>> From the Library of Congress in Washington DC. ^F00:00:03 ^M00:00:23 >> Joan Weeks: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of all my colleagues and in particular Dr. Mary Jane Dy, chief of the African and Middle East division, I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to everybody. I'm Joan Weeks, head of the Near East Section, today's sponsor of the program, The Double Life of the First Syrian Immigrant Family. This sounds very intriguing and our speaker today is Dr. Linda Jacobs. Before I start today's program however and Muhannad introduces our speaker, I'd like to give you a brief overview of our division and its resources in the hopes that you'll come back and use our collections and this reading room for your research. This is a custodial division comprised of three sections that build and serve the collections to researchers from around the world. We cover 75 countries and over two dozen languages. The Africa section includes all of Sub-Sahara Africa, the Judaic or Hebraic sections covers Judaica worldwide and the Near East section covers all the Arab countries including North Africa, Turkey, Turk and Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, the Muslims in Western China, Russia and the Balkans and the peoples of the Caucasus. After today's program I'd like to invite you to fill in the little public events survey that we've left in your chairs. It helps us plan programs for the future. In addition, I'd like to promote and talk about our new four corners blog that has some wonderful specials - blog post by our specialists here and also in the Hispanic, European and Asian divisions and the URL is at the top. So without further ado, though, I'd like to call Dr. Muhannad Salhi to the podium to introduce our speaker for today. Thanks you. ^M00:02:17 [ Clapping ] ^M00:02:22 >> Muhannad Salhi: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you all for joining us. Our speaker today, Linda Jacobs has a Ph D in Near Eastern archaeology and anthropology from the University of Oregon. Her dissertation was on the second millennium settlement patterns of Iran. She has spent much of her professional life working in economic development projects in the MENA, Middle East and North Africa region. Jacobs has worked with the Near East foundation for ten years and continues to serve on its board, as well as serving on the board of the American University of Beirut for three years and the board of the Polytechnic, now the Tandon school at NYU. Today she will be speaking about her second book "Strangers in the West." And after the lecture there will be a book signing event for anyone who's interested in purchasing the book. Just a word to the audience, this event is being videotaped for subsequent broadcast on the library website and other media. The audience is encouraged to offer comments and raise questions during the formal question and answer period, but please be advised that your voice and image may be recorded and later broadcast as part of this event. By participating in the question and answer period you are consenting to the library's possible reproduction and transmission of your remarks. Now, without further ado Dr. Linda Jacobs. ^M00:03:57 [ Clapping ] ^M00:04:02 >> Linda Jacobs: Thank you so much. Thank you to the division and the library for having me. It's really marvelous, really wonderful. As Muhannad said, I have written a book about the 19th century Syrian colony in New York City, which is in the back there. And since that book was published last fall I've been kind of going off in many different directions exploring some of the people that I didn't have a chance to do justice to in the book. And the Arbeely family are one of the most important of those groups. They are indeed the first Syrian immigrant family to come to the United States. They called themselves the first Syrian immigrant family, but people always try to say that they are maybe not, maybe there were other Syrians before them, but indeed they were, in fact, the first Syrian family to come to the United States. And the story of the Joseph Arbeely family tells us how they constructed an Arab-American identity, in fact, the first Arab-American identity of course in the United States, since they were the first Syrian family. They constructed a double identity and that looked both east and west [inaudible] like and keeping both of those identities separate, but - and mesmerizing their audiences, both in life and on the stage. They were both Oriental and American at the same time. I want to say. first before I begin, that these photographs have never been seen by anyone in the world before, so you'll all have a special treat. The performance photographs are from the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Institution hidden deep away in the archives and the family photographs are from a collateral descendant of the Arbeelys' who found me on Facebook and who live in Texas now. Habeeb Arbeely and his daughter Dania Arbeely. Okay. Yosef Aweth Hannah Alcolush [sp] was born in the village of Erbil about five miles outside of Damascus in 1828 and he was educated at the Damascus Orthodox College and became a teacher there, married in Damascus, had his first three children in Damascus. In 1860 he moved