Manhattan’s Little Syria: The Heart of Arab America

Immigration to the United States from the area of the former Ottoman Empire’s Greater Syria – now Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, and Palestine – began in the 1880s. The most important neighborhood of the immigration — its economic and cultural heart — was along Washington Street in the Lower West Side of Manhattan. By showing what remains of the neighborhood, we will discuss Arab New York’s origins, geography, industry, tenement life, religions, journalism, and literary scene.