News

Jun 25, 2019

A Waking Dream: Syrian Migrants’ Journey to the Americas

This post was written by Randa Tawil, a PhD candidate in American Studies at Yale University. Tawil’s dissertation focuses on early 20th century migration routes from Syria to North and South America, and explores how constructs of gender and race impacted immigrant experiences. Syrians traveling to the Americas in the late 19th and early 20th…

Apr 26, 2019

“A Boatload of Horses”: Alan Jabbour’s Family Immigration Saga

This blog was written by Folklorist, Sabra Webber. Webber is a professor emerita at The Ohio State University in the Department of Comparative Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. She visited the Khayrallah Center in the Summer of 2018 while researching her former colleague and friend Alan Jabbour. She wishes to…

Mar 25, 2019

Fighting Injustice: The Story of Herbert Nassour

Watch the documentary, Herb Nassour: The People’s Doctor, in English with Spanish or Arabic Subtitles.  Far too often, the complex history of Lebanese immigration is collapsed into a few “success” stories, measured by accumulation of fame and fortune. Such tales are certainly real and admirable, but fall short of telling the whole story of immigration.…

Feb 6, 2019

“Like a wolf who fell upon sheep”: Early Lebanese Immigrants and Religion in America

For some early Lebanese immigrants, religion was a source of comfort. Its rituals, language and congregations provided a sense of home in an alien environment, and stability amid the fast-paced changes they experienced in their new lives. For others, it was an oppressive reminder of a past they left behind, and a source of discord…

Dec 5, 2018

A Tour of the Ameen Rihani Museum in Freike, Lebanon

Introduction In the summer of 2018, Khayrallah Center intern Hannah Chaya traveled to Freike, Lebanon to help digitize the contents of the Ameen Rihani Museum. The Khayrallah Center has embarked on an extensive project in collaboration with the Ameen Rihani Organization, headed by Dr. Ameen Albert Rihani (the nephew of the famed Lebanese-American writer) to…

Nov 9, 2018

Khayrallah Center Announces 2018 Prizes in Migration Studies

The Khayrallah Center announces the 2017 prizes in migration studies.

Nov 8, 2018

The Early Lebanese in America: A Demographic Portrait, 1880-1930

This post was written by Dr. Akram Khater, Director of the Khayrallah Center, and Marjorie Stevens, Senior Researcher. It is the third installment in the center’s Core Story, a series of essays detailing the broader history of Lebanese immigration to the United States. Some material for this essay was based on a previous demographic analysis…

Oct 10, 2018

Annie Abdo: A Peddler . . . A Tulsa Woman

This post was researched and written by Randa Hakim, Claire Kempa, Marilyn Drath, and Marjorie Stevens.  Annie Coury Abdo was a first-wave Lebanese immigrant to the United States whose life both defies and exemplifies elements of the traditional cultural and historical narratives of Lebanese immigration. Annie rose from peddling to property ownership, a trajectory that…

Oct 8, 2018

Georges Nasser Wins 2018 Khayrallah Prize

The Khayrallah Center is pleased to announce that Lebanese filmmaker, Mr. Georges Nasser, was selected as the 2018 Khayrallah Prize winner.

Sep 21, 2018

Getting to Know Sheikh Youssef Stephan – Community Leaders as Role Models of Diasporic Village Communities

This article is authored by Marie Karner, a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. It is part of her dissertation project that studies different Lebanese diasporic village communities. She uses a multi-sited-research design to focus on their practices of reproduction and community development. In January 2018, she was a…