Forging Identities:
Arab-Americans in the Pan-Arab Era
By Michael Berro
Davidson, North Carolina
April 2014
A Thesis Submitted for the Seminar of the
Kendrick K. Kelly Program in Historical Studies
(History 488-489)
Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………..……………1
Chapter One: Becoming American:
Arab Assimilation between the Great Wars ……………………….……………19
Chapter Two: Forging Identity:
The National Association of Syrian and Lebanese Clubs…………….…………31
Chapter Three: Who’s An Arab?
Lebanese-Americans in the pan-Arab Era………………………………………..53
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….….6
Introduction
Identity is complex for a variety of reasons, but perhaps most so because a person’s
identity is comprised of many smaller identities. As Linda Colley aptly stated, “Identities are not
like hats. Human beings can and do put on several at a time.”1 While it is certainly possible for a
person to adopt more than one identity, it does not mean that we as humans cannot privilege a
certain identity while downplaying others in an effort conform to those around us. Whether
cultural, religious, or ethnic in nature, those shared identities of humans form a basis from which
they can begin building a community that distinguishes its members from others who do not
share that identity. However, as communities develop and expand, they too are engulfed in even
larger and broader structures whose members are bound together by different reasons than that of
one’s original community. However, which identity is the most prevalent, the most important?
Does the importance change when a person is in the privacy of their home? And what happens
to a community when different members seek to engage its members with competing ideas of
identity?
This thesis answers how these themes related to the experiences of the Arab-American
community in the United States between roughly 1940 and 1970. Consider this quotation from
James Ansara, the former executive secretary of the National Association of Syrian and
Lebanese-American Clubs (NASLAC), “[Our people] don’t go around broadcasting the fact that
they are Arabs. For instance, Nader doesn’t go around broadcasting he’s an Arab. Now my son…
does not deny that he is an Arab or of Arab origin, but he doesn’t go around saying, I am an
1
Linda Colley, Britons: Forging a Nation, (1707-1837, New Haven: Yale University Press,
1992), 6.
1
Arab. I and some others of our generation have identified ourselves as Arabs, but not many do.”2
While this was a reflection of the state of Arab-Americans in the 1980s, it reflected a reality that
Ansara and other leaders of the National Association sought to challenge in the 1950s and 1960s.
ThrouFr4gh the actions of the National Association and various publications, Ansara, the leaders
of NASLAC, and select Arab-Americans sought to forge an inclusive Arab-American identity
that would be able to unite and mobilize the entire Arab-American community in the United
States. Despite their efforts, they found an Arab-American public that proved largely unwilling
to unite behind the vision of identity NASLAC presented. This thesis will explore the actions and
motivations that drove these early proponents of an Arab-American identity, highlighting the
impact that foreign organizations such as the Arab State Delegation office and Arab
governments, especially the United Arab Republic, and its leader Gamal Abdel Nasser played in
this early effort to forge an Arab-American identity.
Scholarship dealing with Arab immigration and assimilation in the United States prior to
1967 consisted of only a handful of works. One such work was “The Syrians in America” in
1924, which sought to understand the reasons early Arab immigrants left Lebanon and Syria and
were drawn the United States.3 Another was Abdo Elkhoy’s “The Arab Moslems in the United
States” which sought to study the rates of Americanization in two separate Arab communities in
Toledo, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan with the goal of determining if religion hindered the process
of assimilation in immigrant communities.4 These studies reflected the general goals of
2
James Ansara, “Oral History”. Michael W. Suleiman Collection, Arab-American National
Museum, Detroit, Michigan.
3
Philip K Hitti. The Syrians in America. (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1924.)
4
Abdo Elkholy, The Arab Moslems in the United States: Religion and Assimilation. (New
Haven, Conn: College & University Press, 1966.)
2
scholarship on Arab-Americans prior to 1967: namely, the desire to understand the reasons these
immigrants came to the United States and measure the degree they had integrated into American
society.
The majority of works on Arab-Americans have focused on two specific timeframes.
Scholarship on of Arab-American immigration prior to World War II has succeed in highlighting
some of the motives, challenges, and developments that the first wave of Arab immigrants faced
in United States. The second period that scholars of Arab-Americans have focused on is the
period after the third Arab-Israeli war. However, the development of the Arab-American
community between World War II and the war of 1967 remains almost completely untouched by
the scholars of Arab-American history and this period is treated as a static period of assimilation.
For example, while various authors have examined the importance of the early Arab-American
press as a marking for of Arab immigrants, they have failed to extend their examinations into the
following decades in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.5 One of the major developments in the Arab
mindset, namely the rise of Pan-Arabism under Gamal Abdel Nasser, also remains relatively
unexplored in its relation to the Arab-American community. Scholars acknowledge the
importance of Arab nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s as part of a vision of greater prosperity
that gave high hopes to many Arabs, but have relegated the idea of Arab nationalism and its
relationship to Arab-Americans to a single paragraph in the larger history of Arab-Americans in
Elkholy concluded that religion did not play a significant role in hindering the assimilation of the
Arab communities; rather he found that occupation was the prominent factor in the communities’
assimilation rate.
5
See Elayyan Hani Ismaeal, “The Syrian world in the New World : the contextual
beginnings of Arab American literature and the part it played in identity formation” in Darcy
Zabel’s, Arabs in the Americas: Interdisciplinary Essays on the Arab Diaspora. (New York:
Peter Lang, 2006): 37.
Isamel explores the ways in which the first English publications for Arab-Americans, the Syrian
World, helped serve as a marker for the assimilation of the community in 1920s and 1930s.
3
many of their works.6 The possible influence of pan-Arabism as a shaping factor of the ArabAmerican experience and Arab immigrants’ conceptions of identity is almost completely absent
in discussions on Arab-Americans. Laurel Wigle and Sameer Abraham’s article “Arab
Nationalism in America: The Dearborn Arab Community” is a singular exception to this trend
and their work provides a glimpse in the importance that Arab nationalism and political
developments in the Middle East played in mobilizing the predominantly Palestinian Arabs of
Dearborn.7 Their work also incorporates an analysis of how Arab immigrants relate and
politically organize in response to the political developments in their countries of origin.
However, their study explores only a portion of the larger Arab-American population. Due to the
limited scope of their work, their argument stresses the perpetuation of a collective Arab identity
in Dearborn rather than the creation of a unique Arab-American identity, and failed to
distinguish the similarities and differences between those identities.
Instead, discussion concerning Arab-Americans’ efforts to mobilize nationally have
focused on the aftermath of the 1967 war. The developments following this war included the
mobilization of large numbers of Arab-Americans protesting the negative portrayals of Arabs in
the American news, as well as the creation of new Arab-American organizations to combat these
negative portrayals.8 Moreover, scholars have given credit to these groups for the establishment
of a collective Arab-American identity that “made no distinction among members based on
6
See Randa A Kayyali, The Arab Americans. (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2006),
p. 33.
7
Laurel D. Wigle and Sammer Y. Abraham, “Arab Nationalism in America: The
Dearborn Arab community, in David W. Hartman eds. Immigrants and Migrants: The Detroit
Ethnic Experience (Detroit, Michigan: New University Thought Publishing Company, 1974):
279-302.
8
The groups that followed almost immediately after the war included the Arab-American
University Graduates (AAUG), The United Holy Land Fund (UHLF), and the Palestine Red
Crescent Society (PRCS).
4
religious affiliation or national origin.” 9 This stands in contrast to the influence ascribed to
earlier Arab-American organizations, such as NASLAC, which have been dismissed as
“inconsequential” when compared to the rates of mobilization found post-1967.10
While there is certainly merit in their claims that NASLAC enjoyed a smaller
membership than later organizations, the tendency to dismiss NASLAC as insignificant and the
extreme emphasis on Arab-American mobilizations after 1967 has left a gap when considering
the development of Arab-American identity. As a result, a concerted effort to understand the
factors that drove the earliest proponents of a national Arab-American organization and the
factors that led to their failure has yet to be undertaken.
Another factor that may contribute to the post-war focus was that Arabs became a focal
point in American political consciousness following the war. This was, in part, due to the
perception of Arabs as a terrorist threat and and a significant jump in the number of Arabs who
began immigrating to the United States after 1965. However, the expansion in interest regarding
Arab-Americans was not limited to negative depictions in the American media. These depictions
provoked a response from Arab-American community in the form of new Arab-American
organizations such as the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG), which
sought to actively combat negative portrayals of Arabs by sharing the history of Arabs in
America with other non-Arab-Americans. While the majority of works on Arab-Americans
pursued the goal of correcting the stereotypes of Arabs in the American mindset, select works
9
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad’s Not Quite American? The Shaping of Arab and Muslim
Identity in the United States. (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, Center for Urban Studies,
2004), p. 20. For a particular reference to Arab Christians, see Philip Kayla, “Arab Christians in
the United States” in Sameer and Nabeel Abraham, Arabs in the New World: Studies on ArabAmerican Communities, 44-63.
10
Michael Suleiman, 8.
5
pertaining to the Arab-American experience also began to appear, as groups began to study the
experiences and development of early Arab-American communities across the United States.
While many of these publications continue to combat the stereotypical images of Arabs
in the popular mindset of American society, their attempts have carried a price. Michael
Suleiman described the majority of literature on Arab-Americans as seeking “[to celebrate] the
Arab-American presence in America, rather than to truly engage in scholarship about specific
facets…of Arab culture in the Americas.”11 The price of such corrections is that ArabAmericans have become characters in an America-centric story describing either their
assimilation across America or Arab-Americans’ positive contributions to American society. As
a result, the Arab-American community has become a passive contributor to American society
rather than a dynamic entity with its own struggles and agenda.
The history of Arab immigration to the United States began in the late nineteenth century
but determining the exact number of Arab immigrants who came to the United States has proved
to be a continuous challenge. One of the major reasons was that United States’ immigration
officials grouped Arab immigrants from the Ottoman Empire with Greek, Arminian, and Turkish
immigrants under the larger label of Turkish, making an accurate estimation nearly impossible
for the first thirty years of Arab immigration. By World War II, estimates regarding the
11
See Darcy Zabel’s introduction in Arabs in the Americas (New York: Peter Lang,
2006). 1-2.
Michael Suleiman, one of the premier scholars on Arab-Americans, also reflects this sentiment
in his introduction to Arabs in America: Building a New Future. (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1999).
6
population of Arab immigrants and their posterity ranged from 350,000 to 800,000; the degree
discrepancy has continued to grow.12
Despite studies on Arab-American communities being incomplete, there is a general
consensus among scholars on the history of Arab immigration to the United States. Arab
immigration has traditionally been divided into three waves, which correspond with the
underlying demographics of each group of immigrants. The first wave began in the 1880s and
lasted until 1924. The first wave was was overwhelmingly composed of Christians
(approximately 90% of the immigrants identifying as Christians, albeit from various sects of
Christianity). Almost all hailed from the Greater Syrian region, particularly the area of Mount
Lebanon, and they came to the United States in pursuit of economic opportunity and many
embarked with the intent on returning to their homelands after achieving financial success.13
The second wave of immigration spanned from 1924 until 1965 and marked a period
during which the immigration of Arabs to the United State stopped almost entirely. It coincided
with the existence of the Johnson-Reed Quota Act of 1924 (popularly known as Asian Exclusion
Act). The tenure of the act, enacted 1924 until its repeal in 1965, has been described as a period
12
350,000 was the official U.S. government figure cited in Philip Hitti’s “The
Emigrants,” published in the 1963 edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam. The estimate of 800,000
was provided by Ashad G. Hawie, The Rainbow Ends (New York: Theo. Gaus’ Sons, 1942),
149-151.
13
See Hitti,48; Alixa Naff’s Becoming American: The Early Arab Immigrant Experience
(Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985), 83; Samir Khalaf’s “The
Background and Causes of Lebanese/Syrian Immigration to the United States before World War
I,” in Eric J. Hooglund, ed., Crossing the Waters: Arabic-Speaking Immigrants to the United
States before 1940, (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987), pp. 17-35; and
Charles Issawi’s “The Historical Background of Lebanese Emigration: 1900-1918,” in Albert
Hourani and Nadim Shehadi eds., The Lebanese in the World: A Century of Emigration (London:
I.B. Tauris, 1992), pp. 227-42.
