase of the Americanization those who have travelled in Europe and or democratization of the world for which the different countries of the East and the younger Syrian-American generation, studied for themselves the amazing and happily or unhappily, is not called upon to tremendous penetration of American shoulder. Most of the second generation influence abroad who could fully realize Syrians born in this country hardly know the extent of that influence. enough Arabic to carry on a kitchen Undoubtedly the lion's share in this conversation with their grandmothers, spiritual conquest of America falls to and perhaps a limited few could pen a American citizens of foreign extraction letter in Arabic to their cousins in Syria or who had returned to live in the countries Lebanon without committing a dozen of their origin or those who have mistakes or more on the same page. translated into their different national But this does not exempt the younger Ceramic folk art languages the spirit and technique of Syrians from a service which they owe to displayed in a American democracy and American the country of their adoption, a country to Palestinian exhibitculture, the spirit of youthful adventure, which they have pledged fealty and in 1983 in of buoyant optimism and undaunted undivided loyalty. Washington, D.C.courage. One of the first things that Paradoxical as it may seem, this service at the Rayburn attracted my attention in the East was consists in their being better Syrians than Bldg., U.S. House "the Americanization" of the Arabic press, they usually like to admit. It is in of Representatives. assimilating, as they alone can admirably do, the spiritual culture of the East, in whose subsoil their very roots are deeply imbedded, and presenting it in their daily lives, their social intercourse, the spoken and the written word, in such a manner that the average American can readily understand and appreciate. Is it not pathetic that while American university students, boys and girls of Puritan origin, or descendants of American pioneers who trekked to the Middle West and the Pacific Coast states in their covered wagons, ransack the musty books of history to write about Mohammed Ali Pasha, a Tamerlane, a Harun-ar-Rashid, our younger Syrian generation should avoid the study of Arabic and things Arabian from a 128 subconscious feeling of inferiority, or lest Atm Pf.1,11 their Americanization be challenged? A few weeks ago I happened to speak informally before a group of second- generation Syrians in Boston. I told them briefly of the tremendous renaissance movement going on today in the Arabic- Who's Who speaking countries, notably Egypt. It was encouraging and inspiring to see their eyes open wide with interest and in Utica amazement as I told them of the trend in religious liberalism in Islam, of the Where the Blue-Eyed feminist movement in the land of harems, Saxon is Finding Himself of the inroad of industrialism into the ancient lands of artisan guilds and in the Minority enslaved fellahin, of labour unions and In September 1917, this feature story agrarian cooperative societies in the Valley appeared in the Utica Saturday Globe of the Nile, in Damascus, Beirut and heralding the presence in the community of a Baghdad, Qf the introduction of the motor distinctive new element. pump and labour-saving machineries into countries where the human hand did all the work before. They asked intelligent HINK not, oh blue-eyed Saxon, questions, and took down names of books that you are altogether and dealing with such subjects. But what irrevocably it. You must have surprised me in turn was the fact that been impressed if you have any these things had not been known to them brains and perceptions, in reading the before; that they showed as little army draft lists with the predominance of knowledge, or if we are inclined to be less "foreign" names. Did their significance charitable, as much abysmal ignorance penetrate your intelligence, or has your about the countries of their forefathers splendid isolation with your kind made and ancestors as the average American you impervious to the fact that you are boys and girls from Maine or Vermont. outnumbered? Forget for the nonce that you are I don't know exactly why we call them Syrians of Syrian extraction. Let us "foreign" names either. They are about as assume that you are as American as foreign as Smith and Jors were to the George Washington and Calvin Coolidge Van Dams and Van Horsts of a couple of themselves, and that there is not the least centuries ago. It's a fact, if we may rely on trace of foreign accent or mannerism in the veracity of chroniclers, that "some of your speech and behaviour, that you are our best families" then, as they came perfectly predestined and preconditioned straggling over from Connecticut into to the American social life. Let us assume New Netherlands, were considered the all this and keep in mind that there is rankest sort of outsidersjust common, today in America, in Europe, in England, a slab-sided Yankees. keen interest in countries and cultures Pretty soon the Van Dams and Van which just happened to be those of your Antwerps and the rest of the Low Dutch fathers and forefathers. Is it not the most of New Netherlands found their progeny logical thing in the world that you should outnumbered by the progeny of the be the ones of all God's creatures to take nimble-witted Yankee, with their wooden advantage of this interest, to exploit it to nut-megs and their inveterate tendency to its utmost limits, to take hold of assets swap and strike bargains. which were given you as a birthright, and And then there came another day. make something of a talent handed you And the offspring of the "common by Providence instead of burying it timidly Connecticut Yankees" found themselves in the soil, looking furtively to the right "the real old families." Then they woke and left as you do lest you be caught with up one morning in June to find the papers that talent in your hand? filled with after column of draft 129 registration names which looked queer and sounded queer. In one list they ended in "witz"; in another they ended in "ski." Those unpronounceable foreign names. Their children shall inheritthe landnot because they are necessarily superior to your children, but because they are more numerous. Your children, oh blue-eyed Saxon, proud of their heritage of a hundred or two hundred or three hundred years of ancestry back to the Mayflower, back to old England your children will be falling inlove with the black-eyed, black haired children whose fathers and mothers toil. And theSe have no heritage?

