Saturday, May 3, 2025
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
If you walk through Washington Street in Manhattan’s Financial District today, you would never know that once upon a time, the area was home to the first Arabic-speaking community in the United States. In the late 19th century, it was known as the “Syrian Quarter,” which became the Mother Colony from which the Arab American diaspora sprung.
It was here that the first Arab immigrants to the United States settled in the late 1800s and cultivated a vibrant cultural hub of businesses, houses of worship, and communal life, where one could imbibe the fragrances of Levantine pastries and cuisines wafting through the air as one walked its narrow streets.
It was here that Kawkab America, the first Arabic-language newspaper in the US, was printed in 1892. It was here that the Linotype machine first began to use Arabic characters, revolutionizing Arabic-language journalism all over the world. And it was here that Kahlil Gibran and Ameen Rihani participated in the Pen League, a collective of prominent Arab writers and intellectuals.
Asad Dandia will lead this Six to Celebrate tour of Little Syria where today, only three buildings from the era remain. This tour will bring the stories of this neighborhood to life once more.
Friend of HDC / Senior $15; General Admission $20