7
of assimilation for the first wave of immigrants.14 The exceptions to this halt in Arab
immigration were the immediate family members of naturalized immigrants, the arrival of a few
thousand Palestinian refugees following the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, as well as a handful of
political exiles from across the Middle East due to the turbulent nature of post-colonial politics.
The third and final wave stretches from the end of the Asian Exclusion Act in 1965 to the
present day. The reasons that members of this wave chose to emigrate vary; some were fleeing
political turmoil in their countries, others sought educational or economic opportunities available
in the United States. The members of this wave immigrated from every Arabic speaking nation,
came from variety of social and educational backgrounds, and numbered more than 400,000
individuals between 1965 and 1992.15 The single shared trait in this wave was that the majority
of immigrants were Muslims.
The experiences of the first wave of Arab immigration and their descendants are the
immediate concern of this thesis. That is not to say that the resumption of Arab immigration in
1965 had no effect on discussions concerning Arab-American identity, in fact it may well have
been instrumental in the successful manifestation of a popular Arab-American identity.
However, this thesis main goal is to explore the conflict over Arab-American identity that
developed prior to its manifestation in 1967; showing that identity in the community was a
contested topic, over which competing factions sought to engage to the Arab-American
community to further their own goals. Given that we are dealing with this first period of
immigration, there are a few things to keep in mind. Nearly all of the Arab-American immigrants
14
15
Kayyali, 32.
Ibid., 33.
8
in the first wave hailed from the Greater Syria, with the majority coming from the areas in the
modern-day state of Lebanon.16 Designations such as Syrian-American, Lebanese-American,
Americans of Arab origin, or the all-inclusive Syrian and Lebanese-American were common.
Given that almost all Arab immigrants prior to 1965 hailed from either Syria or Lebanon, Syrian
and Lebanese-American often functioned as an inclusive term that would comparable to modern
uses of Arab-American. Moreover, I emphasize the fact that my use of the term Arab-American
as a descriptive tool predates its historical implementation.
Identity remains a complex topic, and has yet to be fully explored in works relating to the
experience of Arab-Americans. As such, it is pertinent to understand some of the additional
considerations one must account for when dealing with the development of Arab-American
identity following World War II. In this respect, the development of social identity in the field
of sociology helped to shed light on some of the issues and challenges of determining the origins
of identity. Early social theory centers itself around structural function sociology, which
extrapolated human behavior as the results of rules and norms. 17 A major shift in the field came
in the wake of Harold Garfinkel’s Studies in ethnomethodology in which he criticized his
colleagues for making individual humans ‘dopes’ and ignoring the role of individual agency in
identity formation.18 Garfinkel’s contention shook the field of field of social theory and shifted it
from a path that focused almost exclusively on how society shaped the individual towards a path
16
Greater Syria includes the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
17
See Barry Barnes, “The Macro/Micro Problem and the Problem of Structure and
Agency” in George Ritzer and Barry Smart eds. Handbook of Social Theory (London: Sage
Publications, 2001): 339-353.
18
Garfinkel, Harold, Studies in Ethnomethodology. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: PrenticeHall, 1967).
9
that has placed the importance of individual agency at its forefront. The struggle following
Garfinkel’s work reflected the need to articulate a theory that encompassed the complexities of
this relationship, which must account for individuals as willing subscribers to forms of social
identity while also reflecting how social structures influence the identity of the individual.
Responses have ranged from those that promote the individual as the primary force behind all
social interaction in the case of rational choice theory, to Anthony Gidden’s structuration theory
that argues that individuals use their agency within the confines of a preexisting social
framework.19 Anthony Cohen terms it a struggle between self-direction and social determinism,
and while he does not question that “society…continuously intrudes upon the individual’s
capacity for self-direction” but stresses that such influences cannot causes the complete loss of
consciousness in the individual.20
In this respect, World War II, the beginnings of the Cold War, and the Civil Rights
Movement represented potential societal pressures that may have contributed to developments in
Arab-American identity during this time. There has yet to a be a full study that aimed to
successfully incorporate the experience of Arab immigrants into the larger narrative of minority
movements during the Civil Rights era, despite the overlap between the Civil Rights Movement
and the mobilization of Arab-Americans following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. A careful
examination of the experiences of other minority groups in the 1960s serve as an ample base of
comparison for the developments that might have affected the Arab-American community.
19
Anthony Giddens. New Rules of Sociological Method A Positive Critique of
Interpretative Sociologies. Hoboken: Wiley, 2013.
20
Anthony Cohen, Self-Consciousness: An Alternative Anthropology of Identity.
(London: Routledge, 1994): 23.
10
Perhaps the most meaningful development in the Civil Rights Movement was the
popularization of difference as a means to distinguish oneself. However, the movement was not
homogenous and was comprised of various groups with radically differing agendas. Jeffery
Ogbar traced the competition between competing notions of African-American identity and their
relationships with other Americans in his work Black Power. 21 He characterized the movement
by looking at two specific ideological perspectives: that of integration embodied by the NAACP,
and that of radical ethnic nationalism embodied by the Nation of Islam and the Black Power
movement. Ogbar argued that the more radical factions, while less successful in terms of
members, left a lasting impression on American society that significantly altered the way in
which Americans approach race and ethnicity. Namely, he described how the participants of the
Black Power movement spurned efforts to assimilate into white society by emphasizing the
importance of race in their identities while simultaneously challenging traditional notions of
white superiority. Moreover, their actions exposed the “vulnerability of whiteness” to the larger
world and paved the way for other minority groups to assert their own racial and ethnic identities
in the years to follow. 22
Joseph Rhea tracked three additional movements in his work Race Pride and the
American Identity focusing on the efforts of American Indians, Latinos, and Asian-Americans to
influence specific facets of American collective memory by organizing along lines of their racial
identities.23 He acknowledged the leadership that the Black community had in this revival by
21
Jeffrey Ogbonna Green Ogbar, Black Power: Radical Politics and African American
Identity.( Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004)
22
Ibid., 196.
23
Joseph Tilden Rhea, Race Pride and the American Identity. (Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press, 1997).
11
mentioning how each group adapted certain techniques from the Black Power movement to
achieve their own objectives. Moreover, he emphasized that while each group’s aims were
fundamentally different and achieved varying levels of success, each shared in an effort to assert
an affirmative understanding of their racial identities in response to negative portrayals from
other aspects of American society. The importance of emphasizing these movements as
reactionary should not be overlooked because it speaks to the fact that identity within these
groups was as much ascribed to by its members as it was imposed by outsiders.
David Hartman argued along similar lines in his article “Adaptation to Complexity: The
Renaissance of Ethnicity”. He described ethnicity as “a form of adaptation rather as a social
pathology.”24 Hartman believed that the movement in the 1960s towards ethnicity was primarily
an ideological movement by the disenfranchised to reaffirm their self-concept. He also likened
the spread of ethnicity as a popular phenomenon to that of the “bandwagon” effect following its
successful use by Black Americans.25 However, in pointing out the importance of ethnicity as a
form of adaptation, it is clear that imposition of ethnic identities and the negative associations
with those stereotypes could impose group solidarity where there may not have been otherwise.
In the case of Asian-American identity, feelings of oppression and negative depictions of Asians
during the World War II and the Vietnam War led to the formation of pan-Asian-American
initiatives and protests.26 Rhea credited the diminishment of oppression and threat to Asian-
24
David Hartman, “Adaptation to Complexity: The Renaissance of Ethnicity” in
Immigrants and Migrants: the Detroit Ethnic Experience, (Detroit, Michigan: New University
Thought Publishing Company, 1974) 79-89.
25
Ibid., 85
26
Rhea, 42.
The issue of Japanese internment during World War II is Rhea’s example of Asian Americans’
attempts to transform American public memory. The effort the affect public memory began in
12
Americans in the modern era as a major reason that Asian-Americans continue to identify along
ethnic lines, rather than racial, and the failure of a pan-Asian identity to persist beyond the
1960s.27
At least on the surface, the experience of Asian-Americans seems to parallel the
experience of Arab-Americans in a variety of ways; their patterns of immigration are roughly the
same, and their premier political mobilizations were in response to negative depictions of their
race during a war. Ronal Stockton’s article “Ethnic Archetypes and the Arab Image” offered a
comparison between some of similarities of the stereotypes presented in American public about
Asians, particularly Japanese, during World War II and Arabs throughout the twentieth
century.28 He mentioned that the efforts to dehumanize both groups, Arab and Asian, emphasized
perceptions of their “warped socialization practices” as evidence of their backwardness. 29
However, that does not mean that the experience of Arab-Americans precisely mirrored
that of other minorities during this period. Arab-Americans faced unique challenges in the wake
of the 1967 war; the difference between these groups and Arab-Americans was not one of
mobilization but rather persistence. Shelly Slade noted in her 1981 study, “Arabs remain one of
the few ethnic groups who can still be slandered with impunity in America.”30 The continued
late 1960s and did not pre-empt the changes in the behaviors of minority groups brought about
by the Black Power movement.
27
Ibid., 38-44.
28
Ronald Stockton, “Ethnic Archetypes and the Arab Image,” Ernest McCarus, ed., The
Development of Arab-American Identity, (Detroit, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press,
1994), 119-154.
29
Ibid., 148.
13
application and use of stereotypes about Arabs may be a contributing factor to the persistence of
pan-Arab-American identity in the United States but it also raises questions as to why such
stereotypes are perpetuated in public discourse in the media and other forums.
John Tehranian offered an explanation to the issues Slade raised in his work White
Washed, where he examined the history of “whiteness” as a social and legal tool used to
establish a racial hierarchy in the United States.31 Prior to 1967, the legal position of Arabs in
American teetered between the dividing line of white and non-white, falling “by the thinnest of
margins” on the side of white.32 Tehranian argued that, because of their designation as white,
insufficient protections were afforded to Arab-Americans under the Civil Rights legislation.33
Moreover, the problem has been exacerbated as Arabs have become the “quintessential Other in
American society” and one of the few, if only, minority that has suffered from growing rates of
job discrimination, hate crime, and targeted infringement of their civil rights since the Civil
Rights Movement.34 In this respect, the situation of Arab-Americans proved to be unique
because they were considered white racially but also continued combatting stereotypes and
negative portrayals of their ethnicity throughout the 1960s and into the present day.35
30
Shelly Slade, “The Image of the Arab in America: Analysis of a Poll.” Middle East
Journal 35 (1981): 143-62. 143.
31
John Tehranian, Whitewashed: America's Invisible Middle Eastern Minority. (New
York: New York University Press, 2010).
32
Ibid., 64.
33
Ibid., 114.
34
Ibid., 183.
35
Another community that found them in a similar situation in the wake of Civil Rights
Legislation was the Hispanic community. However, by 1980 Hispanic had become an official
designation of ethnicity by the US census bureau.
14
Given Arabs predicament as a white minority in America, it is pertinent to look at the
experience of other white minorities during this time. Andrew Rolle’s work, The Italian
Americans, traced the development of a unique Italian-American identity in the United State and
offered a glimpse of Italian-Americans reactions to the events and celebration of ethnicity that
came about in the 1960s. While he argued that while a few Italian-Americans sought to
reemphasize their ethnicity, the majority served as the “vanguard of blue-collar revolt against
black power, radical youth, and big-city crime.”36 In the case of Irish-Americans, Noel Ignatiev’s
How the Irish Became White went farther by arguing that opposition to the Civil Rights
Movement and other non-white movements helped provide the key in facilitating Irish
integration into the white community of the United States.37 In both cases, the majority of Irish
and Italian immigrants opposed the Civil Rights Movement and used it as a mechanism to affirm
their white identities. While the emphasis and pride in their ethnic identity certainly increased in
the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, their nearly complete assimilation into American society
dissuaded them from revolting in the same ways that Ogbar and Shea characterized non-white
minorities during this time. Given these complexities, Arab-Americans do not clearly identify
with the experience of white or non-white groups when looking at series of events that transpired
over the course of the Civil Rights Movement. Their process of assimilation into American
society as racially white reflected were reflected the early experiences of many Irish and Italian
For more on the history of discrimination of Arabs in American media and entertainment see
Jack G. Shaheen and William Greider, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. (New
York: Olive Branch Press, 2001).
36
Andrew Rolle, The Italian Americans: Troubled Roots, (New York, NY: Macmillan
Publishing Co. 1980), p. 175.