his family of three children and his wife to Beirut. Some say it was because of the sectarian violence that was going on in Syria, in Greater Syria at that time. Some say it was because he saw opportunities in Beirut that he had not had in Damascus. In any case he took his children to Beirut in 1860, set up a school for the exiles of Orthodox Damascenes there, and was said to have collaborated with Cornelius Van Dyck, one of the founders of the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut to translate the Bible into Arabic. So he had contact very early on with American missionaries and the Syrian Protestant College. His oldest son Abraham, who's on the left standing up in the left of the picture took a medical degree at Syrian Protestant College in 1872, and then went on to get a second medical degree in Constantinople. Later his third son, Felala, also in the picture standing up on the second from the right, took a BA at SPC in 1872 and then a medical degree in 1876. In 1878 Yosef decided that his family was coming to America. No one from Syria that he knew or anyone knew had ever been to America before, no Syrian that is. But he must have become enamored of the country or learned about the opportunities or thought he saw an opportunity in America. They set sail from Beirut in July of 1878, stopped off at the Universal Exposition in Paris on the way, and they became great goers to fairs. They went to every fair that they could possibly go to. They loved these world fairs. World's Fairs the first one they went to was in Paris and they landed in New York on August 21st in 1878. This is a photograph of them in Beirut just before they set sail. It's the only known photograph of Mary, the wife, who's sitting next to Yosef the father obviously in the front. And you will notice that the two young boys are holding books. This was a trope that was used in the Middle East often to show that they were literate, and the whole family of course was literate, even the young boys at that time. The back of the photograph has Najeeb's handwriting on the back. The Smithsonian is not entirely sure where this came from, but I think it was actually given to, probably not the president of the United States himself, but one of his staff members when Najeeb and his father visited the White House in 1881. But the picture was taken earlier before they'd - before they left Beirut. When the day they landed, the Arbeelys' impressed the New York newspaper reporters like crazy. ^M00:10:02 They were literate. They were fluent in English, at least some of them were. They clearly understood what they were about and the newspapers wrote about them as the first Syrian immigrant family, which is what the family said about themselves. "We are the first and we're here to pave the way for other Syrians to come." He came without a job, apparently. And so after a few days the newspapers started to think "Oh maybe he's - they're going to all become a burden on the city of New York." Because they're indigent, they have no money. A few days after that they decided that they were secretly rich and that they had a bank account in New Jersey. How they could have set up a bank account in New Jersey when they had arrived three days before is a little bit odd, but they thought he had a bank account in New Jersey and that he was pretending to be poor in order to get the American government or the New York government to help them. In fact, it shows to me the kind of schizophrenia of Americans toward Syrians, which began that first week, because they didn't know whether they were wonderful, ready to be assimilated entrepreneurs or whether they were liars, cheats and beggars. And both the Arbeelys' were subjected to both. In any case, he was offered a job at the Presbyterian College in, wait for this, Maryville Tennessee, which he accepted may have been through his contacts in Beirut. They all got on the train and went to Tennessee. They were a family of nine, because they arrived in New York with the six sons, the parents, and a niece, Jimelee. And they arrived in Maryville, Tennessee, nine of them and the Maryville, Tennessee had a population of 1100. So you can imagine how they stood out, particularly if they were dressed as they were in the Beirut picture, but by the time they got to Maryville they were already - they settled in. The newspapers treated them as if they were normal Maryville residents and the two sons opened their medical practices, Felala and Abraham. They were immediately accepted as doctors by the Tennessee population, as just regular doctors. Clearly the Syrian Protestant College diploma was all they needed to set up shop and Felala, in particular who practice in Maryville for quite a few years would be mentioned along with other doctors as if he were just one of the Tennessee doctors. Nothing. They talked about their comings and goings, but only in the context of other people's comings and goings. They went to Knoxville and spent the night at such and such a hotel. Every once in a while they would say something like "They're an industrious family." Or "Very sober." Or "Very, very good workers." And they would never say that about a Tennesseean. It goes without saying. So of course they were seen as different, but in mainly a positive