Notable Syrian-Americans from Baltimore
- Alia Malek, journalist and lawyer. [12]
The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a small Syrian population. The Syrian-American community is centered in East Baltimore. While Syrian-Americans have had a presence in Baltimore for over a century, most Syrians in Baltimore are recent immigrants and refugees who have fled the Syrian Civil War.
A 1913 report on Eastern Orthodoxy from the Episcopal Church claimed that there were no Syrians in Baltimore and only a few wealthy Syrians in nearby Washington, D.C. [1]
In 1920, 29 foreign-born white people in Baltimore spoke the Syriac or Arabic languages. [2]
As of 2015, about 200 Syrian refugees lived in the Baltimore metropolitan area. [3]
According to the Baltimore City Community College Refugee Youth Project, 650 to 750 Syrian refugees were being settled in Baltimore each year as of 2015. [4]
The Syrian community in Baltimore grew in size following the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Following the Obama administration's order to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees, some were resettled in Baltimore. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Senator Ben Cardin, and other Maryland politicians urged to Obama administration to do more for Syrian refugees. Rawlings-Blake and 17 Baltimore politicians sent President Obama a letter urging for more Syrians to be resettled in Baltimore. [5] The Baltimore branch of the International Rescue Committee office in Highlandtown has helped to settle Syrian refugees in the city. In 2015, the IRC helped 26 Syrian refugees settle in Baltimore, [6] 11 of whom were children. [3] The Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service has also been active in supporting Syrian immigrants and refugees in Baltimore. [7] Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief, and other Christian organizations in Baltimore have assisted Syrians and Syrian-Americans by building safe shelters for refugees, sending supplies to Syria, and resettling refugees. Most Syrian refugees in Baltimore come to the city due to family connections. [8]
The Jewish-American community in Baltimore has been active in supporting the resettlement of Syrian refugees. The Union for Reform Judaism, the American Jewish Council, Jewish Community Relations Council, and groups representing the Conservative and Orthodox movements have vocalized support for Syrian refugees. Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg of Beth Am, a Conservative synagogue in Baltimore, has expressed support for Syrian refugees in Baltimore. Beth Am congregants have voiced concerned about stereotypes of Syrian Muslims and Islamophobia following the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks. Beth Am congregants have cooperated with the International Rescue Committee to assist Syrian refugees. However, some Jewish-Americans have opposed resettlement of Syrian refugees due to concerns about Muslim antisemitism. Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, published an opinion piece in the Baltimore Jewish Times denouncing HIAS, the Anti-Defamation League, and other Jewish-American organizations for what he called "supporting dangerous Syrian immigration", writing that "The violence perpetrated by Muslim immigrants in Europe — especially toward European Jews — portends what America has in store if we bring more such immigrants here." HIAS had collected the signatures of 80 rabbis from the Baltimore-Washington area that was sent to Congress urging members of Congress to learn from Jewish history and welcome all refugees. [9]
Kosher Syrian Jewish cuisine is available in Baltimore through a catering service called Mazza From Heaven. The catering service is run by two Syrian-Jewish mothers and offers traditional Syrian-Jewish and Persian-Jewish dishes. [10]
There is a Baltimore-based Syrian-American catering collective known as Aleppo Kitchen. The group is run by 20 Syrian refugee women and is supported by the Muslim Social Services Agency of Baltimore. [11]
In her books A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories and The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria, Syrian-American journalist Alia Malek has written about growing up in Baltimore as the daughter of Syrian immigrants. [12]
In 2018, a documentary about Syrian-Americans in Baltimore premiered titled This Is Home: A Refugee Story, directed by Alexandra Shiva. [13]
Syrian-Americans in Baltimore are predominantly Muslim, Christian, or Jewish. Due to the small numbers of Sephardi Syrian Jews in Baltimore, some have opted to study at Ashkenazi learning centers because of the shortage of Sephardi hakhamim and yeshivot. [14]
This is a demography of the population of Lebanon including population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
HIAS is a Jewish American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. It was established on November 27, 1881, originally to help the large number of Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States who had left Europe to escape antisemitic persecution and violence. In 1975, the State Department asked HIAS to aid in resettling 3,600 Vietnam refugees. Since that time, the organization continues to provide support for refugees of all nationalities, religions, and ethnic origins. The organization works with people whose lives and freedom are believed to be at risk due to war, persecution, or violence. HIAS has offices in the United States and across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Since its inception, HIAS has helped resettle more than 4.5 million people.