37
Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White. ( New York: Routledge, 1995).
15
immigrants, however by the time of the Civil Rights movement Arab-Americans appeared to be
ascribing to the larger trend of racial empowerment that was assumed by non-white minorities.
Another major work that had contributed to conception of identity is Benedict
Anderson’s book Imagined Communities.38 While his book has been criticized for its failure to
address the role of individual agency in nationalist mobilization, it showed the capability of the
press in facilitating the creation of a collective identity. Anderson’s work in particular is a
source, which this thesis attempts build off, by observing the way in which select elements in
Arab-American community sought to promote a vision of collective Arab-American identity
through newspaper publications. By examining these newspapers, such as the National Herald of
NASLAC and the New Lebanese American Journal, the thesis seeks to uncover their respective
motives behind the publishers’ struggles to define and project an Arab-American identity.
However, it also accounts for the fact that the majority of the Arab-American community failed
to adopt the vision of identity that NASLAC offered. Through a comparison of the factors that
led to a failure of NASLAC in the early 1960s and the successful emergence of an ArabAmerican identity within the same decade, this thesis will attempt to explore the agency of the
Arab-American community in ascribing to this identity by exploring the factors that contributed
to this change.
This study is by no means as exhaustive as it should be in determining full range of ideas
and opinions concerning Arab-American identity that were prevalent during this period. The
study fails to consult the entirety of vast array of material that was published by and for an ArabAmerican audience and is found particularly lacking because of the exclusion Arabic newspapers
38
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983).
16
published by Arab-Americans during this period. Additionally, it should be noted that this thesis
does not extend itself to the activities of Arab immigrants or their decedents in countries outside
the United States.39 However, by examining two of the most prominent publications, in the form
of the National Herald and the New Lebanese American Journal, along with publications and
memoirs by various Arab-American actors, this thesis begins filling in the gap on this period of
the Arab-American experience and further understanding the motivations and forces that shaped
debates about Arab-American identity before 1967.
The first chapter of this thesis will provide a historical backdrop from which the events
and developments of the 1950s emerged. It loosely traces the assimilation and Americanization
of the Arab-American community as a whole by looking at a series of Arab-American
publications, including personal narratives and the Detroit newspaper ad-daleel, in order to
provide a sense of the ways in which Arab-American public began to cherish and privilege the
American aspect of their identities by the onset of the second World War.
Chapter two explores the efforts of various Arab-American individuals and organizations,
specifically the National Association of Syrian and Lebanese American Clubs (NASLAC), and
their efforts to foster the creation of a national Arab-American identity. It begins by exploring
some of the common themes in the writings of these individuals and proceeds to examine the
motivations that drove them to push so strongly for the creation of an Arab-American identity.
Moreover, this chapter will examine the role that pan-Arabism and foreign organizations played
in supporting and promoting a collective Arab-American identity.
39
For more on Arab Americans outside the United States, see Baha Abu-Leban, An Olive
Brach on the Family Tree: The Arabs in Canada (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1980) in
Michael Suleman; and Evelyn Alsultany and Ella Shohat, Between the Middle East and the
Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012).
17
Chapter three examines the opposition to the idea of a collective Arab-American identity,
by examining the Lebanese American Journal, and the criticisms these individuals, most of
whom were of Lebanese decent, levied at NASLAC and other supporters of pan-Arabism.
Moreover, by emphasizing their religious as Christians and regional identity, they offered an
exclusive Lebanese-American identity. Despite the sometimes open conflict that developed
between these competing groups, one finds that many of their methods and goals were similar if
not the same.
18
Becoming American:
Arab Assimilation between the Great Wars
“I never knew my grandfather, Joseph S. Peters, as he died six years before my birth. I
have a large photo of him in his World War I uniform on my living room wall… To look at that
photo of my grandfather, who actually fought in World War I for this country, makes me realize
that all immigrants really sacrificed and were motivated. Because of these sacrifices, we have the
opportunity to pursue education and help in the community.”40 Donald Peters’, an attorney-at
law and deacon in an Orthodox cathedral and a member of the second-American-born generation
of Arab origin, gave the preceding quote in honor of his grandfather. While he certainly
acknowledged that the opportunities he enjoyed as an American stemmed directly from his
grandfather’s efforts, his inclusion of all immigrants is equally as telling. The period between
World War I and World War II was a period of assimilation for the vast majority of Arab
immigrants and their children. Peters’ description of himself as just a descendant of immigrants,
rather than as an American of Arab origin reflected his sentiment and the sentiments of others
who wished to assimilate into American society and privilege the American aspect of their
identities.
In many ways, World War I marked the beginning of significant changes that would
spread across the Arab community of the United States over the following decades. During the
war and in the years following it, a variety of factors pushed immigrants and their children
towards a path of assimilation and away from their original goal of returning home. Their
40
Autobiography. Donald Peters, cited in Elizabeth Boosahda, Arab-American Faces and
Voices (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press 2003): 187.
19
assimilation coincided with the deterioration of some of the religious sectarian division that
characterized the Arab-American community as they began organizing themselves as a
community in various clubs, activities, and organizations. 41 Using a range of personal narratives
and by looking at some of the publications in the Arabic newspaper ad-daleel, this chapter will
show that by the onset of World War II ethnic identity had assumed a secondary role in the lives
of many Arab-Americans and was relegated to the private sphere.
Service in World War I was by no means unique throughout the Arab-American
community as all men in the United States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five were
called to military service by the war’s end.42 However, Arab-Americans were not begrudgingly
drafted into the war though. In some cases individuals outside of their community praised Arab
immigrants and their children for their displays of patriotism. On August 22, 1917 M.M. Maloof
wrote an article in the Boston Evening Transcript praising the patriotism and loyalty of Syrians
in the state of Massachusetts. He wrote, “the exact figures are not available but it is known that
over 300 [Syrians] have gone [to serve] from the State of Massachusetts alone, which is
remarkable in view of their small numbers.”43
Despite the praise Arab immigrants found in Massachusetts, there was significant
prejudice against Arab immigrants before and during the war; many Arab immigrants were not
yet citizens and faced the perpetual threat of deportation. In her autobiography, Nabeha Haddad
41
Haddad, Becoming American: 13.
42
The process of the draft occurred in three registrations. The first registration was on
June 5, 1917, for all men between twenty-one and thirty-one. The second was on June 5, 1918
and inducted all those who had turned twenty-one in the previous year. The third registration, on
September 12, 1918, included all men aged eighteen through forty-five.
43
M.M. Maloof, “From Beersheba to Berlin, via Bost: The Little Known Zeal of New
England Syrians in Flocking to the Colors,” Boston Evening Transcript, August 22, 1917.
20
recalled an event that occurred in 1917 in which a teacher told her class, “President Wilson was
going to deport all the Syrians after the war because they were not doing their share toward the
war.”44 Although the Arab mother whose child was in the class later received an apology from
the teacher by pointing out the contributions and toll that members of the Arab-American
community had paid in support of the war, this anecdote shows that there was a public
expectation to identify and support the American war effort and a belief that Syrians (Arab)
immigrants were not contributing enough. Given Arab-Americans’ tenuous racial position during
this time, the desire to conform to societal expectations of being an American certainly
contributed to deemphasizing aspects of the immigrants’ Arab identity. In the years following the
war, the covering of their ethnic identities became so strong that a select few even denied their
heritage by “refusing to eat Arab food in public.”45
Self-interest certainly played a role in some Arabs’ decisions to serve in the armed forces
of the United States during the war. Service in the armed forces was the easiest way to
circumvent the bureaucratic nightmare that characterized the naturalization process for many
Arabs during this time. The appeal of service was compounded by the fact that it guaranteed
citizenship not only for oneself but their families as well. Self-interest played a role in other
cases as well. The expectation of being drafted inspired some individuals, such as Eli A. Busada
who decided to “enlist in the branch of the service of [his] choice before being drafted into the
army.”46 While self-interest may or may not have been inspired by love of American society or a
44
Excerpt in Elizabeth Boosahda, Arab-American Faces and Voices (Austin, Texas:
University of Texas Press 2003): 131.
45
Boosahda, 189.
46
Eli A. Busada, Autobiography, excerpt in Elizabeth Boosahda, Arab-American Faces
and Voices (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press 2003): 137.
21
desire to assimilate, it does speak to the pragmatism of the issue of service. In the case of Mr.
Busada he believed he would eventually be drafted and chose to join in order to join the branch
of his choice.
Patriotism represented another factor that may have inspired others to join the war. In a
book to honor five soldiers who died during the war, the niece of Nicholas Malooly, one of the
fallen soldiers, provided a story that encapsulated an event where fear of ostracism or
pragmatism played little to no roll. The niece wrote of Nicholas’ ascent onto the roof of a
burning house in order to save the American flag. When asked what motivated his efforts,
Nicholas simply responded, “so [the flag] wouldn’t burn.”47
Those who were either unable or did not serve as soldiers may have participated in other
Arab-American organizations such as the Drum and Fife Bugle Corps, which was later
reorganized into The Syrian American Drum Crops in 1938. The Corps preformed in public
celebrations, parades and competitions throughout New England and played various tributes to
support those in service.48 One commenter even noted that “there were non-Arab kids” who were
allowed to join the group.49 The infusion of non-Arab children into the ranks of a Syrian
organization further suggests the declining boundaries between Arab immigrants and their
children and their fellow Americans. Patriotism was something tangible within the ArabAmerican community and went beyond self-interest in the case of many individuals.
47
Recollection of Alice S. H., excerpt in Elizabeth Boosahda, Arab-American Faces and
Voices (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press 2003): 139.
48
Alice A. Autobiography, excerpt in Elizabeth Boosahda, Arab-American Faces and
Voices (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press 2003): 50.
49
Ibid.
22
Following the war, the importance of the process of naturalization was another factor that
contributed to a decline from the public projection of immigrants’ Arab identities. After the
partition of the Ottoman Empire, the division of the immigrants’ former homelands, and their
occupation by the French and British governments, Arabs immigrants began to view their place
in American society as a permanent fixture rather than a transient one.50 As a result, the number
of Arabs seeking naturalization steadily grew and would have contributed towards efforts to hide
certain aspects of their ethnic identities in order to conform to societal pressures regarding race.
In order to become U.S. citizen, Arab immigrants had to file Declaration of Intention to
become a citizen and later, a petition for naturalization. The only exceptions were made for men
who had served in the armed forces.51 At this point in time immigration law stated that after a
husband or father attained his citizenship, his wife and children were also eligible to become
citizens. However, there was an additional restriction: only a “free white person” or an alien of
“African descent” could apply for naturalization.52 While the racial designation of immigrants
from Syria and Palestine was originally categorized as Caucasian (white) the designation became
less clear after 1906 when Congress undertook measures to revoke the ability of immigrants
from Asia to become citizens of the United States. In 1910, the classification of Arab immigrants
was changed to “Asiatic” and their ability to apply for citizenship relied upon the individual
discretion of the supervising bureaucrat or legal authority (often a judge).53 John Tehranian
50
51
52
Suleiman, 5.
Boosahda, 137.
Naff, 253.
53
For more on the court cases surrounding the experience of early Arab-Americans and
their legal battles for citizenship see, John Tehranian’s Whitewashed, 55-63.
23
summarized the racial ambiguity that Arab immigrants faced during this time by saying that
“individuals of Middle Eastern descent found themselves on the dividing line. Often by the
thinnest of margins, courts declared them white. Other times, however, courts held otherwise.”54
Immigrants who had not secured their citizenship through service in the war faced a true
possibility of being denied citizenship on the basis of their racial status, creating another factor
which would have discouraged Arab immigrants from projecting aspects of their Arab identities
in the public sphere that other Americans would have found foreign.
While these factors contributed towards Arabs integrating successfully into American
society by hiding their ethnic identities, equally as important was the fact that the arrival of new
immigrants to reinforce and preserve some of the cultural traditions of Arab communities almost
completely stopped in 1924. The Johnson-Reed Quota Act of 1924 dramatically shifted
American immigration policy; it implemented a quota that limited the number of immigrants on
a country-to-country basis. While the reform stemmed from the movements that had begun in the
previous decade to curb the amount of immigration from Asia, particularly China and Japan, the
phrasing of the act placed strict limitations on the amount of immigration from all Asian
countries, including the Arab nations of the Middle East. 55 As a result, the immigration of Arabs
to the United States dwindled to an almost complete halt until the end of World War II.56
Without a steady flow of immigrants to reinforce traditional values, the Arab community of the
United States faced major challenges in preserving those traditions, including the Arabic
language, in the lives of their children.