way. Joseph's wife, Mary, whom you see in this picture sitting next to him died in 1880, only two years - less than two years after they arrived. She's buried in Maryville, in the Maryville cemetery. And she's the only one of the family, oddly enough, who has a stone erected to her. Her children carved a stone for her. And soon after her death the family started their peripatetic life. First, Yosef and his oldest son, Abraham, went to Texas looking for a place to establish a Syrian colony, which they did all of their lives and they never found the place - a place that suited them. Abraham hung up his medical shingle in San Antonio, Texas. Yosef came back to Maryville. His three youngest sons went to Maryville High School, which was part of the College and then went to a Quaker School 300 miles from home for college. And Najeeb, the third youngest went to law school at Marysville College. At the same time that they were doing all of this educational stuff they started to travel around first Eastern Tennessee, then the east coast and then the whole country doing shows. This is them again in Tennessee taken right after the death of Mary. This is what the empty chair is for. It's a memorial to her. And Jimelee, the niece is on the left. And I just want to show you this comparative picture, because the picture on the right is the only picture that's ever circulated of the family and it's been reproduced in many things, including a [inaudible] book on this - on Syrian immigration. And this sign says "I and my family are enjoying freedom here." So it was clearly meant as a photograph to be sent home to Syria. They wanted the Syrians to follow them and they wanted to be the founders of a colony. So they began to travel around giving shows, lectures, and entertainments about the Holy Land. Oh I - sorry this is just the - to show that Najeeb - the children were in American schools. So they went - they began to go around giving programs on the Holy Land. First Yosef went with one or two of his sons. They would give a lecture about the Holy Land. And the fact that they were called people from the Holy Land made it acceptable and probably uplifting for people to come to this event. They charge 25 cents for adults, 15 cents for children under 12, and according to many of the review that were done afterwards every place was packed. They performed and you'll see that this one in particular is interesting. I'm not sure if you can read it, because the resolution is not too great, but it was clearly written by the Arbeelys' themselves, and this was a performance in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1883. They didn't just lecture though, and particularly when the boys were involved and by this time the boys were already at least looking like men, even though they were in their teens. They dressed up and they performed as Muslim-whatevers. So this Najeeb Arbeely on the left dressed like a Mohammedan Sheikh and I have it in quotes because this is what's written in the caption of the photograph at the Smithsonian. On the right probably Najeeb and Habeeb dressed as women and you'll see with the [inaudible] and the [inaudible]. And, you know, wearing those shoes, smoking a nargile [sp] or a, you know, and shisha. This is all in Washington DC by the way, which is why the Smithsonian has it, has these. Dancing. Playing instruments with the nargile in the front. Sword play and again doing her daily activities. This is Habeeb dressed up as a woman and this is Najeeb and his Sheikh outfit showing that he's literate again, writing in a book and with the, you know, the rugs which they carried around with them and the cushions. I'm going to just talk a little bit now about the family, because the family had a very poignant life history, all of them did. And it shows you, I think a little bit about the stress and sometimes tragedy that might be inherent in being the first of anything. And I'm going to talk to you about them in the order and I'm sorry to say this, but in the order in which they died, because they all died young and it was a - it tells quite a bit about the family. So this is the last one doing the Muslim prayers. This is an article from The New York Tribune, where they use the photographs of the Arbeelys' to talk about life in the east and the photographs were obviously from their performances, but they took sketches from them and reproduce them as if they came directly from the east. So the first one I want to talk about, because he was the first to die is Felala, who got his medical degree in 1876 at SPC and hung up his shingle and Maryville, Tennessee, married his cousin Jimelee, in 1885 and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. He was always looking for a place for his health and I think that he had tuberculosis. They never said what was wrong with him, but I think he had tuberculosis. So he and Jimelee moved to Atlanta and every summer he would go to a spa to try and become the medical doctor there, but to try to cure his health. ^M00:20:02 They had two children in Atlanta and in 1890 he went to his brother's home in Los Angeles and died there. His brother Abraham, reported this that he would - "Even when he was dying he was interested from a standpoint of reason in the very feelings and