They Bring A Rich Heritage Aye, that they have. When your ancestors were dwelling in the fens, wearing the skins of beasts, killing wild animals with their huge clubs and dragging their not unwilling brides from their fathers' caves by their long fair tresses, the forebears of these strange people who have come to us were wearing the silk of the Orient, were dwelling in houses and worshipping in temples whose architecture of the world """ has not since excelled, producing literatures and philosophies and works of art that still are standards. Oh yes, these people have a heritage Ancestry Back to Solomon more ancient than yours. Delve into your own city. Get out of Those queer marks on the windows of your beaten track. Get acquainted with stores down on Bleecker Streetwhat are your new neighbors. Don't think yourself they? superior. There are surprises ahead They don't appear like Hebrew. What for you. are they, anyway? Go with me to where Cottage Place They are the characters of one of the leads. It's mighty easy to call them oldest tongues on earth. These strange "Po locks." I can take you to the upper flat cryptic things, like a cross between of a neat little house, as comfortably shorthand and the tracks of a fly, fresh furnished as your own, where a Polish from an ink bottlethese are possibly man will seat himself at the piano and the same sort of letters which the Man of play Chopin for you and disclose the Galilee one day wrote with his finger in beauties of the little known folk songs of the sand. For in all probability Christ that composer. spoke the Aramaic language, which is Ignorant Polander? closely akin to what the 2,500 Syrians in He can converse in French, Russian, Utica speak today. English and a number of dialects peculiar Ancient? Some of them can trace an to the place of his nativity. How many ancestry back to the days of Solomon, 130 languages can you speak? when Hiram of Tyre undertook the Photo: Museo Nazionale, Florence

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contract of furnishing lumber for the could get along in the old country; but we temple at Jerusalem. Proud? What have wanted freedom!" It is the burning of the you to be proud of, whose race story is same fire that drove the Pilgrims over lost in darkness at the beginning of here, the same fire that made the colonists , compared with the Syrians fight, the same fire that drives us into war who dwelt on Mount Lebanon and whose today, the fire of human liberty that sent history stretches back4,000or5,000 them hither, to find a place where they years? These are Americans. could toil and own a piece of God's green Have you ever drunk Turkish coffee, earth for their very own, where their that thick, strong coffee from Arabia with children could have a chance to learn and these your Syrian neighbors? Have you live, and where they could lift free hands ever fallen under the spell of the bubbling to the blue sky of heaventhis brought Turkish pipes on the floor which men of them here, and are they not as worthy to Syria smoke through long tubes? Have share the heritage as those who came you smelled the odor of the Turkish earlier, will they not be as good tobacco, which they import in leaf? Here's Americans? Bagdad, and Araby, the blest brought to your very door. Hear their music and heed their stories. They will tell you, many of them, "We 131 1 .4::"N13 Marriages and Funerals In her book Arab Americans and their Communities of Cleveland, Mary Macron writes of the customs that buffered Arab immigrants from the powerful tides of Americanization. She charts Arab life in .r. Cleveland from the first major wave, 1890- 1910, when villagers from the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon and nearby areas came to the 16. industrial heartland city. The new immigrants worked in factories, set up stores and sold crafts, making their way in the new world without losing touch with the old. With the gracious permission of the Cleveland State University's Ethnic Heritage Studies Program, ADC Issues number7offered to members selections from Macron's book. Excerpted below are two passages from that anthology. Mary Macron, one of ADC's earliest members and strongest supporters, passed away in 1981. Her essay was edited for publication by David Hamad. The Wedding

