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Arab AMerican Pathbreaker

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Ernest Hamwi

This is the sixty-seventh of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, arts, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our sixty-seventh pathbreaker is Ernest Hamwi, a Syrian born Arab American businessman and entrepreneur. Born on November 18, 1883, in Damascus, Syria he is considered by some as the creator of the ice cream cone, which he purportedly conceived of while working as a concessionaire at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Contributing writer, John Mason, informs us that there is much more information available on the ice cream cone than exists on Ernest himself. Nevertheless, this is his brief but eventful story.

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Rami Khouri

This is the sixty-third of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our sixty-third pathbreaker is Rami Khoury, a Palestinian Jordanian, educated in both the Middle East and the U.S. A widely respected, internationally syndicated, political columnist and professor of journalism, Khoury is known for his clear, honest analyses of the global influence of the Middle East, including the hot button topics of today. Contributing writer, John Mason, takes us through a recent interview, in which Khoury renders a clear-eyed assessment of the Gaza war, especially the complicated roles of Hamas, Israel, and the U.S. in reaching a ceasefire.

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Alia Shawkat

This is the sixtieth of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our sixtieth pathbreaker is Alia Shawkat, actress, producer, singer, and painter. Her father is an Iraqi Christian and her mother is American. As John Mason, contributing writer, reports, Alia is best known for her role in ‘Arrested Development,’ a popular, long-running Fox/Netflix TV sitcom series. Joining that series at age 14, she has spent more than half her adult life as a professional actor.

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Diana Abu-Jaber

This is the fifty-fourth of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our fifty-fourth pathbreaker is Diana Abu-Jaber, who writes fiction about Arab and Arab-American culture and identity. As contributing writer, John Mason describes, her stories reflect her intercultural experience, growing up in New York state and Jordan, and the cross-cultural realities of her Jordian father and American-born, Irish-German mother. Diana’s stories often involve the culture of food and food production, as practiced by her two families. She is a professor of English and currently a Writer-in-Residence at Portland State University.

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Najla Said

This is the fifty-second of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our fifty-second pathbreaker is Najla Said, a Palestinian American author, actress, playwright, and activist. Contributing writer, John Mason, writes about Najla, the daughter of noted postcolonial scholar and public intellectual Palestinian American Edward Said and of writer and activist, Lebanese American Mariam C. Said. Najla Said’s literary and academic work addresses racism, stereotyping, and social and economic inequality, focused on the challenges that face immigrant and second-generation Americans.

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Justin Amash

This is the fifty-first of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our fifty-first pathbreaker is Justin Amash, a lawyer and politician who has served Michiganders in the Michigan House of Representatives and the U.S. House of Representatives. Contributing writer, John Mason reports that he is the child of a Palestinian Christian father and a Syrian Christian mother, who immigrated to the U.S. Justin is a principled politician who is difficult to pigeonhole by his party affiliation since he roots his support of issues in his understanding of constitutional law. He supports Palestinians in Gaza, where several of his relatives have been killed in the war.

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Elaine Hagopian

This is the forty-eighth of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our forty-eighth pathbreaker is Elaine Hagopian, a retired Sociology professor at Simmons College in Boston and one of this country’s leading Arab American activists. Contributing writer, John Mason, reports how in 1967 Hagopian joined other Arab American intellectuals in founding the Association of Arab American University Graduates (AAUG), according to Elaine, “to change the way the Arab Israeli conflict is perceived in the United States.” Her father was an immigrant from Damascus.

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Linda Sarsour

This is the forty-sixth of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our forty-sixth pathbreaker is Linda Sarsour, a political activist who has led significant liberal movements to improve human rights. Contributing writer, John Mason describes how she has fought for Muslim rights in the context of 9/11 and the Supreme Court ban on Muslim immigration, and then joined the BLM movement, linking Black and Palestinian human rights. President Obama called her “A Champion of Change.” Linda has been outspoken on the horrific results of the Hamas Israel war.

Pathbreakers of Arab America—Huwaida Arraf

Our forty-fourth pathbreaker, Huwaida Arraf, an activist and attorney who, as a Palestinian American and a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel, endeavored to moderate her dual loyalties. Contributing writer, John Mason, writes that Huwaida was born in Detroit, that her mother was a West Bank Palestinian, and her father a Palestinian from northern Israel and thus an Israeli citizen. One motive for their move to the U.S. was to remove Arraf from the violence in the West Bank.

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