54
Tehranian,64.
55
Helen Hatab Samhan, “Not Quite White” in Arabs in America: Building a New Future.
Michael Suleiman, ed., (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999): 209-229
56
Naff, 2.
24
Public perception remained an important factor in the lives of many Arab-Americans, as
negative stereotypes about the Syrian and Lebanese community continued to play a role in
discouraging the projection of Arab identity. In a study on Arabs in New York City, Lucius
Hopkins Miller, a professor of biblical studies at Princeton University, employed a variety of
stereotypes in his analysis. He wrote that “a main charge brought against the Syrian character is
that of sharpness and deceit—a prevalent Oriental strain.”57 Miller explained the origins of
Syrian mendacity by arguing that it was the product of being “nurtured by an adverse
environment.”58 Miller also alludes to a number of positive stereotypes that he associated with
the Syrians of New York. Miller wrote, “In his love of law and order the Syrian cannot be
excelled… The universal testimony of the police authorities is that there is no more peaceful or
law abiding race in New York City. The humane spirit is very strong among the Syrians.”59
Miller’s commentary sheds light on a number of facets important to Arab-American experiences
at the turn of the twentieth century. Despite the positive association between Arabs and their
respect for law and order, Miller’s analysis reflected the reality that many Americans harbored
suspicion of the Arab community as a community of deviant liars. Moreover, Miller’s
characterization of deceit as “a prevalent Oriental strain” highlighted the close association
between Arabs and the Orient; an association that Arabs were already actively combating in their
fight for racial classification.
By the beginning of World War II, two generations of American Arabs had been born,
raised, and educated within the United States. While parents tried to maintain traditional Arab
57
Tehranian,71.
58
Lucius Hopkins Miller, A Study of the Syrian Population of Greater New York
(1904):5.
59
Ibid., 25.
25
values in the home and through their churches, many Arab children had never seen their parents’
homeland, spoke varying degrees of Arabic, and showed less commitment their cultural
heritage.60 The beginning of World War II marked an almost complete assimilation of the
earliest Arab immigrants and their children. In order to illustrate this point, one need only look at
the newspaper of ad-daleel (The Guide). ad-daleel was an Arabic newspaper published in
Detroit, Michigan from 1940 to1951. It described itself as the “weekly publication for Arabic
speaking people” across the United States.61 As an Arabic newspaper, one would expect its
readership to be those Arabs who clung most strongly to their heritage through the preservation
of their language. However, the articles of ad-daleel were not the last stronghold calling for the
restoration of Arab identity, but rather they testified to the degree that Arabs, even those who
continued reading Arabic, privileged their new American identities.
As they did in the First World War, Arab-Americans showed their commitment to their
citizenship through their service in the Second World War. In this respect, ad-daleel displayed a
strong commitment in support of the American cause. Its issues prominently featured the faces of
several servicemen of Arab descent fighting in the American army on its front page.62 While
there were articles honoring Arab-Americans who had given their lives in service, ad-daleel also
included articles, which featured Arab-Americans still serving and fighting for their country. By
celebrating the action and service of living members of their community, ad-daleel showed its
commitment went beyond just honoring fallen Arab-Americans; it reflected its pride in
community’s participation in the War as American citizens.
60
Suleiman, 9.
61
ad-daleel. “Title page” ad-daleel Pub. Co, 1940, Detroit, Michigan: December 8, 1943.
62
Ibid.
Instances of this reappear in various issues throughout 1943 and 1944.
26
ad-daleel and various members of the Arab community showed their support in other
ways as well, in particular, by running ads in the papers to support the American war effort.
Advertisements for war bonds that read, “For Victory: Buy United States War Bond and Stamps”
were another common feature of ad-daleel publications throughout the war.63 While the
advertisements for war bonds were small and took up very little print space, they were not the
only advertisements in the paper supporting the war. Another common occurrence was the
dedication of an entire page for an advertisement supporting the war effort, made possible
through the donation of various individuals from the Arab community. These donations often ran
the same advertisement titled “Let’s stick to our Guns,” prompting its readers to keep working
and supporting the troops.64
One interesting aspect of these advertisements was that they were the only parts of the
paper that were printed in English. All other advertisements in the newspaper; including ads for
American companies such as the Bank of Detroit and American Express, were written in Arabic
with only the name of the company being written in English. The fact that the paid
advertisements were written in English could signify that the donations came from more
assimilated members of the community and did not accurately represent the more traditional
readers that ad-daleel sought to engage. On the other hand, their decision to post the
advertisements in English could have been a calculated decision: using standardized English
posters in in order to emphasize their participation in the American cause.
63
See ad-daleel. December 15, 1943. Page 4. Similar advertisements can be found in
publications throughout 1943 and 1944.
64
See ad-daleel. December 15, 1943. Page 5. Similar advertisements can be found in
publications throughout 1943 and 1944.
27
The desire to privilege their American identity fin an effort to avoid ostracism from other
Americans and the United States’ government may certainly have played a role in the paper’s
decision to feature these articles and advertisements. Pressures that helped foster Arab-American
assimilation persisted into the war; the Arab-American community’s struggle in achieving status
as “white” members of American society remained prominent during World War II. As late as
1942, a court decided to deny citizenship to Arab from Yemen by reasoning, “Arabs as a class
are not white and therefore not eligible for citizenship.”65 In essence, Arab-Americans faced
many of the same problems that discouraged them from projecting their ethnic identities
publically prior to the war. Support for the war may have been seen as a way to reinforce their
status as Americans and avoid discrimination.
While there was potential that the support of the war effort may have been a response to
external pressures on the Arab-American community, an equally strong argument could be made
that the support of the ad-daleel was genuine and represented the feelings of patriotism in the
Arab-American community. An article written by Shauki Rayless, the editor of ad-daleel, titled
“Even in a war such as this, Peace is made” shed some light on this dilemma. The top of the page
is occupied by picture of Uncle Sam, Churchill, and Stalin kicking Hitler with an Arabic
description. The accompanying article beneath the picture further reinforced the message of
unity and power in the picture. Rayless wrote, “we [the allied powers] will act as one hand in
order to realize our golden dream of living in peace and happiness.”66 His dedication to the
American cause was further articulated in the article when he stated, “no power under the Sun
65
Ahmed Hassan, 48 F. Supp. 843 (E.D. Michigan 1942) quoted in John Tehranian,
Whitewashed: America's Invisible Middle Eastern Minority. (New York: New York University
Press, 2010) 89.
66
Shauki Rayless, “ ‫ "كما في الحرب كذلك في السلم‬ad-daleel. December 8, 1943.
28
can stop us from sweeping away Germany and erasing her oppression and tyranny from the
world.”67 The fact that the article was written in Arabic, thus unavailable to non-Arabic speaking
audience, suggested that that Rayless’ opinions were not an attempt to curry favor from nonArab-speaking members American society. The use of “we” emphasized a personal investment
in the American success in the war and support for the goals of American foreign policy.
When taken together, ad-daleel’s articles and its presentation of the war showed a strong
commitment to supporting the United States and showed that the newspaper took an equal
amount of pride in its American identity as it did its Arab identity. As such, the medium in which
one would expect to find the most resistance to assimilation into American society actually
espoused the American objectives of the war and served as an outlet for wartime propaganda,
support, and enthusiasm. While one cannot infer with certainty that the readers of ad-daleel
would have showed the same enthusiasm as its writers, ad-daleel showed that the pervasiveness
and completeness of the assimilation experienced by Arab communities in the United States by
the end of the Second World War.
The first half of the twentieth century constituted a period of assimilation and
Americanization for many members of the Arab community across the United States and reflects
the findings of other works on Arab-Americans during this period. Nevertheless, while a series
of pressures enjoyed Arab immigrants to publicize and hide cultural traditions and activities that
could have been associated with their Arab identity, certain aspects of that identity remained
important in the private sphere of Arab-American affairs. As a result, no encompassing ArabAmerican identity developed during this period. However, just as the World Wars served as
vehicles for Arab-Americans to reinforce their American identities, new political developments
67
Ibid.
29
in their former homelands would force Arab-Americans to confront new challenges and
opportunities for the community to distinguish itself as a unique entity in American society and
lead to an increased desire to organize at a national level.
30
Chapter 2
Forging an Identity:
The National Association of Syrian and Lebanese Clubs
The fall of colonial powers after World War II led to a variety of political developments
across the Middle East beginning with the creation of Israel in 1948 and Arab defeat in the first
Arab-Israeli war of that year. The consequences of that war on the Arab psyche were profound,
and dissatisfaction with the incompetence shown by Arab leaders combined with new visions of
Arab unity across the region. The result was the pan-Arab movement, which reached its apex
during the creation of the United Arab Republic in 1958, which combined the nation states of
Syria and Egypt under the leadership of Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Pan-Arabism began as an intellectual and educational movement in Syria and Iraq during
the 1930s but took the center stage when Nasser became the face and voice of Pan-Arabism after
leading a coup in 1952. 68 Nasser’s attachment to pan-Arab ideology stemmed less from
ideological concerns than from his practical political concerns and aspirations — specifically, the
removal of British influence in Egypt and the resistance of Western impositions upon Egypt.
Other pan-Arab leaders such as Salah al-Din Bitar, a founding member of the Arab nationalist
Ba’th party in Syria, commented on Nasser’s late conversion to pan-Arab nationalism by
suggesting Nasser’s association with pan-Arabism came from his desires to achieve his own
political aims for the betterment of Egypt.69 His triumphs during the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the
68
For more on the origins of Pan-Arabism see, Philip S. Khoury, Syrian and the French
Mandate: The Politics of Arab Nationalism 1920-1945 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1987; and C. Earnest Dawn, “the Origins of Arab Nationalism” in Rashid
Khalidi, Lisa Anderson, Muhammad Muslih, and Reeva S. Simon, eds., The origins of Arab
nationalism.( New York: Columbia University Press 1991).
69
Dawisha, 136-37.
31
creation of United Arab Republic galvanized Arab hopes and aspirations which were only
matched by disappointment following the humiliating Arab defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Pan-Arabism’s effect on Arab-Americans should not be understated. It was not just Arabs
in the Middle East that hoped their countries would unite and create a better future. As politics in
the Middle East took center stage with the rise of the Cold War, various Arab-American
individuals and institutions engaged with these events, encouraging others to act politically in
order to better the position of Arab-Americans in the United States in support of Arabs abroad.
This chapter explores the ways in which various proponents of a collective Arab-American
identity engaged with political developments overseas in an effort to forge an Arab-American
identity. Additionally, it explores how foreign organizations, specifically the representative
organization of the Arab League in the United Nations in New York, the Arab State Delegation
Office, supported Arab-American publications in an effort to create a united Arab-American
community.
Despite pressures to assimilate more completely into American society, a fair number of
Arab immigrants and their children continued to participate in local Arabic clubs such as the
various federations of Syrian-Lebanese American Clubs, which were began in 1938 as umbrella
organizations that brought together local clubs.70 Before the war, the clubs were organized and
governed by various regional federations. However, as the clubs resumed their functioning
following the end of World War II their organizational structure shifted. In 1950, three of the
independent Syrian-Lebanese federations joined to establish a national body known as the
70
While the clubs were titled Syrian-Lebanese, any individual of Arabic-speaking decent
could become a member.
32
National Association of Federations of Syrian-Lebanese American Clubs (NAFSLAC).71 The
efforts for unity were largely led by members of the Eastern Federation of Syrian-Lebanese
Clubs, but leadership of the organization was decided in an annual convention where local clubs
sent delegates proportional to their size to vote on their behalf.72 Envisioned as a “permanent
and expanding national cultural organization for all Americans of Arabic-speaking origin,” the
NAFSLAC marked the first major attempt by members of the Arab-American community to
transcend regional divisions in the community and form a body capable of representing its
members on the national level.73
Despite the its aims, NAFSLAC failed to establish itself as an effective national
organization which can be seen in the following intra-office dispatch of the Eastern Federation of
Syrian and Lebanese American Clubs:
It is now four years since the organization of the National Association and all of
us must recognize that the Association is a national organization only in name.
