A Community of Many Worlds Arab Americans in New York City by Kathleen Benson and Philip M. Kayal, eds. (New York: The Museum of the City of New York, 2002. 280 pages.)

Abstract

This edited collection complemented a March 2001 museum exhibit and is
based upon a February 2000 Columbia University conference and a threeyear
Ford Foundation-sponsored research project. It provides a general
overview of the history and diversity of Arab Americans in New York City
and is particularly strong in the area of the arts, featuring several chapters on
literature and music, including several first-person narratives. This two-part
book, which surveys both the historical and the contemporary scenes, is
further enhanced by forty black-and-white photographs, including thirteen
by Empire State College’s Mel Rosenthal.
New York contains the third largest Arab-American community, after
Dearborn (Michigan) and Los Angeles. In the first chapter, Alixa Naff
explains that the community was formed around 1895, when Christian missionaries in Syria encouraged Arab Christians near Mount Lebanon to work
in New York for a couple of years to make money for their families. Syrian
and Lebanese immigrants initially gathered at Washington Street in Lower
Manhattan and soon moved to Atlantic Avenue in the South Ferry portion of
Brooklyn. From 1899-1910, 56,909 Syrian immigrants arrived in New York.
In the book’s first part, two historical chapters are followed by entries
on literature, music, photography, and first-person accounts. Philip Kayal
points out that Arab-American is a cultural and ethnic – but not a religious
– category, for most Arab Americans are Christian, not Muslim. Jonathan
Friedlander reveals that the first Arab-American immigrant, Antonio
Bishallany, visited from Lebanon in 1854 to gather evangelical teachings for
use back home. This four-page and six-photograph entry on representations
in historical archives could be expanded into a larger work ...