Arab American Heritage Month is official!

April is Arab American Heritage Month. While we have celebrated at our schools, at work and among family and friends, in a historic first, President Biden issued a Presidential Proclamation officially honoring April as Arab American Heritage Month.

We are so proud of the work we have all done together to get to this point—where we can tell our own story, honor our heritage, and celebrate the countless contributions Arab Americans have made. And while we celebrate, we are also educating our fellow Americans about our wonderful community and in so doing, combating the anti-Arab bigotry that regrettably remains.

You helped get us here so please take a moment to acknowledge how far we've come and share this widely.

We will be in touch throughout April with more ways to honor this month but this sure is a wonderful way to start!

Featured
Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee 
Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee 

AFSC and their local staff in Gaza have provided emergency humanitarian aid to more than 400,000 people in Gaza, including providing thousands of families safe drinking water and food. They plan to expand their aid to tens of thousands more in the coming months. Today, as our community faces attacks both at home and abroad, we are inspired by the important work being done by Arab Americans like Joyce.

Danny Hajjar - Music Journalist
Danny Hajjar - Music Journalist

Arabic music is on the verge of a worldwide takeover. Or, if you ask Danny Hajjar, it already has. And if you ask us, proud Arab Americans like Danny are part of the reason why.

Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month
Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month

On March 31st, President Joseph Biden issued a formal proclamation designating April as Arab American Heritage Month. That Mr. Biden took this step is significant, marking a turning point in our decades-long effort to secure recognition and respect for our community.  

Nujoud Merancy - Strategy & Architecture Lead, Exploration Systems Development at NASA
Nujoud Merancy - Strategy & Architecture Lead, Exploration Systems Development at NASA

In 2019, a headshot of a NASA employee wearing a Palestinian tatreez-inspired blazer garnered international attention. That employee, Nujoud Merancy, who was then Chief of the Exploration Mission Planning Office at NASA, quickly became known not just for her exemplory career in aerospace engineering but also her Palestinian roots.  

Arab American Heritage Month is official!
Arab American Heritage Month is official!

Arab American History Month is official!

Fadel Adib - Associate Professor at MIT & Innovator in Computer Science & Technology
Fadel Adib - Associate Professor at MIT & Innovator in Computer Science & Technology

"Please, make this a product and put it here." That is what innovator Fadel Adib was told by his grandmother in Lebanon when he described creating a device that could use Wi-Fi signals to track people's movement and she saw an important application for herself: if she fell in a room, it would detect her fall and send a message to one of her children.

Reema Dodin - White House Deputy Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs
Reema Dodin - White House Deputy Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs

A lifetime of public service led to Reema Dodin’s selection by President Biden to serve as the White House Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director for Legislative Affairs.

Bella Hadid - Supermodel & Advocate
Bella Hadid - Supermodel & Advocate

Bella Hadid is an American supermodel and former equestrian who boldly speaks out about mental health, her experience with lyme disease, and human rights violations committed against Palestinians.

Gigi Hadid - Supermodel, Humanitarian, & Advocate
Gigi Hadid - Supermodel, Humanitarian, & Advocate

Gigi Hadid is one of the most recognizable and admired names in fashion and beauty. As a supermodel, she has risen to the top of her field, doing it all while establishing a reputation for her incredible work ethic and compassion.

April is Arab American Heritage Month
April is Arab American Heritage Month

April is Arab American Heritage Month. It may not be a big deal to some, but for those of my generation this recognition represents a half century of struggle to overcome outright bigotry, political exclusion, and ignorance about who we are, our history, and our contributions to American life.

Abdullah Hammoud - Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan
Abdullah Hammoud - Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan

“To the young girls and boys who have been ridiculed for their faith or ethnicity, to those of you who were ever made to feel that their names are unwelcome, and to our parents and to others who are humiliated for their broken English and yet still persisted — today is proof that you are as American as anyone else and there is a new era in Dearborn.”

Ralph Nader an Arab American Icon
Ralph Nader an Arab American Icon

For the last 60 years, Arab American Ralph Nader has dedicated himself to public service. Nader was born in 1934 in Connecticut to Nathra and Rose Nader, both Lebanese immigrants.

Meet Yussef El Guindi
Meet Yussef El Guindi

Yussef is an Arab American, a leading playwright, and an inspiration. We are proud to share his story.

Meet Award winning and best-selling author Laila Lalami!
Meet Award winning and best-selling author Laila Lalami!

In the past 15 years, Laila Lalami has emerged as the voice of the Arab American immigrant experience. Herself an immigrant from Morocco, Laila is the best-selling and award-winning author of four novels which explore the themes of home and belonging, and in her words “of people that don’t quite fit anywhere.”

Reem Kassis - Writer, storyteller, preserver of culture and cuisine
Reem Kassis - Writer, storyteller, preserver of culture and cuisine

“[T]he food was a reminder, despite the weight of what we were witnessing, that we were still alive with plenty for which to be grateful,” wrote Reem Kassis at the beginning of the COVID-19 lock down in April 2020. In this column for the Los Angeles Times, she compared the experience of cooking during a global pandemic to her time growing up in Jerusalem in the 1990s – when shelter in place orders were given during the Gulf War, and daily life often revolved around culinary comforts.

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