CWHEN a suitable match was made, the community could look forward to celebrating another important institution: marriage. A marriage took months to prepare for and days to celebrate. It was a bond that united not only the couple, but the families. The family of the groom would come to the father of the bride to ask for her 11. hand long before the groom was permitted to meet publicly with the girl. Often the marriage itself was preceded by Weddings were major events in the Arab-American a betrothal ceremony some six months to community, where old traditions, rituals and special holiday a year before, in which the young couple foods defined the special day. As much as they preserved would appear before the priest, in the tradition and reinforced family ties, the marriages also church, in the presence of both families marked a transition toward assimilation to a new society. and selected guests. Certain formalities would be Photo: Brenda McCallum, American Folk Life Center, Library ot Congress e,-.changed between the families, promises were made by the young man and young woman, and the priest would bless the engagement ring. Sometimes the young 132 man did not even have the pleasure of BEST COPY*MAC 1 4 slipping the ring on his beloved's finger. S the wedding date drew near, a This might be done by the priest or the ,...... gwave of excitement rippled father of the groom. through the whole community. Everyone The betrothal ceremony gave the knew nearly everyone else, friendships young couple the privilege of walking out carrying over from the days of village life together and being seen in public with a before coming to America. Customs chaperone. They could go to some social carried over, too, and tradition was functions, shop together for their new preserved and continued into the new life. household, and get to know each other a One of these Middle Eastern customs little better throughout the year of was el-Leilat el-Ghosal, when the bride was courtship which would prepare them for given a special party by all the girls and the marriage that would follow. women, much like the spinsters' night in A broken engagement was not to be the American custom. This was a night taken lightly. In such a case, this betrothal, when the men were excluded, and they blessed by the priest, had been betrayed, might hold a party of their own for the and protocol demanded that the priest . himself be required to dissolve the The feminine contingent would all arrangement. Most often, the onus fell bustle down the street to the bride's upon the young woman and jeopardized home, singing that spontaneous chant, the her chances for another match. Was she zaghloot, which praised the bride's irresponsible? Was she too proud? Was attributes and wished upon her health, she extravagant? Never mind that a wealth, a happy home, a loving husband, woman of integrity, realizing that this and at least a dozen childrenmost of young man was not her ideal mate for a them sons. The bride's mother would lifetime, might insist upon breaking the meet them at the door with a dignified contract. Never mind. This girl was welcome, and only after all were seated considered extremely difficult to please or would the bride enter the room, attended to understand, too willful, too demanding. by her sisters and radiant in her new Better to look elsewhere. finery. This betrothal ritual, much the same There would be much laughter. The in all Eastern rites (although not practiced older ladies, enjoying the feminine by later generation Arab-Americans), intimacy, would exchange stories about closely resembled the Islamic ritual still their own weddings and their total universally observed. This is called Kathit ignorance of all things connubial. Each Kitaab, the Writing of the Book. It is a would direct a sly remark toward the marriage cc ntract, in which the young bride at which all the others would laugh woman and young man are considered heartil.y.The bride would blush and they man and wife, except that their physical would Al laugh again. union takes place only after the bride "WI en my own wedding feast was leaves her father's house to enter the over," said one, "and everyone was leaving groom's home to live. The Muslim young the house of my husband's father, I put people, too, are accorded in this ceremony on my hat and prepared to go back home the privilege of walking out and going to with my sister. 'No,' she said to me, 'you entertainment together, and preparing, stay here, this is now your home.' And during this year of pre-marriage, their there I was with a husband I hardly knew. trousseau and home. This contract is I was tired, and I didn't know where I was even more binding upon them than is the to sleep that night." Then with a smile Christian betrothal, for a broken contract grown soft with years of acceptance, she is considered a divorce, and the young said, "I soon found out." man must pay to the father of the bride And from another: "In my day, there the dowry sum agreed upon so that she was not all this picking and choosing. will not be forced to remain in her father's They just told us, and that's who it was. home without means and dignity. In times Not everyone was as lucky as you, my girl. past, it would have been most unlikely Think of this one you're getting. Already that the girl would get a second offer. he has a stand in the market, and look at 133