Except for a few isolated activities, the organization has failed to develop a
national program, to establish itself as the paramount organization of our people
and unite them and their organizations towards worthwhile objectives.74
While the memo listed many of the shortcomings of the National Association, namely its
functioning as a national organization only in name rather than in practice, it also articulated a
clear desire to improve the functions of the National Association and resolve the issues of
71
The Southern, Eastern, and Mid-Western federations were among the founding
members of the NAFSLAC. The only federation not represented at that time was Western
Federation of Syrian and Lebanese American Clubs, which joined the NAFSLAC in 1956.
72
James Ansara, “Oral History.” Michael Suleiman Collection.
73
National Herald, “The Promotion of American-Arab Understanding,” February 1956.
Washington D.C.
74
The Eastern Federation of Syrian and Lebanese Clubs. “A Statement on the National
Association.” June, 1954.
33
mistrust between the regional federations in order to establish “a real national organization for all
Americans of Arabic-speaking origin.”75 In some ways, the National Association did succeed in
forwarding the goals articulated in this letter; from its outset, the Eastern Federation had
published a monthly periodical titled the Federation Herald, which tended to focus on local club
activities and domestic issues.76 The Federation Herald continued its publication in the early
years of NASLAC and was freely distributed to all members of the Eastern Federation. In 1956,
the National Herald replaced the Federation Herald as the official publication of NAFSLAC,
and the new periodical was provided to all club members. The National Herald sought to
promote the national character of the organization by dedicating many of its articles to informing
readers about political developments in the Middle East rather than local bulletins. In
conjunction with other Arab-American newspapers such as the Caravan, based in New York
City, and individual publications by Arab-American activists, Arab-American publishers created
and promoted an idealized community of Arab-Americans that would be willing to engage
politically in response to threats to their ethnic identity.
However, within the next year, there was a clear recognition in both the
leadership of the Association and its members that it was failing to attract new members
to joins its ranks and faced a decline of interest and support for the activities of the clubs
and federations that comprised the Association. An editorial directed to its members
discussed these challenges and the future of the Federations. The editorial acknowledged
that the end of the Federations was imminent stating that the Federations were “becoming
75
Ibid.
76
The Federation Herald. The National Association of Federations of Syrian and Lebanese
Americans. James Ansara Papers, Near Eastern Collection, Immigration History Research
Center, University of Minnesota.
34
obsolete” because “as the new immigrant generations have become integrated into
American life, ethnic and nationality organizations must inevitably die out.”77 At least
one the editorial’s predictions came to pass; Facing a decline in membership, a lack of
assured income, and an increase in costs due to running a national organization, the
National Association and the National Herald were dissolved in 1960 as the clubs
reorganized themselves under the original regional Federations. 78
The collapse of the National Association has led to the fair criticism of its claim of
successfully creating a national association to represent its Arab-American constituents. Despite
its eventual failure, over one hundred and fifty organizations affiliated themselves with
NAFSLAC. The organization boasted over 5,900 members and formed the largest and most
active Arab-American organization during this period.79 The National Association actively
engaged with the United States’ and Arab governments by organizing international visits to
Lebanon and Syrian and by petitioning various officials in the United States government.
Although it aimed to become the “national cultural organization for all Americans of Arabicspeaking origin,” the fact remained that rate of membership in the National Association came
well short of the estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Americans of Arab origin during this period. 80
77
National Herald. “The Future of the Federation,” February, 1957. James Ansara
Papers, Near Eastern Collection, Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota.
78
The Syrian Lebanese Federation of Eastern States, “Bulletin,” vol. 1, no. 1.Jan-FebMarch 1960.
79
National Association of Federations of Syrian and Lebanese American Clubs, “MidAnnual Report of the Executive Secretary,” June 1956.
Financing the continued publication of a national newspaper required almost half of NASLAC’s
budget in 1956. As concerns over funding increased in the subsequent years
80
National Herald, “Promotion of American-Arab Understanding” February 1956.
Washington D.C.
35
As a result, some Arab-American historians such as Michael Suleiman have labeled the impact
of NAFSLAC on the Arab-American community as “inconsequential”. 81 Although the National
Association failed to unite or mobilize the majority of Arab-American community, it represented
the first attempt to form a national organization for Arab-Americans.82
That is not to say that the positions taken by NAFSLAC regarding these issues were
unique or completely antithetical to what was going on in the broader Arab-American
community. Similar sentiments were found in the mobilizations of select communities of ArabAmericans. Several studies of the Arab immigrant community of Dearborn, Michigan
emphasized the willingness of that community to engage politically on behalf of Arab leaders
and causes. One such study was Abdo Elkholy’s study on Arab Muslims in the United States, in
which he shared the story of a woman speaking to an Arab representative from Jordan. She said,
“whenever a party is opened in the name of the Prophet, no one is particularly moved. If it is
opened in the name of God, no one cares either. But the name of Gamal Abdel-Nasser electrifies
the hall.”83 Elkholy’s observation of the importance of Nasser, particularly in the Dearborn
community, was later reiterated in Laurel Wigle and Sameer Abraham’s article “Arab
Nationalism in America: the Dearborn Arab Community.” Their study explored the tendency of
Arab-Americans in Dearborn to mobilize on behalf of Arabs in response to political
developments occurring in the Middle East including the Suez Crisis, the formation of the United
81
Suleiman, 8.
82
Ibid., 7-8.
83
Elkholy, 48.
36
Arab Republic, and the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.84 Elkholy noted similar mobilizations in this
Muslim Arab-American community, including the raising of money for the victims of Port Sa’id
in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis and a demonstration against King Hussein of Jordan
protesting his “hostile policy towards President Nasser.”85 These studies make it clear that
localized communities of Arab-Americans were willing to act politically on behalf of Nasser and
other Arab causes, but failed to manifest as nationally organized effort. However, of those ArabAmericans who were politically oriented or found themselves in a position to share their
opinions through publication or other processes, one finds a clear voice of support for Arab
governments and encouragement for their readership to engage in support of Arabs abroad.
The writings of other Arab-American individuals also reflected the general trend of
support for various Arab causes. Authors such as Frank Sakran, a lawyer and author of Christian
Arab heritage who lived in Maryland, spearheaded an intellectual defense of Arabs in Palestine.
In a series of books focusing on Palestine such as Palestinian Dilemma and America, Zionists,
and the Arabs, as well as various contributions to mainstream American newspapers (most
notably the Washington Post) Sakran presented an intellectual defense of Arab positions and
policy in the Middle East for the American public. Sakran also served on a variety of institutions
including the Citizens Committee on American Policy in the Near East and as the secretary for
84
Laurel D. Wigle and Sammer Y. Abraham, “Arab Nationalism in America: The
Dearborn Arab community, in David W. Hartman eds. Immigrants and Migrants: The Detroit
Ethnic Experience (Detroit, Michigan: New University Thought Publishing Company, 1974):
279-302.
85
Elkholy, 49.
37
the Ad Hoc Committee on the Middle East, which sought to alter US foreign policy in the
Middle East towards a position more partial to Arab nations.86
Mohammad Mehdi of Berkley, California was also an outspoken critic of Israel. As
President of the Arab-American Relations Committee, and founder the National Council of
Islamic Affairs, Mehdi sought to, “spur political awareness and action among Muslims in the
United States.”87 Like Sakran, Mehdi was an avid contributor to the Washington Post. In one
letter to the editor, he criticized American leadership for creating a situation in which, Gamel
Abdel Nasser looked to Moscow for assistance rather than Washington, and stressing how
American foreign policy towards Israel was the cause. He concluded his letter by stating, “The
time is now to reconsider the American policy towards the Middle East, the key to which is the
Palestinian question.”88 Again, Mehdi did not criticize Nasser for engaging in discussions with
the Soviet Union; instead, he leveled his critiques squarely at what he considered a faulty foreign
policy of the United States.
While many of these works sought to appeal Americans in general, some articles began
to identify Arab-Americans as a distinct group that was capable of bridging the gap between
Arab and American policies. George Debs was editor-in-chief of the Caravan, an ArabAmerican newspaper in New York City. In an article titled “Today’s Blunders Become
Tomorrow’s Emergencies” Debs wrote, “We Americans of Arab origin are more concerned than
86
Frank Sakran, "Display Ad 100 -- no Title." The Washington Post, Times Herald
(1959-1973), Jun 28, 1967.
87
Eric Pace. "M.T. Mehdi, 70, Arab-American Leader." New York Times (1923-Current
File), Feb 25, 1998.
88
Mohammad T. Mehdi, "Middle East Tragedy." The Washington Post and Times
Herald (1954 1959), May 13, 1958.
38
other Americans in making sure our brothers and cousins [in the Middle East] are not punished
by our blunders.” 89 While Debs’ quotation certainly reflected NASLAC’s objective of
encouraging Arab-Americans to engage politically on behalf of Arabs in the Middle East, it also
identified Arab-American perspective as something distinct from that of “other Americans” who
did not share their Arab heritage. In this way, Debs projects his vision of Arab-American identity
as a responsibility for Americans of Arab origin to act as ambassadors between America and the
Arab world.
In another Caravan article, Dr. Sayegh, the Middle East policy expert, asked his readers
to “devote some of [their] time to study and learn about the developments in the Arab world, the
justice of the Arab cause in Palestine ... and the positive aspirations of the Arab Nationalist
Movement of freedom, unity and a more abundant life.”90 In the course of this article Sayegh
also specified who should undertake this task calling on “those who believe in the necessity of
improving Arab-[United States] relations” which he further clarified as “all loyal and farsighted
Arabs and all loyal and farsighted Americans; but particularly and with special emphasis
Americans of Arab origins.”91 While the overall goal remained the education of Americans at
large, Arab-Americans were distinguished as a unique community capable of bridging the gap
between Arab governments and the United States
Articles in the National Herald covered many of the same themes and topics that
emerged in the works of these individuals. In an editorial describing the National Associations’
89
George Debs, “Today’s Blunders become Tomorrows Emergencies,” The Caravan,
Arab-American Business Service Bureau, January 9, 1958. 5.
90
Fayez Sayegh, “A New Year’s Resolution,” The Caravan, Arab-American Business
Service Bureau, January 2, 1958. 6.
91
Ibid.
39
activities, the author does not hesitate to point out that “Since its founding in 1950, virtually
every major project and activity of the organization has been motivated, either entirely or largely,
by its interest in furthering better American-Arab understanding.” 92 The article continued by
stating that the “American public and government must be told the facts about the crisis in the
Near East; they most know the present temper of the Arab peoples; and they must recognize the
just grievances and aspirations of those countries.” And who was responsible for telling the
American people and government? The editorial answers with, “Who better can sympathetically
inform the American people and government about Arabs than Americans of Arabic-speaking
origin.”93 In this way, the National Association provided a plan of action for Arab-Americans to
improve American-Arab relations by providing accurate information about Arabs to the
American public and government. Moreover, this article also reflected the belief that ArabAmericans were uniquely qualified to serve as the intermediaries between the United States and
the Arab people and differentiated Arab-Americans from other Americans by virtue of their
ethnic heritage.
In the case of Debs’ article, he claimed ownership of American blunders by using the
possessive “our.” By doing so Debs emphasized his identity as an American first and foremost,
which was reinforced by his notion of being an “American of Arab origin” rather than an Arab
living in America. Similarly, a petition from the Ad Hoc Committee on the Middle East to the
Secretary of State, signed by Frank Sakran, regarding the United States’ treatment of Israel, their
argument for changing American foreign policy in the Middle East was based squarely on
92
93
National Herald, “The Promotion of American-Arab Understanding” February, 1956.
Ibid.
40
“America’s larger interests.”94 In a similar manner, Mohammad Mehdi’s letter to the editor
suggested that losing Nasser to the USSR “[was] not in the interest of the United States.”95
Although these Arab-Americans proved more than willing to align themselves in support of
Arabs abroad in debating foreign policy, they justified their positions by arguing such changes
would be in the best interest of the United States.
Similar sentiments were found in the report of NAFSLAC’s activities and their
relationship with foreign governments. In a memorandum written to the Assistant Secretary of
State following a trip to the Middle East, members of NAFSLAC emphasized that their loyalty
was first and foremost to United States.