Syrian Americans are Americans of Syrian descent or background. The first significant wave of Syrian immigrants to arrive in the United States began in the 1880s. Many of the earliest Syrian Americans settled in New York City, Boston, and Detroit. Immigration from Syria to the United States suffered a long hiatus after the United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, which restricted immigration. More than 40 years later, the Immigration Act of 1965, abolished the quotas and immigration from Syria to the United States saw a surge. An estimated 64,600 Syrians immigrated to the United States between 1961 and 2000.
VOLAG, sometimes spelled Volag or VolAg, is an abbreviation for "Voluntary Agency". This term refers to any of the nine U.S. private agencies and one state agency that have cooperative agreements with the State Department to provide reception and placement services for refugees arriving in the United States. These agencies use funding from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) along with self-generated resources to provide refugees with a range of services including sponsorship, initial housing, food and clothing, orientation and counseling. VOLAGs may also contract with the Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide job placement, English language training and other social services. Each of the ten voluntary agencies recognized by the federal government vary significantly in their history, experience, size, denominational affiliation, philosophy, primary clientele, administrative structure, resettlement capacity, and institutionalized resettlement. Of the ten U.S. resettlement agencies, all of them are religiously affiliated or faith-based with the exception of the International Rescue Committee. The tenth VOLAG was added fairly recently in November 2022, when Bethany Christian Services (BCS) was officially designated as its own resettlement agency by the PRM.
Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), based in Alexandria, Virginia, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) humanitarian agency and member of the Islamic Relief Worldwide group of organizations. IRUSA was founded in California in 1993. In addition to international relief and development initiatives, Islamic Relief USA also sponsors and funds domestic projects ranging from emergency disaster responses to assisting the American homeless population and supporting those who cannot afford basic healthcare.
The history of the Germans in Baltimore began in the 17th century. During the 19th century, the Port of Baltimore was the second-leading port of entry for immigrants, after Ellis Island in New York City. Many Germans immigrated to Baltimore during this time.
The history of Greeks in Baltimore dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Baltimore is home to one of the largest Greek American communities in the United States. The community is centered in the Greektown and Highlandtown neighborhoods of East Baltimore.
There have been a variety of ethnic groups in Baltimore, Maryland and its surrounding area for 12,000 years. Prior to European colonization, various Native American nations have lived in the Baltimore area for nearly 3 millennia, with the earliest known Native inhabitants dating to the 10th millennium BCE. Following Baltimore's foundation as a subdivision of the Province of Maryland by British colonial authorities in 1661, the city became home to numerous European settlers and immigrants and their African slaves. Since the first English settlers arrived, substantial immigration from all over Europe, the presence of a deeply rooted community of free black people that was the largest in the pre-Civil War United States, out-migration of African-Americans from the Deep South, out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia, out-migration of Native Americans from the Southeast such as the Lumbee and the Cherokee, and new waves of more recent immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa have added layers of complexity to the workforce and culture of Baltimore, as well as the religious and ethnic fabric of the city. Baltimore's culture has been described as "the blending of Southern culture and [African-American] migration, Northern industry, and the influx of European immigrants—first mixing at the port and its neighborhoods...Baltimore’s character, it’s uniqueness, the dialect, all of it, is a kind of amalgamation of these very different things coming together—with a little Appalachia thrown in...It’s all threaded through these neighborhoods", according to the American studies academic Mary Rizzo.
The Ethnic press in Baltimore, Maryland is press directed to a particular ethnic minority group or community in mind, including the non-English-language press. While English-language newspapers have always served the general population, many of Baltimore's ethnic immigrant communities have had newspapers published in their native languages.
