Syrian Amercan

This is the thirty-seventh 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 thirty-seventh pathbreaker is Andre Sayegh, mayor of Paterson, New Jersey. He was born in Paterson on March 20, 1974, to a Syrian mother and a Lebanese father. He is a practicing Roman Catholic. As John Mason, a contributing writer describes, Andre is recognized as a progressive mayor of New Jersey’s third largest city, a city with a sizeable Arab American population as well as many other ethnicities. He is a proud Arab American who deeply sympathizes with the war-afflicted Palestinians of Gaza, some of whom have close family in Paterson.