While we are meeting with you as representatives of a particular ethnic group stemming
from the Arabic-speaking stock, we want to make it crystal clear that we are speaking to
you as Americans—and only as Americans, representing over a half million other
Americans of Arabic-speaking extraction, concerning whose loyalty there has never been,
or ever will be any question. Those have gone, and always will go—first, last and always
to America, our new and only homeland.96
It is no surprise that these Arab-American writers grounded their claims in the best
interests of America as it served as rhetorical device to better support their proposal and distance
themselves from accusations of anti-American sentiment. However, by emphasizing ArabAmericans’ loyalty to the United States, these articles also differentiated Arab-Americans from
Arabs in the Middle East. The result was the articulation of an identity that was distinct from
both Arab and American identities; a unique Arab-American identity whose members were
94
Sakran, "Display Ad 100 -- no Title."
95
Mehdi, “Middle East Tragedy.”
96
James Ansara Papers, “Memorandum to William Rountree,” Jan 9, 1959.
41
capable and bore the responsibility for acting as the bridge between Arabs and Americans on a
social and political level.
The National Association undertook various programs in an effort to engage ArabAmericans in the pursuit of improving American-Arab understanding and increasing ArabAmericans’ interest in their former homelands. Perhaps their most well-publicized attempts to
foster a connection between Arab-Americans and their homelands were the semi-regular
pilgrimages to the Middle East they organized with the support of both Arab governments and
the United States government. The trips were organized as week-long endeavors that would take
Arab-Americans back to their homelands of Syria and Lebanon as well as making stops in
Jordan and Egypt. The first trip was organized 1950 and subsequent trips occurred in 1955, 1959,
1960, and 1961.97 However, the success of those trips in promoting a greater connection between
the Arab-Americans and their former homelands remained unclear in the eyes of its organizers.
In his report on the 1960 pilgrimage, James Ansara noted, “only a minority of the members of
these pilgrimages fully participated in the programs and that even a smaller number had other
than a sentimental interest in their countries of origin.”98 Despite the great lengths, the National
Association went through to partner with both Arab and United States governments to organize
and fund these endeavors, even individuals who participated in the trip proved hesitant to fulfill
the expectations of dedication and support to fostering a better understanding between Arabs and
Americans.
97
98
The trip in 1961 was organized by the Eastern Federation.
James Ansara. “1960 Tour and Conference in the Middles East Report.” James Ansara Papers,
Near Eastern Collection, Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota.
42
Political developments abroad also provided an opportunity for leaders of the NAFSLAC
to place themselves in a position of leadership and project their views as the views of ArabAmerican community. Following the creation of Israel, leaders of the Eastern Federation
adopted a resolution which they later sent to the United States government criticizing their
handling of the affair, stating that the United States policy was “contrary to law and justice” and
encouraging the policy be changed to reflect “true American precepts of freedom and
democracy.”99 The Association mounted a similar response to the Suez Crisis in 1956. Michael
Tamer, the president of NAFSLAC sent a telegram to President Eisenhower, which was later
reprinted in the National Herald. It read, “The National Association of Syrian and Lebanese
American Clubs are deeply concerned over the dangerously explosive Suez Canal crisis and the
grave threat an attempted solution by force of arms poses to… the strengthening of ArabAmerican friendship and cooperation for which all of us are constantly striving.”100 While
NAFSLAC support for a change in American foreign policy may be unsurprising given the
already established trend of sympathy with various Arab causes present in their publications, its
petitions also reflected NAFSLAC’s aim of becoming the voice of Arab-Americans in American
politics.
In this respect, NAFSLAC succeeded in becoming the recognized voice of ArabAmericans and an important intermediary between the Arab-American community and policy
makers in Washington. From its beginning, members of the Association successfully organized a
trip White House to present a series of proposals to the President of the United States on
improving the relationship between Arab nations and the United States. A group of
99
Federation Herald. “Resolution Urges Justice Towards Palestine.”
100
The National Herald. “Wire to Eisenhower on the Suez Crisis,” September, 1956.
43
representatives from the Association visited Harry Truman bearing the “warmest greetings of
over half a million Americans.”101 By portraying themselves as representatives of the entirety of
the Arab-American community, NAFLAC succeed in gaining the respect of the United States
government as “outstanding promoters of Arab-American friendship.”102 Despite the
organization’s recognition by the United States government as a representative voice of ArabAmerican sentiments, the problem remained that the actual rate membership in the National
Association was miniscule when compared to the overall population of Arab-Americans. As we
will see, this privileged status irked groups which offered alternative identities to members of the
Arab-American community and led to questions of whether the policies of the National
Association accurately represented the beliefs of its constituents much less the entire ArabAmerican community.
However, the reasons that motivated these individuals to promote Arab-Americans to act
as ambassadors between the Arab world and the United States prove unclear. James Ansara, the
editor of the National Herald and executive secretary of the National Association, retroactively
expressed doubts that Arab-Americans at this time were willing to engage themselves politically.
Ansara described the mindset of Arab-Americans while he worked for the National Association:
“[Arab immigrants] were not interested even in American politics. They wouldn’t be
interested in Arab politics. And their energies largely went into, aside from maintaining
themselves, into building their churches and projects back in their villages… So that the
atmosphere, the conditions weren’t conductive at all because as a people, especially
101
Federation Herald. “President Truman Meets Federation Leaders on White House
Lawn. “October 1951.
102
United States Information Service. “National Association of Syrian and Lebanese
American Clubs,” 1960. James Ansara Papers.
44
Christians, Arabs were individualistic, they were not socially conscious or politically
conscious in any manner.”103
This commentary from Ansara two decades after the dissolution of NASLAC may have
been an attempt to justify the collapse of his organization describing its goal as impossible. If
this later statement reflected his opinion in the 1950s, it also raises an important question. If
James Ansara, the executive secretary of NASLAC and editor-in chief of the National Herald,
did not believe that Arab-Americans had an active interest in engaging on behalf of their
homelands politically in American politics, why did so many of the organization’s actions and
publications attempt to engage the Arab-American community as a means of altering American
foreign policy? Moreover, given the Associations belief that “ethnic and nationality
organizations must inevitably die out” why would leaders of NASLAC not only continue
encouraging the Arab-American public to engage behalf of Arab causes but increase the rate it
organized expeditions to visit the Middle East?104
One of the major reasons may have been a shift in the relationship between Arab
governments and Arab-Americans. Abdo Elkholy noted that before the rise of Pan-Arabism (and
Nasser in particular), Arab-Americans had visited Arab countries and “were ignored by those
officials whom they had welcomed. Such unequal treatment lessened the Americans’ concern for
the Arab countries.” 105 He continued by noting that “a recent change in the official attitude of
the Arab governments towards the Arab-American” had developed. 106 While the motivations
103
James Ansara, “Oral History”. Michael Suleiman Collection.
104
National Herald. “The Future of the Federation,”
105
Elkholy, 42-43.
106
Ibid., 43.
45
that inspired this change in attitude was beyond the scope of Elkholy’s study, it is clear that Arab
governments began to directly engage and promote efforts of NASLAC and others in an effort to
engage the Arab-American community.
The Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser took an active interest in improving the
relationship between his government and Arab-Americans. James Kalil and Casim Olwan, both
former sergeants in the United State Army, traveled to Cairo and met with President Nasser in
1959. Both men were of Arab descent and traveled to Egypt as representatives of the Federation
of American Moslems, which offered support and funding for various projects for the benefit of
Muslims in Canada and the United States. This purpose of this trip was to offer positions at
various mosques across the United States to Egyptian imams from the Al Azhar Islamic
University in Cairo.107 Not only did these men return with the promise that Egypt would send
seven Imams to the United States to lead various mosques , but they returned with almost
$50,000 in funding to help with the construction of a new Islamic center in Detroit.108
During the course of the meeting, Nasser was reported as saying that he “expressed great
interest in the extend[ing] of Moslem worship in North America” which on its own would seem
to support the idea that the shared religious connection was fundamental to the success of Kalil
and Olwan. While religion may have certainly played a part, Nasser proved equally willing to
engage with the projects of Arab-Americans Christians, suggesting that religion was not the
primary motivation in Nasser’s support of this project.
107
An Imam is individual educated in the tenants of Islamic history, customs, and
theology and often responsible for leading prayers in Muslim prayers.
108
The New York Times. "Nasser Donates to U.S. Moslems." New York Times (1923Current File), Sep 20, 1959.
46
The friendly relationship between NAFSLAC and Nasser was a relationship that reflect
Nasser’s willingness to support endeavors made by Arab-American Christians. While the
National Association itself was not religious in nature, many of its members were. Prior to one
of the National Association’s trips to the Middle East, Cosmo Ansara, the brother of James
Ansara, and president of the NAFSLAC, wrote about his excitement of visiting “Biblical places
of interest” on the journey and thanked the United Arab Republic and Nasser for their support. In
this respect, Nasser proved willing to support Arab-American endeavors that in part included
pilgrimages to certain Christian sites.109
The most likely reason behind Nasser’s involvement with various factions of the ArabAmerican community may mirrored the reasons he may assumed the mantle of pan-Arabism; he
saw a close relationship with the Arab-American community as a means to further his own
political ambitions. Given that other pan-Arab leaders had suggested Nasser’s late conversion to
pan-Arab nationalism and suggesting that his association with pan-Arabism came from his
desires to achieve his own political aims for the betterment of Egypt rather than his belief in panArabism as an ideology, Nasser’s decision to engage the Arab-American community to further
his interests was hardly surprising.110 Moreover, Nasser strove to achieve politically neutrality in
the Cold War but struggled to remain favorable terms with the United States. Perception of
Arabs falling under Soviet influence abounded during this time, and while Arab-Americans
writers were willing to forgive Nasser’s relationship with Moscow, pointing instead to what they
considered a flawed American foreign policy, the reality was that Nasser was attempting to walk
109
Cosmo Ansara, “no title” The National Herald, National Association of Federations of
Syrian and Lebanese American Clubs February 1960.
110
Dawisha, 136-37.
47
a fine line between the two superpowers. As a result, Nasser envisioned the Arab-American
community of the United States as a tool that he could use to exert political pressure in
Washington which he could turn to his advantage. That did not mean that the shared religion or
ethnicity of Arab-Americans went unaccounted for by Nasser; rather it made the Arab-American
and Muslim communities of the United States particularly enticing because of the belief that
Arab-American would have been more receptive and sympathetic to the plights of Arabs in the
Middle East.
Nasser’s desire was also reflected in the writing of other Arab political actors such as
George Tomeh, the Consul General of Syria. In an article written by Tomeh a few days prior to
the establishment of the United Arab Republic, he reprimanded the United States’ practice of
branding of Arabs as communists when they objected to unpopular policies from Washington,
such as support for Israel. He appealed to his readers to engage on behalf of the Arab positions
saying “[Americans] can say much more than we can”.111 While the Consul General’s comment
specifically referred to the broader intellectual community of the United States, his submission
reflected a clear desire for Arab officials to engage the American public on the behalf of Arab
governments. Arab-Americans, a group that he and his colleagues considered “naturally
sympathetic” to the Arab world became ideal targets for implanting a voice that would support
Arab governments in the American political scene.112
111
George Tomeh,“Operation Blackmail,” The Caravan, Arab-American Business
Service Bureau, January 16, 1958, 6.
112
James Ansara, “Program of Cooperation Between this Office and the Arab-American
Community,” The Arab State Delegation Office, June 26, 1956.
48
The Arab State Delegation Office, the regional representative body of the Arab League in
the United Nations, was established to engage members of the Arab-American community by
creating an information and public relations program that would educate them on the political
developments occurring in the Middle East. In the proposal to establish the public relations
program, the office acknowledged that “a large number of Arab-Americans, if not the majority,
while conscious of their cultural background and naturally sympathetic with the Arab people…
share with their fellow-citizens misconceptions and prejudices about the Arab world, which often
conflict with their natural sympathy.”113 Additionally, the office observed that the younger
generation of Arab-Americans was particularly “reluctant to take any political positions or
actions which could possibly be interpreted by other Americans or by their government as dual
loyalty.114 Despite these setbacks, it also voiced its belief that Arab-Americans who acquired
more accurate knowledge regarding the state of the Arab world would become “more actively
interested in promoting better understanding and relations between the Arab world and the
United States.”115 The belief that the education of the Arab-American community would result in
a more willing, more active tool for Arab governments to exert political pressure in Washington
became the reason that Nasser and other Arab leaders tried engage the Arab-American
community.