I :45 BEST COPY AYAILIEI those shoulders, and those eyes a woman eldest could drown in. I tell you if I were mothe younger, I would run away from my godmc husband if your bridegroom had a bedroc brother." "And what would you do, old white 1 grandmother," laughed another, "hold him ritual in your lap and feed him grapes?" All Before the wedding feast, all the parlor, women from the bridegroom's family (for womei the wedding was given by the man's side) for thE would spend days preparing great trays of elders sweetsbaklawri, sambousek, mahmoul, flower ghraibehrich with butter and syrups and perfun filled with pistachios, walnuts or dates. zaghlooi There would be mounds of nutmeats, and utter s candies imported from New Yorkraha, was pl which was similar to the Greek loukoumi, brideg and apricot squares, sugared and the cal pistachioed. Long tables would be set up finally to hold the chicken and pilaf, stuffed grape dress 1 leaves, kousa (white squash filled with rice smoot and chopped meat), and kibbee (lamb, mothe pounded and pulverized in a large marble basin, and mixed with cracked wheat and seasonings). Vegetables were scrubbed and washed for salata, a salad mixed with lempn and olive oil. Huge round sheets of bread were tossed to paper thinness over the flying arms of the expert women bakers. The bread was baked for the feasting only hours before the great moment.

ON the morning of the wedding, these same women, who had worked through ,he night over the stoves and ovens, would dress in their finest clothing. With their husbands and children they would form an entourage to he bride's house to bring her to the church. Singing with joy, they would come to the bride's family who would meet them with something less than a show of enthusiasm. It was not proper to demonstrate any overt pleasure when giving up a daughter to another's household. There would be a cool politeness, which the groom's family understood, since they themselves had to observe the same proprieties when the groom's sister married. The bride's mother would weep and 134 the bride's father would bite his lip as the

A igh and shed more tears. This is when it had been adjusted to everyone's girl I dressed and now another satisfaction, all the women would chant -akes her from me to her own their happy song and bring the bride out le thought to herself. Oh, will befare the entire company. The women of her well, this daughter, whom I both families would receive flowers from from the breath of the wind? the bridegroom's mother, and the men groom's mother, as if reading would also choose some for their lapels. nights, would then glance Then the bride, her parents, and the [fully at the bride's mother as if to attendants would take their places in the ye I not a daughter of my own hired carriage and start off for the church. have given to another woman's The wedding was long, for after the -lave no fear, sister, I will bring no lengthy Mass, the ceremony uniting the his girl of yours." As if to prove young couple might last another hour. ould draw proudly from around The rings were blessed with much neck a gold chain, placing it chanting, and crowns were placed upon ohe bride's throat, a symbol and a the heads of bride and groomblessed The bride's mother would sigh and interchanged three timesas the acefully now that all the cantor sang and the priest prayed over RS had been observed. them. The priest would then lead the t the moment came. The bride couple around the alter and along the d seated, while both mothers aisles of the church. all the while chanting mportantly with her veil. Finally, the nuptial liturgy dnd swinging the thurible vigorously as the sweet and heavy vapors of incense filled the air. As the priest completed the ceremony and bent down to congratulate the bride and groom, an exultantzaghlootwould ring out in the little church, easing the solemnity of the long and symbolic ceremony. "Now good," an old grandfather would be heard to say. "Praise God, we have them married; let's get on to the feast." He would rise up in his pew, giving the signal for all to follow.