The history of the French in Baltimore dates to the 18th century. The earliest wave of French immigration began in the mid-18th century, as many Acadian refugees from Canada's Maritime Provinces. The Acadians were expelled from Canada by the British, who were victorious in the French and Indian War, and in the Seven Years War in Europe. They took over French territory in North America east of the Mississippi River.
The history of Russians in Baltimore dates back to the mid-19th century. The Russian community is a growing population and constitutes a major source of new immigrants to the city. Historically the Russian community was centered in East Baltimore, but most Russians now live in Northwest Baltimore's Arlington neighborhood and in Baltimore's suburb of Pikesville.
The history of Ukrainians in Baltimore dates back to the mid-19th century. Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. have the largest Ukrainian-American communities in the Mid-Atlantic.
The history of Hispanics and Latinos in Baltimore dates back to the mid-20th century. The Hispanic and Latino community of Baltimore is the fastest growing ethnic group in the city. There is a significant Hispanic/Latino presence in many Southeast Baltimore neighborhoods, particularly Highlandtown, Upper Fell's Point, and Greektown. Overall Baltimore has a small but growing Hispanic population, primarily in the Southeast portion of the area from Fells Point to Dundalk.
The Jewish Council for Racial Equality or HIAS+JCORE is a Jewish organization that works to provide a Jewish voice on race and asylum issues in the UK.
The Trump travel ban denotes a series of executive actions taken by Donald Trump as President of the United States, beginning with Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.
The history of White Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first white European colonists came to what is now Maryland and established the Province of Maryland on what was then Native American land. White Americans in Baltimore are Baltimoreans "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa." Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore no longer had a white majority by the 1970s. As of the 2010 census, white Americans are a minority population of Baltimore at 29.6% of the population. White Americans have played a substantial impact on the culture, dialect, ethnic heritage, history, politics, and music of the city. Since the earliest English settlers arrived on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore's white population has been sustained by substantial immigration from all over Europe, particularly Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe, as well as a large out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia. Numerous white immigrants from Europe and the European diaspora have immigrated to Baltimore from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, France, Canada, and other countries, particularly during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Smaller numbers of white people have immigrated from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and other non-European regions. Baltimore also has a prominent population of white Jews of European descent, mostly with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. There is a smaller population of white Middle Easterners and white North Africans, most of whom are Arab, Persian, Israeli, or Turkish. The distribution of White Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is sometimes called "The White L", while the distribution of African Americans in East and West Baltimore is called "The Black Butterfly."
The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a large and growing Caribbean-American population. The Caribbean-American community is centered in West Baltimore. The largest non-Hispanic Caribbean populations in Baltimore are Jamaicans, Trinidadians and Tobagonians, and Haitians. Baltimore also has significant Hispanic populations from the Spanish West Indies, particularly Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Cubans. Northwest Baltimore is the center of the West Indian population of Baltimore, while Caribbean Hispanics in the city tend to live among other Latinos in neighborhoods such as Greektown, Upper Fell's Point, and Highlandtown. Jamaicans and Trinidadians are the first and second largest West Indian groups in the city, respectively. The neighborhoods of Park Heights and Pimlico in northwest Baltimore are home to large West Indian populations, particularly Jamaican-Americans.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a small Ethiopian population. The Ethiopian-American community is centered in central Baltimore, particularly in Baltimore's historic Chinatown. This neighborhood is home to many Ethiopian businesses, including restaurants, a café, and a market. The enclave, located on the 300 block of Park Avenue, is sometimes referred to as Baltimore's Little Ethiopia.
The city of New York City includes a large Syrian population. New York City's Syrian community was historically centered in Manhattan's Little Syria, but is now centered in Brooklyn. Historically, Syrians in New York City were predominantly Christian. In the modern era, the city is home to the world's largest Syrian-Jewish community outside of Israel. 75,000 Syrian Jews live in New York City, mostly in Brooklyn. New York City is also home to a smaller community of Syrian Muslims who have lived in the city for over a century, most of whom have immigrated since the 1960s.
There are no Syrians in Baltimore, and a few only in Washington (well-to-do)...
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