The mandate from the Arab State Delegations Office openly called for the establishment
of “closer relations and co-operation with the Arab-American community” and took special
113
The Arab State Delegation Office, “An Information and Public Relations Program For
Arab Americans.”
114
Ibid.
115
Ibid.
49
interest in engaging with the “active press” of the Arab-American community.116 As a result,
groups such as NASLAC and other Arab-American publications became vehicles through which
Arab governments were able to enact their plans. Moreover, the financial difficulties experienced
the National Association created a situation in which there was a real possibility that it would
have to curtail its national programs, including the National Herald which could become
“bulletin restricted to news of the Federation and clubs.”117 James Ansara became the Director of
Special Programs for the Arab State Delegation Office while continuing to act as the editor-inchief for the National Herald. As such, he was well aware of the financial difficulties faced by
the National Association and the threat posed to National Herald. He approached the ambassador
of the Arab State Delegation Office and successfully proposed offering financial support to every
Arab-American publication in order to “gain fuller cooperation and support of the ArabAmerican press in the promotion of our program among Arab-Americans.”118
The desire to improve Arab-American relations was certainly a goal that various ArabAmerican individuals and leaders sought in their own right. However, to deny that the financial
incentives and encouragement offered by the Arab State Delegation Office and other Arab
governments had no effect would be equally disingenuous. These foreign entities incentivized
the emphasis on Arab-American political action in Arab-American publications in the hope that
Arab-Americans would prove not only sympathetic to the plight of Arabs but that their education
would spur Arab-Americans to become their intermediaries in American politics. The
encouragement of these foreign organizations allowed for Arab-American writers to articulate a
116
James Ansara, “Program of Cooperation.”
117
Ibid.
118
James Ansara, “Arab-American Press.” The Arab State Delegation Office.
50
vision of Arab-American identity that was based in political action on behalf of Arabs and
loyalty to the United States. The result was the creation of a distinct Arab-American identity.
Their efforts and vision eventually fell short with dissolution of NASLAC in 1960 and the vision
in these publications failed to stir the Arab-American community at large.
However, there were other factors that may have contributed to the failure of the National
Association and their vision of an Arab-American identity. If read on their own, the highly
publicized efforts of these individuals and publications would suggest that the entirety of the
Arab-American community was empathetic to Arab causes in the Middle East and willing to
support them. The reality proved more complex; opposition to certain developments, particularly
pan-Arabism, were present in various sects of the Arab-American community and proved to be
equally important in the failure of a collective Arab-American identity to emerge during this
time. This opposition will be the subject of the next chapter.
51
Chapter 3
Who’s An Arab?
Lebanese-Americans in the pan-Arab Era
The importance of Civil Rights movement, the resumption of Arab immigration
following the repeal of the Asian Exclusion Act in 1965, and the media’s biased coverage of the
1967 Arab-Israeli war each contributed to the successful mobilization of Arab-Americans
following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. However, something else contributed to the failure of
NAFSLAC’s attempts to forge a collective Arab-American identity, namely the presence and
articulation of a competing vision of collective identity for certain member of the ArabAmerican community. This chapter explores the role of the Lebanese American Journal in
articulating an alternative vision of identity for the majority of members of the Arab-American
community during the 1950s and 1960s.
The Lebanese American Journal began publication in 1953 and continued into the 1980s.
However, the Journal traced its roots in the Arab-American community much further back than
the 1950s. The Maronite newspaper al-hoda (The Guide) began publishing in 1898 and
represented the voice of the early Maronite community. al-hoda represented not only one of the
first Arab-American newspapers but also one of the most successful. Although it was
discontinued in 1984, its longevity is remarkable when compared to the lifespans of other ArabAmerican publications, many of which struggled to last more than a decade. The Lebanese
American Journal became the complimentary English publication alongside the al-hoda in order
to reach readers who no long understood Arabic. By the 1950s, both papers were being published
in New York and enjoyed wide readership in the greater northeast, but were available nationally
and received regular response from as far away as Florida to California.
52
In many ways, the New Lebanese Journal’s response to political developments in the
Middle East mirrored what one would find in publications such as the Caravan and the National
Herald. In a response the Israeli raid on International Airport of Beirut in December in 1968, the
paper criticized American foreign policy by asking if the incident would be enough to force the
United States “reappraise her policy towards the Middle East?”119 It continued by hoping that in
the wake of this aggression, “perhaps, true moral values will once more reassert themselves and
the truth prevail in this great United States, as they did in the early days of its history” and such
moral values would mean the equitable treatment of Lebanese and Israeli interests. 120 The
author offered the sober prospect that failure to do so would result in disaster, and force Lebanon
to turn toward Moscow for assistance rather than the United States. In this respect, the Journal
echoed Arab-American critiques of American foreign policy especially in its treatment of Israel.
Not only did it prove it was just as willing to critique of American foreign policy, it also warned
of the prospect of Soviet influence spreading if American foreign policy were not changed.
The article continued by emphasizing other themes that should sound familiar. “All the
Lebanese Americans… consider themselves first of all Americans, but also they also love
Lebanon and want [the United States] to remain friends with Lebanon.”121 Again, the article
emphasized the character of Lebanese-Americans as American first and foremost and spoke to
the desire to foster friendship between the United States and Lebanon. While the message
presented in the Journal is similar to what one would find in Arab-American publications in the
difference is apparent. While NASFLAC sought to improve relations between the entire Arab
119
Lebanese American Journal, “Lebanese Americans Aroused.” January 2, 1969.
120
Ibid.
121
Ibid.
53
world and the United States on behalf of all Americans of Arab origin, the goals of the Lebanese
American Journal focused exclusively on Lebanon. The publishers described the journal as
being “dedicated to the territorial and national sovereignty of Lebanon” and its exclusivity
sparked a variety of tensions and disagreements with those who favored an Arab-American
identity and agenda.122
While I’ve included Lebanese-Americans in my analysis of the Arab-American
community, it is essential to understand that the authors of the Journal sought to distance
themselves from being labeled as Arab and focused on creating an exclusive and Lebanese
identity for their readers. In this respect, the journal sought to distance itself from Arab identity
in two specific ways. It argued that the Lebanese, not just Maronites, traced their ethnicity
directly to the Phoenicians and a period prior to the spread of Islam. Additionally, it emphasized
Lebanon’s Christian heritage as a means to distance themselves from both the ethnic Arab
moniker and from Islam.123 Regarding this Christian heritage, the Journal emphasized the
struggle their ancestors faced in face of “foreign invasions” and characterized the period of
Islam’s dominance of the region as a “Lebanese fight for survival.”124 Other articles with titles
such as “Lebanon and its Arab Neighbors” further reflected the distance in the Journal’s
understanding of Lebanese identity from its Muslim Arab neighbors.125 That is not to say that
such positions reflected the beliefs held by the entirety of the Journal’s readership. These claims
were contested in several letters to the editor. In one such letter, Joseph Seban offered his
122
Lebanese American Journal. June 1, 1967.
123
Lebanese American Journal “We Lebanese Americans” June 9, 1961.
124
Ibid.
125
Lebanese American Journal “Lebanon and its Arab Neighbors,” February 23, 1958.
54
opinion; he argued against the paper’s claims that the Lebanese decent from the Phoenicians and
it unique identity as a Christian nation in the region proved invalid when arguing that the
Lebanese were comprised a distinct ethnic or racial group. However, Seban did emphasize the
distinction between Lebanese from Syrian immigrants on modern national boundaries.126
Other critiques were less diplomatic. The National Association and other supporters of
pan-Arabism and Arab-American identity responded harshly towards those who sought to
divorce Lebanon from the Arab world. George Debs published a heated response claiming that
Lebanon was not an Arab nation made by, what he called, “Lebanese fanatics.” The article was
reprinted in the National Herald after being published in the Caravan. Debs argued that
“Lebanon is an Arab country, whether these fanatics like it or not. The fact is written in
Lebanon’s Constitution, acknowledged by Lebanon’s voluntary membership in the Arab league,
and proclaimed even recently by President Camille Chamoun in his words, “I am a staunch Arab
and I am proud of it!”127 Beyond signaling that dislike of each other was something else the
groups held in common, Debs comments reflected a an important truth. There was a difference
between the Lebanon envisioned by Lebanese American Journal and its reality as an Arab
nation. By using the term fanatic, Debs comment suggested that those who the espoused the
beliefs in the Journal represented a small minority of radical Lebanese-Americans. It is certainly
possible, but it proves impossible to compare the minority Debs and the number Americans of
Arab origin who actually supported the notion of Arab-American identity, which were also a
minority. While the appeal of the ideas espoused in the Journal in the large community is
126
Joe Seban, “Letter to the Editor,” Lebanese American Journal May 1, 1955.
127
National Herald. “Editor Debs of ‘The Caravan’ insists that Lebanon is an Arab
country.” August, 1957.
55
uncertain, James Ansara also mentioned these “fanatics” in his interview with Michael Suleiman
in 1982 as a contemporary phenomenon, meaning that at the very least, this minority of radical
Lebanese-American if not popular, were certainly persistent.128 Regardless of whether Lebanon
was or was not an Arab nation, the Journal’s insistence that it was not allowed the Journal to
argue that Lebanese-Americans were a group that was distinct from the Arab-American
community.
Nowhere was this distinction between proponents of Lebanese-American identity and
Arab-American identity more pronounced than in their treatment of Gamal Abdel Nasser and his
visions of pan-Arabism. While a mention of Nasser in Detroit could “electrify the hall,” Nasser’s
politics often elicited a very different response in the Lebanese American Journal.129 Following
Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal, the Journal published an article that openly
questioned Nasser’s goals and methods. The concern of the Journal was not Nasser’s right to
seize the Suez Canal, but rather “his apparent aim to bring together hundreds of millions of
people into a unity with the tie of religion.”130 Given that Nasser championed pan-Arabism,
which emphasized ethnicity as the bond between its members rather than religion, the link the
Journal drew between Nasser and religion further reflected its perception of Arab as essentially
Islamic in nature. It continued by voicing its concerns that even “Lebanon, which is not of
Islamic culture, has not spoken up against [Nasser’s] leadership” and boldly declared, “all
Lebanese must remember that in the improbable event of a united Arab world, Lebanon cannot
128
James Ansara, “Oral History”. Michael Suleiman Collection.
129
Elkholy, 48.
130
Lebanese American Journal “Religion or State?” August 15, 1956.
56
by any stretch of the imagination become a part of it.”131 Again, not only did being Arab
represent being Islamic, but Lebanon, as a Christian nation, was unable “by any stretch of the
imagination” to join such a union. The Journal’s treatment of Nasser was certainly less flattering
than Arab-American publications. Various articles describing Nasser as the “president dictator”
reflected certain truths of Nasser’s rule but spoke more clearly to the Journals’ deep dislike of
Nasser as an intrinsic threat to Lebanon’s sovereignty.132 In one article, the Journal went as far
to liken Nasser’s “grandiose plans” to “Hitler’s restriction of Germany to the Aryans.”133
Following the creation of the United Arab Republic, the Journal contained a similar
message where it stressed, “Lebanon alone strives valiantly to maintain her Christian culture but
her democratic traditions.”134 However, the rhetoric found in the Journal did not reflect the fact
that pan-Arabism was a popular movement across the Middle East, including within Lebanon,
and also failed to mention the role which Lebanese Christians, albeit Greek Orthodox Christians,
played in the early formation of the pan-Arab movement. This disconnect seemed evident when
one considers Abdallah Yafi and Saeb Salem, the Lebanese prime minister and minister of state
respectfully in 1956, each made what the journal described as “unwise public statements for the
‘unity’ with neighboring Arab states.”135 Once again, Journal’s treatment Lebanon as a Christian
nation spoke to its desire to maintain a distinct Lebanese-American identity and fight against the
rising influence of a collective Syrian-Lebanese identity and an Arab-American consciousness.
131
Ibid.
132
See the treatment of Nasser and his role in the Arab League in “Regarding the Arab
League.” Lebanese American Journal. April 5, 1960.
133
Lebanese American Journal, “Religion or State.”
