A Reminder That A Syrian Migrant’s Son Gave Us The iPhone

The three Syrians on the strike committee were particularly important: Farris Marad, dyer, tailor, special policeman, and court interpreter; James Brox, grocer; and Doctor Hajjar. When interviewed years, Marad denied that he was influential in the strike and said he had done little more than lead one of the parades. Brox joined the I.W.W. in 1911 and during the strike invited Ettor to speak at one of the Syrian churches.

The first Syrian immigrants arrived in the United States from Ottoman Syria. Most of them came from Christian villages around Mount Lebanon (before the creation of Republic of Lebanon), while around 5-10% were Muslims of different sects. A small number were also Palestinians. According to historian Philip Hitti, approximately 90,000 "Syrians" arrived in the United States between 1899 and 1919. An estimated 1,000 official entries per year came from the governorates of Damascus and Aleppo, which are governorates in modern-day Syria, in the period between 1900 and 1916. Early immigrants settled mainly in Eastern United States, in the cities of New York, Boston and Detroit and the Paterson, New Jersey area. In the 1920s, the majority of immigrants from Mount Lebanon began to refer to themselves as "Lebanese" instead of "Syrians".