alterations which were wrought by the dissolution of his body." He was buried under the auspices of the Royal Arcanum, which is a fraternal - secret fraternal organization, which paid death duties to widows and families of people who died who were members of the Arcanum and he was buried in an unmarked grave in Los Angeles. And then when his father died a few years later they were buried together in the unmarked grave in Los Angeles and then moved to an unmarked grave in Monrovia, California. And why they were unmarked you can speculate as well as I can about why they were unmarked. This is Yosef with Abraham, the oldest son. Yosef is clearly on the right. Even after settling in Monrovia, California, which he did in 1886, he traveled all over California giving lectures on the Holy Land. You see his name in Oakland newspapers, San Francisco newspapers in Riverside, in Redlands, in Los Angeles County, in Redondo Beach. He was everywhere giving lectures pretty much until the day he died. He died in 1890, as I said in Monrovia, was buried with his son and then they were moved to Monrovia. His will is accent and he had a rather - he was 66 years old. He had a rather substantial estate including Romalian railroad bonds. Does anyone here know where Romalia was? I did not. It's what's - it's part of what's now Southern Bulgaria, but it was part of the Ottoman Empire. He had Romalian railroad bonds, a stock in the New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, two vineyards in Amioun, Lebanon an olive orchard in Erbil, his natal village, a library of 30 books valued at $20 by the appraiser, a gold bracelet which he left his only granddaughter and $6,000 in cash was quite an estate in 1890, quite an estate. But he was buried in an unmarked grave, strangely. After Joseph's death all of the surviving brothers, this is him with his three grandchildren that existed at that time. And it was taken in San Francisco, 1891. After Joseph's death all of the surviving brothers met briefly in New York. Three of them made their will at that time. I don't know why. Two of them, Naceem and Habeeb, the two youngest moved to Cairo, Egypt. Habeeb died six months after they arrived. He had an estate worth $2,000, which was substantial and he left it in sole, as sole legatee his brother Naceem. He was mourned even in the obituary on the right is a New Orleans newspaper. He was mourned in the New Orleans newspaper by a friend who lived there, Baton Rouge, but also in New Orleans. But he was - and he was buried in the Orthodox cemetery in Cairo. Kaleel, who is the second son who never went to SPC. We don't know. I don't think he ever went to college anywhere. He may not have finished secondary school. I think he was the only one of the sons who was not fluent in English and may have been illiterate. His will was written by someone else. He set up briefly in Los Angeles in the 1880s as a pharmacist. We don't know if he had a pharmaceutical degree from anywhere, because there's no record of it that I could find. And then he moved east to New York. He lived in a tenement in Brooklyn by himself a few blocks away from his brother but not with his brother and he died alone of tuberculosis. He had an estate worth less than $800. He left it to his brothers, leaving Najeeb, his near neighbor out of the will. And you have to ask why? And he did it deliberately. He wrote in his will, "I'm leaving nothing to my brother Najeeb." And we don't know why. There must have been bad blood between them. Naceem, who's the youngest, I'm doing this a little bit out of order because his death came a little later, but I want to get him out of the way. Who went to Cairo with his brother set up a dental practice there. He had gotten the dental degree, but hadn't practiced before. He had been in the import, export business in New York for many years. He lived there, apparently without marrying and without having a family by himself until his death in 1919 about two weeks before his eldest brother. He died in Cairo. He had an estate worth $900, which was completely consumed by creditors. So he had nothing to leave when he died. And on the right of this picture is Najeeb. It's the only picture except for those group pictures we have of him. He must have been camera shy. We don't know why there were no pictures of him. Najeeb had an incredible beginning to his career. He was named Consul General to Jerusalem by President Cleveland in 1885. For a new immigrant and for someone who was only 25 years old, he had just turned 25 when he was named. It was quite incredible. And we don't know how Cleveland knew of him, found him, recognized him. We have no idea, unless he saw him in a performance in Washington DC at some point and Najeeb was in the White House a couple of times, but whether he ever met the president I don't know. So he went to Jerusalem. He bought his uniform and he went to Jerusalem. But he was - they were - the Ottoman Government refused to accept his credentials and the reason they refused was because the Ottoman government considered every Ottoman citizen an Ottoman citizen. And you could not, not be an Ottoman citizen. And so how could an Ottoman citizen represent the United States and the consulate in Jerusalem. So he was sent home after seven months, but