HE bridal feast was served in the bidegroom'sTri house by all the women of the familythe old and dignified matrons and every young girl who could carry a platter without spilling its contents. Group after group of diners sat down and rose up from the table, each in the order of his social position. The bride and groom were seated together at the head, the priest at their side, the fathers, grandfathers, elderly uncles and cousins, the mother and grandmother of the bride, and a few old friends whom time had given a position of community respect. At the first table, too, would be the adult guests from other cities. A Cleveland wedding might draw company from every 1r 7 city in Ohio, and sometimes even from : New York, Detroit and Chicago. 135 Photo: T.'w gran World 1 17BEST COPY MEW all the memories of the house. For so many of those people who could not read or write, extempore versing was a preservation of the poetry and music of generations, each adding, improvising and embellishing. As the first untutored generation died away, these verses were lost. The men rhymed their extempore not only at weddings, but on every festive occasion. They were singers, these men, and poets, and all the human emotions found expression in those strong voices. The women, too, vied with each other to compose beautiful chants. Rhyming and lilting, laughter and joy were captured on a golden chain of words ending in the pealing, exultant cry of the zaghloot. "La la la la lu lu lu l'aishe!""To life," they sang, "to life." An Arab wedding was not just a family event, a community occasion, and a weekend of festivities. It was rather, a command performance. Everyone had to This oil painting was done in "the Lebanese sing, everyone had to dance. fashion," in the early years of this century. Before the immigrants learned to sing the American national anthem, they sang the song of Syrian independence long years before independence became a reality. They sang this song at every The tables were set and reset until all wedding, and later generations, who had been fed. At last the children were learned not one word of Arabic, can still called, their Sunday clothing dusty from remember those phrases of patriotism play in the street. Fed and given their sung out by their grandparents. "Enthee share of sweets, they would then join the Souria ya biladi.""Thou art Syria, my other guests, seated and standing in a country." Love songs and ballads from great semicircle around a dais, on which home were sung and tears of the bride and groom accepted the good remembrance glistened in the eyes of the wishes of the company. guests as they applauded the singer. Men from the groom's family The oud, that pear-shaped instrument, gathered before the bridal couple. The thrummed its plaintive, yearning notes leader waved a handkerchief as the group against homesick hearts. It said to the danced the quick and emphatic , the bride and groom, "Young lovers, sing and age-old folk dance of every festive be happy! Can you know what lies ahead occasion. They stood before the young of your feet? Sing and be happy, young people, their hands upon each other's lovers, tomorrow and tomorrow, and shoulders, singing extempore. They tomorrow will come only too soon." praised the bride's beauty and virtue, the Now the derbecki took its turn, this old groom's nobility and manly attributes, and drum with its stretched goat skin. It was the parents' respect among all their tapped, knocked, and slapped with a gentle friends. Loud and long, in joyous hand, light and swift. Let it be thumped expression, their voices rang out to the by fingers that can pull shouts from its street. Later, the bride's relatives, not to throat, and let the young girls dance, their be outdone, composed even longer songs slender arms graceful as the willow in the which were more lavish in their praise, lake, their feet disciplined in each exquisite 136 their voices rising to echo and mingle withturn.

1 c, 1 :1 sensing that this parting would be forever, ran screaming and wailing down the street, tugging and pulling at the suitcase and carpet bag, pleading with Jidouh not to go but to stay, to stay? How many a ow grandfather tore the sob from his throat many asmall in that last embrace? Letters from the village or town often grandchild...ran brought news of an illness or death in the family. Everyone would be sick with screaming and anxiety and grief, for this marked another wailing down the parting and loss, the beloved face and voice to be seen and heard no more, and street, tugging and "here we are thousands of miles across the sea, without a last glance, without a pulling at the last word." suitcase and carpet The elderly family members who remained in America would not go to the bag, pleading with hospital, for to go to the hospital meant one was close to death. If one had to die, Jidouh not to go but then let it be in his own bed with his to stay, to stay? loved ones standing around him so that he could direct them as to his last wishes and admonish them to be loving and watchful of one another. What they prayed and hoped for often happened. Everyone in the family would come to visit the old one, respectfully kissing the old hand, receiving the blessing from this The Passing beloved grandparent. Wakes were held in the family house. For three nights, the women would sit up UST as there were tears of joy at all night in the parlor, saying their weddings, there were tears of sorrow goodbyes, and remembering all the days at the passing away of a loved one. An of their youth. They would weep a great yldograndfather, having stayed a few deal, and then one, to lighten the grief, years, would be leaving America tospend would make a little joke, or remember his last moments on his own bit of land, something funny that the departed anxious to be buried in the mother soil. relative had said or done. All the women When someone, young or old, made plans would smile, concealing their little laughs to return to the old country, the farewell behind tear-soaked handkerchiefs. They was one of terrible grief. This was a sat on straight, hard chairs, prayed a little, funereal moment, for a return almost talked a little, and dozed a little, but there certainly meant a parting forever from the was no thought of going to their own loved ones in this land. The farewells house and leaving the bereaved alone. The were loud and agonized, and songs of men, too, sat together, heads bowed, lament would be heard along the street silent and remembering. and from the balconies. Because Softly, softly, the zaghloot, now transportation was not a matter of a few chanting the attributes of the beloved lost hours and money was not had easily, one, and remembering the happier times most of those early arrivals had come to in this final farewell, would murmur spend the rest of their lives in the new mournfully through the house; all, the country; those who returned, returned men and the women, would fall to forever. How many a small grandchild, weeping. Red Wool ForThe Coffee A Dress House Raid A grandmother from Utica told this story to her son. by Eugene Paul Nassar

