(Sorry that my footnotes do not use superscripted numbers! I’ve been relying on TextEdit and really need to get another word processor ASAP…)
My research is progressing, though I cannot say I have a clear thesis yet. I feel like I haven’t found enough in my research to move into the writing stage; however, I will try to gather more sources and begin writing soon since a rough draft will be due before we know it.
What I think I would like some feedback on is how to interpret my sources to gain a sense of how political activism changes people’s self-images and identity. If anyone has any suggestions for readings on how to write a cultural history of political action, I would greatly appreciate it.
I finally received the microfilm reels for The Syrian World, an English-language journal edited by Salloum Mokarzel that ran from 1926 to 1935. Regarding the title “Syrian,” early Arab immigrants to the United States were often lumped under this category despite not actually being from what is known as Syria today. Under the Ottoman Empire, there was simply a region called “Bilad Ash-Shaam” or “Greater Syria” that encompassed what is today Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Jordan. A majority of early immigrants came from the area around Mount Lebanon (in what is today – surprise – Lebanon) and from parts of modern-day Syria, but they were still all usually known as “Syrian.” I just want to point this out because even these terms for self-identification are not as simple as they may appear. Because the Middle East was broken into mandates and eventual states by the British and French along arbitrary border lines, how Arabs identified themselves at the same time that these nations were being created is very interesting. Therefore, The Syrian World features news and writings on a great deal of the Middle East outside of present-day Syria, especially relating to Palestine.
Having gone through the issues until 1931 thus far, I am struck by how well-written and profoundly interesting the content is. As the annotated guide to The Syrian World states, “Salloum decided in 1926 to establish a journal in English aimed to so much to the Arabic-speaking immigrant that Al-Hoda [an Arabic journal established by Salloum’s brother] but to that immigrant’s children. He wanted to help in the Americanization process of the young, to give them a sense of identity and worth, and pride in their heritage.”1
The newspaper is especially helpful because it also includes a section called the “Spirit of the Syrian Press” that collects articles from other American-Arab publications; this has allowed me to have access even to Arabic newspapers that I thought I would have difficulty reading (and even finding).
I have found a plethora of interesting articles in this journal arguing for an understanding of “Americanism” among Arabs that allows them to embrace parts of the new culture while retaining elements of the old. For instance, this passage illustrates a typical exhortation to young Arabs who are becoming American:
Can you not realize that Americanism which requires the renunciation of your former citizenship and allegiance does not necessarily require that you renounce also the virtues of your race and whatever you have of worthy customs and traditions? Can you not see that this nation which you so greatly admire is composed of nothing less than various racial elements extracted from the Old World from which you have come? THe Man who fails to appreciate the beauty spots of the nation of which he ‘was’ a part may never be expected to detect these spots in the nation of which he has ‘become’ a part, even though he were to sew the naturalization certificate into his skin!”2
I have found a variety of similar articles that will allow me to discuss in my paper how identity shifted among immigrants during this time period. The other part of my paper, however, deals with anti-Zionist activism (or, as these activists would later redefine the name of the movement, Palestinian national activism). Most of the articles from Arab presses in this time period exhibit suspicion toward Zionism in Palestine and much of the discussion centers on the Balfour Declaration. I am now in the process of reading New York Times reports on a delegation of Arab intellectuals and activists (most of whom had published in The Syrian World) who testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs regarding the Palestine question. I also plan to focus more on The Palestine National League now too, though finding sources on them has proven to be challenging.
1. John G. Moses, Annotated Guide to The Syrian World, 1926-1932, (Saint Paul, MN: University of Minnesota, 1994), xi.
2. “How they Understand Americanism,” quoted from Meerat-Ul-Gharb (N.Y., February 14, 1928), The Syrian World, March 1928, 43.