always went by the honorific X Consul General. ^M00:27:21 [ Laughs ] ^M00:27:22 >> Always. They always called him that. He called himself that and people called him that. After his return in 1886 he and his brother Naceem were in the import, export business and in 1892 he and his older brother Abraham did the most groundbreaking thing in the world, they founded the first Arabic language newspaper in the United States. And as far as I know, maybe someone from the Library of Congress can tell me that I'm wrong. This is the only extant issue of the newspaper that exists. There are four years on microfilm Library of Congress has it. [inaudible] University in Beirut has a copy of the four years on microfilm, but this is the only actual paper copy that exists as far as I know. The microfilm came from the Universe of Kansas Public Library and they got rid of all of their original newspapers many, many years ago. So and this came from the Arbeely family in Texas. It's incredible to have it. It was published in Arabic with one page of English for one year. I find this hysterical because who - what English speaker would want to read about the little Syrian colony. I can't imagine who their audience, who they thought their audience would be, but if you read all of the English language part for the year that it was published they were preaching to the Americans about what great people they were and about what peace loving people they were. But clearly. no American was reading this. So after a year it became exclusively Arabic. They set up shop at 45 Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan about six or eight blocks from the Syrian colony. They had - the two brothers lived there, when Abraham was in town Najeeb, who lived in New York in the loft at 45 Pearl Street, the third brother Naceem, when he was in town. They had three employees, the compositor and two Arabic editors. And all six of them lived in this three room loft in Pearl Street. They all slept there. There was a little kitchen that they cooked for each other and then in the daytime they covered all the beds with oriental carpets. They hung daggers on the wall. They had a parrot because they thought that was very Oriental to have a parrot and lots of palm tree plants and that kind of thing. ^M00:29:59 And so when people would come to see the office they would espouse, talk about how Oriental the place was and how they were living this fantasy Oriental life when in fact they knew exactly, the Arbeelys' knew exactly what they were doing. The paper had a dual audience, at least a dual Arabic audience. The Syrians in the Diaspora, because it was founded in 1892 by that time, there were probably 900 Syrians in New York and there were Syrians all over the United States in almost every state and territory by that time. They have - so the Syrian Diaspora was their audience, but also Syrians at home. And there was a story and I don't know if it was true and I'm sure Najeeb told the story to the American newspapers that the Sultan himself received a copy of the newspaper on parchment with gold, with gilt ornaments on it. We don't know if that's true or not. They claimed a circulation of 50,000, which was an exaggeration by about 49,000 I think. ^M00:31:11 [ Laughs ] ^M00:31:12 But they had readers, they did have readers all over the United States and they had readers and agents in South America, in the Middle East and many cities in the Middle East and even in Europe as well. So it was read by the Syrian Diaspora in many places and Syrians at home. And it was - it kind of embodied the dilemma that Syrians in the Diaspora were feeling. On the one hand it was very assimilationist. They talked about how to become successful as an American businessman. They talked about how to adjust to American ways of doing things. They advocated for a school for their children to go to that was part of the New York Public School system rather than having to set up their own schools. At the same time they cautioned people and at the same time they cautioned Syrians to act well so that the Americans had nothing to criticize the Syrian colony for. But at the same token they complained like crazy about the bad morals of Americans, about how they didn't want their women's honor sullied by the way that women acted in the United States, that American business men were so tricky and dishonest and they didn't want to ever become like that. So Najeeb and Abraham would write editorials giving advice to people in the United States saying "Your honor is worth everything and you must maintain your honor." And "The almighty dollar is not what you should be going after." Najeeb did many other things besides run the newspaper. He was an interpreter at Ellis Island, a full time interpreter at Ellis Island. He made a $1,000 year doing that, which was a good salary. He also continued to buy and sell Syrian goods. He took out concessions at every single World's Fair and then would rent out booths to other Syrians. He continued to perform. There's a marvelous article in 1894 that he wrote himself where he assembled a troop of 100 Syrians to perform for the Shriners in Madison Square. You know who the Shriners are, right? Those guys who wear those fezzes. And here's what Najeeb said. He wrote that "Red