“15 years ago, most Yemenis would come to this exact location.”
What do we know about Arab-American life in Cobble Hill and where is its epicenter?
Cobble Hill is known for its Arabic restaurants and stores such as “Sahadi’s.” It is also a popular commercial center for the Arabic community. This neighborhood is also home to the Arab-American Family Support Center, “a non-profit organization that empowers new immigrants with the tools they need to successfully acclimate to the world around them and become active participants in their communities.” This organization is renowned for the important social services that it provides to Arab American immigrant families and Arab American children in New York City (Brooklyn Eagle).
The Arab-Americana Family Support Center programs include: “English as a Second Language and literacy classes; citizenship courses; legal assistance; after-school, summer and weekend programs for children; violence prevention and intervention programs; and access to free or low-cost health care.” This strong organization helps unite the large Arab American community of New York and “provides a strong voice for immigrants in city affairs (Arab-American Family Support Center).”
(Arab-American Family Support Center)
Contracted by New York City’s Administration of Children’s Services, this institute ensures the safety of children in homes that are connected with child abuse in any form. They target these problem homes and offer solutions designed to better family relations. In a nutshell, “In the 20 year history of AAFSC, we have acted as a bridge between new immigrants and their community as they acclimate to their new home in New York City and in the United States. In the same way that our organization builds bridges through education and advocacy, we recognize that one of the most effective ways to build bridges is through philanthropy.” This organization has eased the burden of many a family, seeking a better life in America. Clearly, this is evidence of the same sort of “chain migration” discussed by Douglas Massey, allowing many Arab families to reduce and diversify risk, with the knowledge that they will have much support in New York (Arab-American Family Support Center).
Where is Cobble Hill’s Arab-American population concentrated and what amenities and services currently cater to these Arab Americans?
Interestingly, on Atlantic Avenue, there is one short block of Middle Eastern food stores and restaurants that belong not only to Muslim Arabs, but also to Arabs of Christian heritage. The aforementioned food emporium “Sahadi’s” is just one such example. The bakeries, eateries, and specialty food stores of this block cater to “a largely non-Muslim clientele from the nearby gentrified neighborhoods of Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights, among others.”
What are the immigration histories of Cobble Hill’s Arab-American denizens?
When it comes to the history of the Arabs of Cobble Hill, immigration came in two main waves: from the 1870s to 1920s is one wave, and the second is the post-1965 era. Due to strict immigration laws from 1920-1965, immigration was at a near standstill (Foner 1). The earliest immigrants to this community arrived from the far reaching Ottoman empire and therefore had Turkish passports. Most spoke Arabic and came from modern-day Syria and Lebanon. The majority were actually not Muslims but Catholics, divided among Maronites and Melchites. This community settled mainly on Washington Street. “They were bankers and publishers as well as manufacturers and importers of lace, linen, embroideries and lingerie” (Gotham Gazette).
Philip Kayal, a professor at Seton Hall University wrote “New York: The Mother Colony of Arab-America, 1854-1924.” In it, he explains, “This community was an entrepreneurial community, it wasn’t an educated community. It had been influenced by French imperialists. They thought like Western Europeans for the most part.” When these immigrants became wealthier, they moved from lower Manhattan towards Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, finding more spacious residences there and creating the “South Ferry community, which encompassed most of the areas now called Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill.” Already by 1895, there were 30 Syrian families living in this up-and-coming community. Soon, churches, businesses, and various societies were organized. Many found niches as merchants, peddlers, and needle workers. Many Brooklyn residents thought very highly of theses immigrants. One New York newspaper said, “There is not a more industrious or capable representative of the East than the Syrian. He generally brings money and lives at peace” (Gotham Gazette).
What sorts of challenges did the new arrivals face?
However, the immigrants also faced discrimination, according to Mary Ann Haick DiNapoli of the Arab American Heritage Association. “There were feuds with the Irish because it was the Irish immigrants whom the Syrians were displacing as they moved into these neighborhoods.” Unfortunately, the 1921 Immigration Act significantly restricted Syrian immigration. By1920, half of all Syrian and Lebanese immigrants living in the United States lived in New York City. Approximately 50% of these immigrants resided in South Ferry. In the 1940s, when the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was built, the old Washington Street community began to fade (Gotham Gazette).
What types of changes and transitions were experienced by the Arab-American community of Cobble Hill?
However, in the 1920s, Brooklyn’s Syrian community entered what DiNapoli calls a golden age, “becoming a self-sufficient ethnic neighborhood” (Gotham Gazette). Syrians shifted from peddling and began working in all sorts of industries and professions, though they continued in the needle working industry. Due to their increased success and newfound autonomy, the Syrian-Lebanese community began to assimilate. Many learned English and out-marriage rates skyrocketed.
Beginning in the 1950s, many Syrian Americans moved into the Bay Ridge area. Puerto Ricans and Yuppies changed the demographics of the old South Ferry community. Shortly afterwards, the 1970s saw a new wave of immigration. According to Kayal, the newcomers were vastly different from their predecessors. They were Muslim, better educated, and from Egypt, Yemen, Palestine, and Jordan. According to DiNapoli, this new influx “has continued to re-ethnicize the South Ferry area more than a century after Syrians and Lebanese first settled there” (Gotham Gazette).
With whom do the Arab Americans of Cobble Hill today identify?
Today’s Arabs of New York City are Muslim and Christian. Muslim Arab New Yorkers are part of a much larger Muslim community, here and around the globe. “Muslim New Yorkers come from Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan and Iran, from the Balkans, from West Africa (notably Ghana, Senegal, Niger and Sierra Leone) and even from the Americas, principally Guyana and Trinidad-Tobago.” According to Abdulatif Cristillo, of the estimated 600,000 Muslims in New York, about a third are of Arab ancestry. Amazingly, this group of Arab Muslims, previously a tiny minority compared to Christian Arabs, has grown to about 200,000, due to high immigration rates since the mid 1960’s. Muslim Arabs have become very much involved in city public life, living “beyond the traditional enclaves of lower Manhattan, Brooklyn Heights, and South Brooklyn, venturing out into the other boroughs to live, open businesses and become part of mixed neighborhoods” (Gotham Gazette).
What is a typical day in the life of an Arab Muslim American in New York City?
Since the late 1970s, the number of mosques has greatly increased (now numbering over 130 mosques in the city). Muslim Arabs currently purchase Halal meat at a variety of butcher shops, send their children to fourteen private schools, gain religious rights to wear religious clothing and beards in the workplace, and lobby for privileges on their high holidays. Many Yemenis currently living in Cobble Hill continue to travel back and forth between their home country of Yemen and their new residence in what has become a transnational lifestyle. They continue to maintain ties in both locales and strongly influence both the Cobble Hill community and their Yemeni community of origin. Overall, the Arab community of New York has become a strong, autonomous force (Gotham Gazette).
Interview:
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Sources:
Arab-American Family Support Center. <http://www.aafscny.org/>
Gotham Gazette. <http://www.gothamgazette.com/commentary/107.history_arab.shtml>
Brooklyn Eagle. <http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/brooklyn%E2%80%99s-arab-muslim-communities-uneasy-about-syria-2013-09-03-203000>