134
Lebanese American Journal, “Will it Stick” February 4, 1958.
135
Lebanese American Journal, “Independent Lebanon.” November 15, 1956.
57
NAFLAC’s commitment to the policies of United Arab Republic, Nasser, and the panArab movement placed them at odds with the editors of the Lebanese American Journal and alhoda who saw each of these potential threats to Lebanon’s sovereignty. By 1956, tensions
between the two groups flared as the editors of al-hoda and the Lebanese-American Journal
leveled a series of accusations at NAFSLAC. The charges included claims that NAFSLAC’s
leaders were deceiving their members, utilizing the Federation for selfish ends, and contested
NAFSLAC’s right to act as the political voice for the Lebanese-American population in the
United States. The accusations spurred the National Association to publicly challenge the editors
of al-hoda and the Lebanese American Journal to debate over the charges; a challenge that was
ultimately declined.136 However, these events proved to be the first of many between the two
organizations. As the strength of the National Association declined, Lebanese-American Journal
continued its attacks on the principles and role of the National Association fulfilled as the vehicle
of representation for the Syrian-Lebanese community. In 1960, after discovering that the
National Association had secured a meeting with the Secretary of State to discuss the
relationship between the United States and Arab governments, the Journal posed a series of
rhetorical questions to its readers:
Do they [the Federation] represent you? Are their policies your policies? What are their
policies? Do they represent the United Arab Republic? And most important to us—do
they represent Lebanese Americans? Who put them in power? What is their
authorization? Nasser of the U.A.R.?... By what right do they presume to represent you at
the State department? How can this organization have the effrontery to call on the
Secretary of State in the Syrian Americans AND Lebanese Americans?137
136
For a list of charges and the response of the National Association, see “Delegates
Adopt Resolution in answer to the Attack by al-hoda and Journal” National Herald, November
1956.
137
Lebanese American Journal, “A Greater Lebanese Union” February 13, 1960.
58
The venom in the questions reflected the Journal’s gall that the Federation had the audacity to
claim to represent the voices of Lebanese-Americans while supporting pan-Arab polices while
affirming its belief that their existed fundamental difference between the Lebanese and Arabs.
While the Journal considered the Association unfit to represent the interests of both SyrianAmericans and Lebanese-Americans, the Journal did not hesitate to declare what it believed were
the respective opinions of the Lebanese and Syrian communities. The article claimed that “all
conscientious Syrian Americans, as well as Lebanese Americans (whose aims, like any other
separate ethnical groups, are sometimes not the same) would prefer to stand on their own two
feet.”138
In an article a month later, the Journal stated, “it is our DUTY…to advise those true sons
of Lebanon who find themselves lost and submerged in the Syrian-Lebanese American
Federation to secede and join a truly Lebanese organization” and posed the question of whether
“a true Lebanese son [should] belong to an organization whose aim is the submergence of the
Lebanese identity.”139 The privileging of Lebanese identity over any sort of Arab identity was
the prominent feature in these writings as was the assurance that opposition to the National
Association was inherent throughout the Lebanese-American community. However, the claims
of the Journal to represent the voice Lebanese-American community prove to be equally as
dubious as NAFLAC’s claim to represent the entirety of the Arab-American community. As the
Journal repeatedly pointed out in their criticisms of NASLAC, the majority of members in the
National Association traced their origins to Lebanon. Despite its claims that the LebaneseAmericans in the Association were “being subjugated AGAINST THEIR WILL to… Pan138
Ibid.
139
Lebanese American Journal, “News and Views of the Federation” March 7, 1960.
59
Arabism,” the reality was that local clubs sent delegates to elect new leaders of the National
Association annually.140 Given the policy choices of NASLAC that the Journal so clearly
articulated, it stands to reason that some Lebanese-Americans supported NAFSLAC’s attempts
to promote an Arab-American identity.
While the Journal opposed the National Association, it articulated a desire to create a
national organization to challenge and replace NAFSLAC. The Journal proposed the creation of
an official “World Union of Lebanese Overseas” which would represent all Lebanese
communities outside of Lebanon. 141 While such an organization failed to manifest, the aims of
the Journal and proponents of Lebanese-American identity shared the same aims as their ArabAmerican counterparts. The difference between these groups rested in boundaries they placed on
their idealized communities, rather than the goals they sought to achieve. Both groups shared in
their desire to improve the relationship between their countries of origin and the United States
and to create a national organization to represent the interests of their communities. The
Journal’s harsh critique of the National Association and its belief that the Association failed to
represent the Lebanese-American community challenged to NAFSLAC goal of creating an
inclusive Arab-American identity. The eventual decline of the National Association stemmed
from a variety of factors including declining membership and funding, but the failure of the
National Association to come to terms with this dissident group of Lebanese-Americans and
address its concerns divided the already limited number of Arab-American individuals who
showed an interest in engaging politically. In this respect the failure of the two groups to reach
140
Lebanese American Journal, “Will they Succeed,” March 21, 1960.
141
Lebanese American Journal, “A Greater Lebanese Union.”
60
some form of mutual understanding contributed, at least in part, to failed emergence of a lasting
Arab-American identity during this period.
61
Conclusion
“Saddam Hussein was not responsible for 9/11, the one you’re thinking of is Osama bin
Laden” were the words that I yelled in the general direction of my third grade classmates as I
stormed away. I remember that moment as the first time that I recognized a discernable
difference between my classmates and me. It wasn’t a large difference mind you, but it was
enough to make me wonder why my classmates seemed so misinformed about the events that
were to transpiring in 2003 and why I was different. On a personal level, and I suspect for other
members of the Arab-American community the War on Terror, the depiction of Arabs as
terrorists, the American invasion of Iraq, and concern for family members abroad forced each of
us to confront aspects of our Arab heritage in some way, either embracing or disowning certain
aspects of our identities in an effort to conform. While events became a catalyst that forced the
current generation of Arab-Americans to confront their ethnic heritage, the events following
World War II including the escalation of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the rise and fall of panArabism forced Arab-Americans in the 1950s and 1960s to confront their identities in similar
ways.
The National Association of the Federation of Syrian and Lebanese-American Clubs
became the political outlet for members of the Arab-American community who sought to forge a
community among all Americans of Arab origin. While certain individuals in the Arab-American
community espoused this cause, it became clear the desire of NASLAC to create a national
organization capable of representing the entire Arab-American community was unfeasible even
in the eyes of its leaders. However, their vision of a politically active Arab diaspora appealed to
Arab governments and leaders in the Middle East as a way to secure a sympathetic voice that
could alter American foreign policy in the Middle East. The combination of a small group of
62
willing Arab-Americans and support of foreign organizations such as the Arab State Delegation
Office fueled a situation in which publications promoting the mobilization of the Arab-American
community became a central theme of various Arab-American publications. While the efforts of
these Arab-Americans and Arab governments fell short of their intended goals with the collapse
of the National Association, their efforts represented the first attempts to articulate a unique
Arab-American identity whose members would act as intermediaries between Americans and
Arabs.
On the other hand, certain Lebanese-Americans sought to differentiate themselves from
their Syrian counterparts in the United States, they simultaneously for the overthrow of the
National Association and the creation of a new national organization capable that would be
capable of representing their interests. The Lebanese American Journal and other proponents of
an exclusive Lebanese-American identity challenged the National Association’s assertion that a
collective identity shared between all those of Arab decent was preferable choice for the
Lebanese members of the Arab-American community. Their pride in their Lebanese identities
presented proved irreconcilable with the version of Arab-American identity envisioned by
NASLAC and other proponents of pan-Arab nationalism, as the demographics of the ArabAmerican community remained predominately Lebanese throughout the 1960s.
While the 1967 Arab-Israeli war has been considered the moment where a collective and
lasting Arab-American identity emerged, it has downplayed the continued tendency of certain
individuals to maintain more limited identities such as Lebanese-American and Syrian-America.
As late as 1976, the Lebanese American Journal continued to reiterate many of the same notions
found in the National Herald almost two decades before. “We must organize ourselves… Only
the Lebanese can save Lebanon. This is primary, but we, Lebanese Americans can do an
63
important job for them… We must exert political pressure on the United States Congress and
administration to educate them about the Lebanon crisis.”142 The the demographics of the ArabAmerican community and the majority opinion of Arab-American identity had shifted, but it is
significant that almost a decade after 1967, the Journal maintained its promotion of LebaneseAmerican identity and the responsibility Lebanese-Americans had responsibility in saving their
homeland.
A series of interviews conducted by Michael Suleiman during the 1970s and 1980s of
various Arab-Americans also suggested that for some individuals, regional identities such as
Lebanese-American or Syrian-American remained their preferred form of designation.
However, the preference of individuals remained largely scattered with no clear pattern emerging
in the majority of the respondents. Individuals identified as Syrian, Lebanese, Arab, Palestinian
or disregarded their identities entirely saying that they were only American. 143 Nevertheless,
that’s not to say that 1967 was not a significant moment of transformation in the Arab-American
community as some respondents reported that it became beneficial to identify as an ArabAmerican because of access to organizations such as the Arab-American Association of
University Graduates, the Arab-American Anti-Defamation League.144 Nevertheless, the
persistence of regional identity in the Journal and some of the individuals Michael Suleiman
interviewed following the emergence of Arab-American identity complicate the simplistic vision
that debate and discussion of Arab-American identity ceased following 1967.
142
Lebanese American Journal, “Lebanese Americans and the Lebanon Crisis” January
22, 1976.
143
Katie Shafik, “Oral History” Michael Suleiman Collection. Folder 13 of 31.
144
Louis Ajmony, “Oral History” Michael Suleiman Collection. Folder 22.
64
A recent study attempted to determine the degree to which ethnicity functioned as a
motivation for the political mobilization of the Arab-American community. It noticed a
discernable difference in the way that Arab-Americans Christians and Arab-American Muslims,
the majority of which arrived after 1965, responded to political developments in the Middle
East.145 The study further concluded, “Some Arab Americans, distinguished by high levels of
group identification, deep immersion in group life, and particular religious identities [particularly
Muslims], are deeply invested in the conflict and thus amenable to mobilization. Yet many others
in the community are little more than bystanders, to the community itself and to the foreign
policy issues that animate the activists among them.” In this respect, the state of the ArabAmerican community today is not so different from the situation that the National Association
sought to change.
Meanwhile the United States Census Bureau’s 2000 report registered the voluntary
declaration of only 1.2 million Arabs in the United States while the 2010 census provided by the
Arab-American Institute estimated the number of Arabs in the United States to be at least 1.9
million people. However, the numbers in the census estimates are far lower than the estimates
provided by recent scholastic studies, which estimate the existence of as many as five million
Americans of Arab descent.146 This vast range between estimates of scholars and the voluntary
declaration of ancestry raises a number of questions; questions which have yet to be answered.
145
Kenneth Wald, "The Diaspora Project of Arab Americans: Assessing the Magnitude
and Determinants of Politicized Ethnic Identity". (ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES. 32, no. 8:
1304-1324) 2009.
146
For more estimates on the Arab-American population in the United States, See Darcy
Zabel’s introduction to Arabs in the Americas (New York: Peter Lang, 2006); Sarah Freeman’s
“Census: More Arab Live in U.S.” CBS News.com, December 4, 2003; (Waco, TX: Baylor
University Press, 2004); Michael Suleiman’s Arabs in America: Building a New Future.
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999); and Sameer and Nabeel Abraham eds. Arabs in
the New World. (Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University, 1983): 17-23.
65
While there is the prospect that marriage of the earliest generations of Arab immigrants with
non-Arab partners may be responsible for the high estimates of scholars, it alone could not
explain the startling discrepancy between their total number and the number of Arab-Americans
that were willing to identify themselves as of Arab heritage in the 2000 Census. It is certainly
possible that the discrepancy reflects individuals’ concerns about identifying as Arab in fear of
discrimination, but it is also possible that a number of Arab-Americans consciously refuse to
identify by themselves as Arabs, preferring the more precise reference to their origin, such as
Syrian-American or Lebanese-American. In this way, the struggle for the Arab-American
community to engage with its members proves to be an ongoing and continuous task. What I
hope that thesis has accomplished is to show at least a part of this struggle over Arab-American
identity, and trace how the efforts of certain Arab-American individuals and organizations
shaped a debate on the value of Arab-American identity during the pan-Arab era.
66
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