fezzes were as perplexing to the Orientals on the platform." That is the Syrians, "As the costumes of these were interesting and novel to those whom they faced." And you can imagine the Syrian troop looking at these 15,000 men with their fezzes applauding them and they performed as howling Dervishes, the Syrians, you can imagine howling Dervishes. Yeah, it's quite marvelous. And Najeeb was ubiquitous. He was always giving interviews. He was friends with the editors of The Herald Tribune. He was friends with the New York World editors and he was always being interviewed anytime anyone had a question about the New York Syrian colony he was the one they asked for an opinion. He was ready to opine about anything, but that picture that I show you is the only one. That was his memorial card. It's the only one that I've ever seen of him. He suffered a stroke in 1900. He had to give up both the newspaper and his job at Ellis Island. And he decided to go back to his original career, which was being a lawyer, which he had studied in Maryville. And so he passed the New York bar with no problem whatsoever. And on his way to the office, they say the first day on his way to the office he suffered a second stroke and he died in Manhattan. He was 43 years old. The newspaper already under new management folded a few years after that out. He died without a will and his widow claimed that his estate was worth less than $200. He left a widow and six children under the age of eleven. One of whom was born seven months after he died. So. And his widow went to work as a matron in Ellis Island, essentially took his place at Ellis Island, but not really as an interpreter. She only could deal with the women and raised her six children by herself. Abraham, although the eldest, lived the longest. He was the most restless of the Arbeelys'. He lived in practice in Austin, Texas, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Washington DC, Los Angeles, New York, Cairo and ended his days in Washington DC again. He bought and sold real estate in Los Angeles. He was really early pioneer real estate speculator in Los Angeles because his wife's family were pioneer Los Angeles families and they were big and wealthy ranchers in Los Angeles in the 1860s and 1870s. He and his wife came in the 1880s who set up a medical practice and he did real estate speculation, did extremely well. He wrote a gigantic Arabic English primer, which when put together was 850 pages. He sold it and [inaudible] through subscription, through the newspaper, through Calcutta of America. And it went through three printings. And you can still buy it. You can buy it on A Books. There are a couple of copies available on A Books. He sold antiquities to the Smithsonian Museum. He continued to write albeit articles for various Arabic newspapers until his death in 1919. He was the only member of the family to live his full threescore and ten years and he had outlived all of his brothers, and of course his parents. The dilemmas that beset other immigrants about assimilation, success, honor, culture and raising children in a Strange Land seemed to have skipped the Arbeelys'. For one thing they had always planned to stay in America and they did their utmost to take advantage of all that America had to offer. On the first day that Yosef and the family arrived in New York he said "I want my children educated here and I want them to marry here." Three of the sons were educated in the United States and three married and had families in America, just as their father had wished. Two of them married to what the Syrians call Americans, although they weren't really. They were just non-Syrians and the third one Felala married his cousin Jimelee who came with them. But all of their children, so the six of Najeeb, the five of Abraham and the two of Felala all married Americans. Not one of them married another Syrian or another Arab of any kind. More importantly from my point of view as, you know, as a 19th ethnography, they paved the way for what became a very respectable way of making a living for all of the Syrians, which was entertaining on the stage and in church halls and in YMCAs, all over the United States, giving lectures, dressing up as Muslims, doing reenactment of Muslim weddings. And they made it respectable. Vaudeville for other peoples had a kind of unsavory reputation, but for the Syrians it was no different than running a store or being a paddler or having a warehouse or a wholesale business and the Arbeelys' constructed this life of entertaining and re-enacting Middle Eastern rites and rituals and made it okay for everyone else. They seem to have constructed and deftly manage the two halves of their identity, the American and the other, succeeding in both worlds while keeping them completely separate. If one can detect cracks in their smooth presentation of self, they're perhaps to be found in their restlessness and effort to find a place where they might really fit, perhaps, in the return of two of the brothers to the Middle East but not to Damascus or Beirut, but to Cairo. And in the illnesses which plague the family and cause the premature death of five of the six brothers. ^M00:40:02 And that they ended up living and dying so far from each other may indicate family strife. So