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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS By telling and retelling our Arab-American story, we reclaim the authorship of our own history. I completed this book with the cooperative and collective help of more people than can be named here. Each of them knows who he or she is and to each of them, many thanks. However, I am particularly indebted to those early immigrants who opened their homes and gave their gifts of living voices, shared primary resource material, in particular their bountiful visual legacy of cherished photographs from which themes emerged, and other realia that enabled me to write my book. I am eternally grateful to my friend Evelyn Abdalah Menconi, who shares my belief in the importance of historical documentation, for her invaluable ongoing assistance, moral support, and outstanding contribution toward this work from its inception to completion. She helped make it the best it can be. Mrs. Menconi is the recipient of many community service awards. I should also like to thank Alixa Naff, an important resource person, who in the early planning of this project along with others gave me her time and direction. Additionally I was inspired by the Naff Arab American Collection at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. With gratitude I acknowledge the encouragement given me at the beginning of this project by Kenneth J. Moynihan, Janet K. McCorison of Worcester Heritage Preservation Society (now Preservation Worcester), and Abraham W. Haddad. I am grateful to Carol A. Lavallee, who typed transcripts of the early taped interviews with devotion and skill. Special thanks to Walter B. Denny for a meaningful critique and crucial insights regarding the early draft. With appreciation I acknowledge the commentary and critique of parts of an early version by Eleanor Abdella Doumato and Michael W. Suleiman. Appreciation is acknowledged for assistance with constructive comments received at the early stages of xv xvi ARAB-AMERICAN FACES AND VOICES this project from Nancy A. McBride, Elaine C. Hagopian, and Naseer H. Aruri; and for ongoing important periodic comments by Barbara C. Aswad, Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, and Elizabeth Fernea. In the final stages of preparation for the publication of this manuscript, I would like to thank Carol Johnson Shedd for her valuable assistance. I would also like to thank the institutions and their staff who provided information and materials I needed, in particular, the Worcester Public Library and its Telephone Reference service, Auburn Public Library, Gale Free Library (Holden, Mass.), Rev. Richard D. McGrail of the Catholic Free Press, Massachusetts Society of Genealogists (masog) Worcester Chapter, Stephen Trent Seames for the Massachusetts Military Division, Military Museum and Archives (Worcester, Mass.), Cyrus D. Lipsitt for the Worcester Employment Society (predecessor of Worcester Center for Crafts), Gordon P. Hargrove of Friendly House, and Higgins Armory Museum through its exhibits and lectures. Over the years, I attended annual conferences that offered presentations on the Near East, Arab culture and history, and immigration; these were a source of inspiration and strength. Organizations that sponsored these conferences included American Research Center of Egypt (arce); Middle East Studies Association of North America (mesa); Association of Arab-American University Graduates (aaug); American-Arab AntiDiscrimination Committee (adc); Arab American Institute (aai); Oral History Association (oha); and Immigration History Research Center (ihrc) at the University of Minnesota. The front cover is based on a design by Emily S. Boosahda. Finally, my sincere thanks to all those unnamed others, too many to be named personally, who encouraged me to continue, who supplied ideas, and took the time to carry on useful discussions, thereby helping me through the completion of this book. The many participants, named and unnamed, gave me confidence to soar beyond my expectations. ...

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