In Utica, N.Y., in the early part of this century, the Syrian men gathered in the coffee houses to speak of religion and gardens, while rilli OUR grandfather Roshide their wives were obliged to wait alone at received a letter from Uncle home. In this vignette excerpted from Wind Habib who was in the United of the Land, by Eugene Paul Nassar, two States. The letter contained of the more spirited wives attempted to questionable statements against the convince the men that their time would be Turkish government which was the better spent at home. power in Lebanon in 1914. So Ami Roshide was called to Istanbul for questioning, and there was the fear that he could be sentenced to hard labor for life or even sentenced to death. ANY years ago, Mike's The whole village turned out to bid wife and Joe's wife were him goodbye with tears and advice. Your young brides, and like all grandmother, wiping her tears, said, young brides, they were "Roshide, if you find a nice, red woolen possessive of their husbands. They did not material, bring me enough to make a much like this Ah'we business in the dress." evenings. It was all right in the old Of course the villagers sneered and country where there were only a handful said, "Is that all she can be thinking of?" of houses in the village. But this was But your grandmother was a wise America; things were large and strange, woman. She spoke words of and they wanted their husbands around, encouragement to your grandfather to let as the "American" women had in the him know she was expecting him home magazines. Several of the women met again and would wait. together one evening and inspired by the And so it washe did come home. courage of "Mart Mike" (Mike's wife), And yes, she got her red wool for a dress. they called the police anonymously, and told them of a gambling den on Elizabeth Street (whicfi of course, the police, like all police, knew about from the day it opened). So the Ah'we was raided, the nickels and dimes picked up, and twelve Lebanese men were brought in the police wagon to face a most well known magistrate, Judge Buckley. Now Judge Buckley knew all 't these men; he was a fine Irish-American of middle years who knew everyone. Still the men of the Ah'we, notorious and , hardened gamblers as they were, feared the Law, about which they knew nothing. "Well, Joe. How shall I put your name down on my sheet?" "Joe Ketchum." "Photo ( olumhht Um% ersay I Ibtar, ork 1 -ao "Joe Ketchum? Why, I thought your or was asked for by his listeners. It was name was Joe Kassouf!" like prophecy to the Lebanese; few now "No, Joe Ketchum." were born with the inventiveness, the "I see. And you, Mike Nassar, how do vocabulary, the inspiration. Abe sang in I spell your name?" church the appointed ritual, but he, like all "Mike Barood." the others, acknowledged Abdullah the "Now, Mike, come on! You and I both master of the song and poetry that comes know Mike Barood. Do you want to give from the depths of the spontaneous heart. him a bad name? Poor Mike Barood and Abdullah had no education and no his family, when they see his name in the money. He drove a banana truck for a paper tomorrow." living, and when he was asked to travel all "All right, put down James Buckley." over the United States to sing at "I will not. I'll put down Mike Nassar, weddings, funerals, and births, he asked Mike Nassar senior. How about you, Abe?" only train fare and then some Arak, the "M'befhemsh Inglisi." arabic anisone, to help him start, to give "Citizens of the United States! You him the words he did not have in his should be ashamed of yourselves! Five ordinary speech. He would put his hand dollars and one night in jail. And I'm doing to the side of his head, as he did now you a favor putting you all up on the city, among the pinochle players in the city jail, because your wives will not let you in the and moan, "oof, oof, oo oo oo oo 000f!" house tonight." And then he would begin, as he did now: The men were put up in a long room Lebanon, land of our birth and like a dormitory with bars on the hopefully of our dying, windows. Immediately they began to play We, thy exiled sons, are disgraced in pinochle. But by twelve o'clock they were the foreign land, tired of playing, yet far too excited to Confined we are by the oppressor, sleep. They called upon Abdullah Maroon The sun and wind are denied us, to sing. Abdullah truly had the reputation Also our game of pinochle. anywhere in the Lebanese world as the oof! (says the audience) finest and one of the last singers of ataba. Wind of the Land itiz first published in the United States by One improvised and sang alliterative The Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc. poetry on any subject that came to mind 1978 Eugene Paul Nassar

I-1- sir In the "Southend" IL, enclave of Arab- Americans, factory workers, the

'41!ik, jobless, and new immigrants alike meet in local coffee houses to converse, play cards and pass the ; time.