being first was a double edged sword. They were able to forge their own identity with few to criticize them, no role models and they were truly on their own. And they made it up as they went along. Not just because in the first years of their sojourn there were no other Syrians in the United States for them to be with, but the fact that they, as a family, seemed to live far away from other Syrians even when Syrians came. The - you can see that Najeeb set up the business six blocks from the Syrian colony. It doesn't sound a lot today but in those days it was a lot. It meant that they were separated and then you had people in DC, you had people in Los Angeles, you had people in Atlanta, Georgia and two men who went back to Cairo, two brothers who went back to Cairo. So they really didn't seem to be much part of the Syrian colony even though they published the Syrian Colony Newspaper. Whatever their difficulties may have been the Arbeelys', it must be said succeeded. Not financially because none was ever rich, but in figuring out how an Arab might successfully assimilate while keeping hold of his albeit Orientalized culture. We owe them a great deal. Thank you. ^M00:41:33 [ Clapping ] ^M00:41:39 So if there are questions I probably have to have Muhannad translate for me because I'm hard of hearing but I'm happy to answer anything and that I'm happy to sign books. >> Woman: I'm curious figure how the [inaudible]? >> Muhannad Salhi: The question is, she would like to, you'd like to know how the family fit into racial categories, especially in the South. >> Joan Weeks: Okay. So they were considered white. They were always considered white, all Syrians were considered white until the '20s when people began to worry about that for citizenship purposes and there were some - well, the first citizenship trial with the Syrians was in 1909 actually, but that hinged on whether they were white. However you define - however they defined white, but in the nineteenth century, no. And in every census form they're always white, always considered to be white. So there was no problem and really it's kind of astonishing to me. They had really good friends in Tennessee called the McTeers and there was once a critical article written about one of their performances and Mr. McTeer wrote an angry letter to the newspaper defending them and saying not only was the performance authentic, but the family was a fantastic family and that people should get to know them because they were wonderful. So they were really, to me, amazingly quickly accepted in Tennessee. Further questions? >> Man: I'm curious about two things. I'm assuming that this first wave [inaudible] Christian, and... >> Joan Weeks: I heard that one but I'll repeat it. Yeah. >> Man: And the other thing that is curious is this is the time when the nation [inaudible] and therefore I assume your [inaudible] the word Oriental, that is what in Arabic [inaudible] Eastern as well because I don't think [inaudible] necessary identifying as Syrian specifically or Lebanese or et cetera, et cetera. At this period I think the identity was basically what? I'm curious. >> Muhannad Salhi: How did that... >> Joan Weeks: Okay, you're going to have to say it again because I didn't hear. I'm sorry. >> Muhannad Salhi: Basically how did the identify as Orientals, as Syrians, as - generally speaking how would they have identified? >> Joan Weeks: So they identified as Ottoman. Well, let me answer your first question first about the Christians. Yes, 95% of the 19th century immigrants were Christians. There were some Muslims. They didn't go to New York ever. They went and homesteaded in the West. So you find early Muslims in Texas, in North Dakota, in Ohio, which was the west then a bit, in Idaho, in Montana, but there were Muslims in New York, but they weren't Syrians, they were students at Columbia and they were Turks mainly. And by 1910 that was beginning to change, because there were beginning to be Syrian Muslims coming. So, yes, but they were Syrians, but of all four sects. These guys were Orthodox, but the Maronites, the Melkites, Presbyterians and Orthodox were all well represented in the very first influx of Syrians. So how did they identify themselves? Well they - if you're talking about the Arbeelys' themselves I think, in fact, that they joined Quaker meeting. I think they became Quakers when they came. I know that Habeeb and Naceem were Quakers or considered to be Quakers by the Quaker meeting. And only had their name struck off long after they died. Yosef performed, gave lectures at Quaker meetings in Maine and in Tennessee and when they went to the White House in 1881 they were accompanied by a Quaker minister. So I actually think that they were Quakers and I thought maybe the whole family was. But I don't have any other evidence for that. But they were Orthodox, Orthodox, Orthodox, and they consider themselves to be Ottoman, everyone did. And they would call each other sons of Ottoman. >> Man: In other words, was Syria ever used? Syrians? >> Joan Weeks: Syrians were used. Yes. So for example at the 1893 fair the [inaudible] published a list of Syrian merchants who were selling at the fair and they were called Syrian merchants. They wanted to distinguish them from the Ottoman concession, which was separate even though it was also run by Syrians. >> Man: And at this time did Syria also include [inaudible]? >> >> Muhannad Salhi: Yes, it was Greater Syria. >> Joan Weeks: It was Greater Syria. