-
Conclusion
- The University Press of Kentucky
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Conclusion Family characters from the past can take on larger-than-life personas in the present when people look back. This tendency points toward something largely unaddressed in this work—namely, how people choose to narrate their own lives or those of loved ones. Over time, personal and ancestral tales evolve in line with cultural discourses that transform immigrants and theirclosefamilymembersfromforeignresidents,whoshowsignsoftheold country, into heroic characters. Here, I consider how accounts are framed by a wider discourse that concerns creating and re-creating the “immigrant” or “outsider.” Other themes that cropped up in the tales also receive attention, including how contemporary commerce has mostly erased the local store and how these women managed identities, gender relations, and technology. I close by returning to the relationships forged in this book between mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, grandmothers and granddaughters, aunts and nieces and nephews, and Arabs and Jews. Although none of the Jewish main characters in this book were immigrants themselves, they traveled in immigrant worlds. Sarah and Frances Myers, Gishie Bloomfield, and Rose Moosnick came from immigrant families, and their parents hailed from other lands; Gishie and Rose also had spouses from overseas. Renee Hymson was even further removed from immigration; both her parents were born in the United States. Among the Arab women, Rose Rowady, Manar Shalash, and Sawsan Salem settled in this country after spending their youth overseas; Teresa Isaac and Elsie Nasief were born here. All these women embody, irrespective of their family immigration histories, the ongoing transformation of the immigrant into the local and the native, along with the corresponding changes in discussions about them initiated by those outside their communities and by themselves. 174 arab and jewish women in kentucky Immigrants, particularly those of color and without financial means, have historically been maligned and construed as falling short of racial and class ideals. In the early part of the twentieth century, Jews, Christian Arabs, Italians, and Irish were all commonly considered undesirables who carried on customs that made them unappealing. Today, this conception seems remote and far removed from contemporary celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day and scrumptious meals at Italian restaurants. When people rise into the middle class, racial and ethnic differences become less significant, and stories of difference become less pronounced. Women of different ethnicities grow to be appealing, endearing, or even charming, in contrast to the receptions they received as newcomers. Past poverty, moreover, turns out to be a strength when money is no longer a concern. While a foreign accent or tattered clothes might be considered quaint today, in the past, they served as constant reminders that such people were not native. Likewise, Rose Rowady’s home remedies, brought from Lebanon, are valued today in a way they were not when Rose was alive. Indeed, Mike Rowady readily admits that in his younger years he distrusted his mother’s old-country preparations and preferred prescriptions from doctors. Now he sees his mother’s medicinal proclivity as one of her many talents. Rose was also undocumented until her husband gained U.S. citizenship, at which point his family did too. Mike can talk openly and with pride about his mother’s route from undocumented alien to citizen, as well as her old-country practices, partly because he has been successful and attitudes have changed. Public reactions to ethnic or religious groups are not dissimilar to fashion fads. Both tend to shift, swing, alter, fade, and intensify. Arabs and Jews have not fully moved into the realm of “enchanting” people, even though many have ascended the class hierarchy and many Arab Muslims (unlike earlier Irish and Italian immigrants), both longtime residents and those relatively new to this country, arrived as professionals. Responses remain labile. I should add that current sentiments toward Arab Muslims are not divorced from attitudes toward Jews and Arab Christians; all these people are commonly tied to the Middle East, whether they identify with the region or not. Recall that one Palestinian Christian interviewee wore a cross to dispel the notion that Arabs and Muslims are one and the same. The assimilation model no longer fully applies to people such as [3.238.62.119] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:12 GMT) conclusion 175 Manar and Sawsan, who are rooted in Palestine and Jordan but embrace Kentucky. Unlike previous groups of immigrants, they do not toss aside their own native lands and tongues once they are ensconced in this country ; they make sure that their children know where...