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139 Photo Bob Buchta

t 4 ; BEST COPYAYAILAELF, /I "I Believe in You" proud of being by KahIiI Gibran In this first issue of The Syrian World, Kahlil Gibran addressed "young Americans of anAmerican, Syrian origin": but also be gbelieve in you, and I believe in your destiny. I believe that you ate proud thatyour contributors to this new civilization I believe that you have inherited from fathers and your forefathers an ancient dream, a song, a prophecy, which you can proudly lay as a gift of gratitude upon the lap of America. I believe you can say to the founders motherscame of this great nation, "Here I am, a youth, a young tree whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon, yet Iam deeply fromaland rooted here, and I would be fruitful." And I believe that you can say to Abraham Lincoln, the blessed, "Jesus of Nazareth touched your lips when you uponwhich spoke, and guided your hand when you wrote; and I shall uphold all that you have said and all that you have written." God laid His I believe that you can say to Emerson and Whitman and James, "In my veins runs the blood of the poets and wise men of old, and it is my desire to come to you precious hand and receive, but I shall not come with empty hands." I believe that even as your fathers and raised His came to this land to produce riches, you were born here to produce riches by intelligence, by labor. And I believe that it is in you to be messengers. good citizens. And what is it to be a good citizen? It is to acknowledge the other person's rights before asserting your own, but always to be conscious of your own. It is to be free in thought and deed, 140 but it is also to know that your freedom is

1 4 2 subject to the other person's freedom. Francisco saying in your heart, "I am the It is to create the useful and the descendant of a people that builded beautiful with your own hands, and to Damascus, and Biblus, and Tyre and admire what others have created in love Sidon, and Antioch, and now I am here to and with faith. build with you, and with a will." It is to produce wealth by labor and It is to be proud of being an American, only by labor, and to spend less than you but it is also to be proud that your fathers have produced that your children may not and mothers came from a land upon The town of be dependent on the state for support which God laid his gracious hand and Becharre, when you are no more. raised His messengers. Lebanon, was It is to stand before the towers of New Young Americans of Syrian origin, I Kahlil Gibran's York, Washington, Chicago and San believe in you. first home.

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END _BEST COPY AYAI Regional Survey Questionnaire

ADC is inaugurating an on-going project to survey the characteristics of the American Arab population. We want to know more about ourselves and each other. Your assistance in filling out this questionnaire will make this survey more accurately reflect our community. Thank you!

Name Address Telephone (please include area code)

I estimate the American-Arab population of my area is

Most American-Arabs I know come from the regions of the Middle East.

Some of the types of work American-Arabs in my community do are:

Major community, religious and ethnic organizations in my community.

Names, addresses and phone numbers of other American-Arabs in my community who might be able to help you.

O I am already an ADC member. O Please sign me up as an ADC member. O Please send material telling me more about ADC.

143 Memories are Made of This: The ADC Oral History Projed One of our precious resources in the Arab-American community is the memories of our friends and relatives, from their experiences. Particularly valuable for us are the memories of people who lived through two marking experiences in the Arab- American community: The Passage, the great wave of immigration at the turn of the century, and The Exodus, the flight from political persecution in more recent times. Please let us know if you know someone who can tell you stories of their own experience, and if there is a way you can share those memories with us. Fill out this form to keep us posted:

My Name

Address

Name of person to be interviewed

Address

Telephone (please include area code)

Age (approximately) Year of arrival

From where

Major subject areas (for instance, recollections from the Middle East, experience of arrival, discrimination, first jobs, and so on)

Do you have any old diaries, books, letters, or photos you can share with us?

144 1 4 tir cif

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"For our parents and grandparents who came to this new worldbringing nothing but their love for our heritage and a hope for the future. And for our children, to whom we bequeath thatlove and that hope." Dedication

tWeIr PIVUwp.t5 4 1 i C VINI t iris/air:WA American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Ten Dollars US