Last week, I was in my hometown of Utica, New York. I had been invited to keynote an event at City Hall to commemorate Lebanon’s Independence Day. More than that, it was a day to recognise and celebrate the contributions that Lebanese Americans have made to the US, and to remind us how a welcoming America had done so much for waves of diverse immigrants and how they, in turn, had built this country.
From the late 19th century until the first few decades of the 20th, a flood of immigrants arrived in the US from Greater Syria (a historical region covering modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel). From available data, it appears that almost one quarter of a million Syrian Lebanese arrived during those four decades.
Their reasons for emigration varied. In the early period, they came seeking economic opportunities. The First World War famine imposed on the Mount of Lebanon by both the Ottoman Empire and the Allies accelerated the flight. It is estimated that during the war years, half of the population of the Mount died from hunger or disease.
After the war, many of those who were able to leave did so, with their prefe
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