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ^M00:47:05 [ Inaudible ] ^M00:47:06 >> Joan Weeks: Yes. And they call [inaudible] who was one of the two Syrian Jews who were in New York at that time was in that list of Syrians who were at the fair, because he was considered to be the same category as the Syrian Christians. Yeah, yeah. Any other questions? >> Muhannad Salhi: I actually have a question. >> Joan Weeks: Yeah, please. >> Muhannad Salhi: You mentioned that these are the - this is the first Syrian family in the United States and - but at one point there were more Syrians or more Arabs coming to [inaudible]. Do we have any documents about this steady influx of Syrians or Arabs? >> Joan Weeks: Oh yeah. Oh yes. I mean that's really what my book is about for the first 20 years. I mean, yes there's all sorts of documentation. As you all probably know the 1890 census does not exist. It burned in a fire. The federal census, and so that is the - for us, for the Syrians it would have been a crucial census, because that would have been the biggest influx. 1880 census has a few people on it, but the 1890 census would have been the key census for us. And it does not exist. So it's a big lack in our knowledge of the influx of Syrians, but there are summary reports of the 1890 census. So you can get a sense of the, at least the numbers. They came in the 1880s in a trickle. In the 1890s, especially with the Chicago fair caused this huge influx and HH Jessup, who's a Presbyterian minister in Lebanon from the 1860s on laments the fact that the town of Saali lost 300 young men in one week, all of whom were coming to the Chicago fair. And that was probably a third of the male population of Saali at that time. So it was a huge attraction for people to come to the Chicago Fair in 1893 and a lot of those people stayed. They stayed. So that was the biggest pull to come. Yeah. >> Man: You use the word Syrian Diaspora, can you elaborate on that? >> Muhannad Salhi: You use the word Syrian Diaspora. Can you elaborate on that? >> Joan Weeks: Yeah. So the Syrians didn't just come to the United States. Of course they went everywhere. There are many, many, many Syrians in South America, in Brazil, as you know because some of the presidents of these countries have Syrian names, right? They came to South America. There was lots of business going on in Mexico, in Mexico City and in the Yucatan and [inaudible]. ^M00:50:01 In the Caribbean, there was a big Syrian colony in Cuba, one in Haiti, one in Jamaica, one in the Dominican Republic and of course in all the states of the Union, all the territories. I have evidence of Syrians in Hawaii in 1905 buying and selling property. And then, you know, of course there were Syrians in Manchester, England starting in the 1860s. In France, the Maronites were going to France early this year and West Africa. They were everywhere. >> Man: Why did they leave? >> Muhannad Salhi: Why did they leave? >> Joan Weeks: Good question. So everyone debates this and the Syrians have their own story about why they left. The Syrians always told the same story, which I just love because it's the same story that Yosef Arbeely told on the first day he got there. "Oh. we were oppressed by the Muslim overlords and we came to bask in American freedom." Well, maybe, but probably not. Probably they came because there was an opportunity and that's what Yosef saw. He saw - he called it gold fever and people came, the silk industry in Mount Lebanon collapsed in the 1880s. That had - and they had converted all of their farms to silkworms, so they were no longer growing food for themselves. So they had silkworms, the silk industry collapsed and they had no income. So it got really, really hard for them and there was - there were lots of famines going on in Mount Lebanon in the 1880s and 1890s. And there was this country beckoning. There were no visas. So people came. >> Man: Did a lot of them leave because of the Ottoman draft? >> Muhannad Salhi: Did a lot of them leave because of the Ottoman draft? >> Joan Weeks: That was later. Yeah, that was in 1909. It was later. Yeah. Some certainly did. Some certainly did. But the big influx was really from 1890 to 1910. And the people stayed until the First World War. So there were, you know, by about 1911 there were 9,000 Syrians coming every year to New York. So - to the United States I should say, most of the landing in New York. And some of that has to do with the draft. My grandfather - my grandmother and grandfather went back to Syria to visit in 1914 and my grandfather made a run for the American consulate in Beirut to prove, to get a letter from the American consul that he was an American citizen, so he would not be drafted. Because the Ottoman still considered him an ottoman citizen and he wanted the consul to say, essentially will fight for you if you get drafted. Yeah. So. Okay well thank you. >> Muhannad Salhi: Thank you very much. >> Joan Weeks: Thank you so much for coming. ^M00:53:06 [ Clapping ] ^M00:53:10 >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov. ^E00:53:18