by Linda K. Jacobs | Feb 15, 2016 | Uncategorized
When I was researching my book, Strangers in the West, about the Syrian colony of New York City in the nineteenth century, I was immediately struck by the absence of Syrian Jews in the colony. I would have expected that these new immigrants, whose first language was...
by Linda K. Jacobs | Nov 5, 2015 | Uncategorized
The New York Syrian colony of the nineteenth century was centered on Washington Street on the lower west side of Manhattan and later in Brooklyn. But in reality, the New York community included a number of satellite towns in which Syrians lived, which were closely...
by Linda K. Jacobs | Oct 6, 2015 | Uncategorized
Unlike the other early Syrian immigrants who have been featured in my blogposts to date, Naoum Mokarzel is well known to scholars and third-generation Syrian-Americans. He was an important publisher, spokesman for his community, and an exemplary man in many ways. What...
by Linda K. Jacobs | Sep 14, 2015 | Uncategorized
In an excerpt from my new book, Strangers in the West, we continue the travails of new Syrian immigrants who landed in New York harbor. When a Syrian arrived at Castle Garden or Ellis Island, he or she was examined by various officials including emigration and health...
by Linda K. Jacobs | Sep 8, 2015 | Uncategorized
The following post is an excerpt from my about-to-appear book, Strangers in the West, about the travails of the earliest Syrian immigrants who arrived in New York harbor in the 1880s. Although the “First Syrian Immigrant Family” arrived in New York in...
