CHICAGO — Celebrating food and culture, a thriving Arab American community united at the Lebanese Food Festival on September 4 in a suburb of one the country’s most abundant Arab populated cities – Chicago.

Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church’s eighth annual three-day cultural festival was attended by an estimated 5,000 diverse Arab Americans, as Lebanese, Egyptians, Maronites, Muslims and others gathered to celebrate a common sentiment for food, music, dabke and hookah. 

“We’re celebrating our heritage,” said the church’s Father Pierre Albalaa. “People of all different religions, family backgrounds– they’re here tonight. That’s why we’re so excited about this festival.”

He added that although the festival began as a means for the parish and other Arab Christians to come together, it has expanded and evolved into a mechanism bringing together the large but spread out Illinois Arab community. 

A blend of barbeque and fresh bread filled the festival’s atmosphere. Food vendors reminiscent of Lebanese street markets filled the festival grounds and surrounded a stage, where musicians like Lebanese singer Doris Farhat entertained a joyous crowd. 

The mana’eesh, a popular Levantine pie, was among the most loved foods at the festival.

“It’s nice to get the community together and just to see a lot of Lebanese people,” said Hussein Adra, a software consultant attending the event. “The mana’eesh are amazing– the dancing and the argileh are just awesome. It’s a great time.”

Wesley Wam, a Chinese American university student who has attended the festival for four years, said although he goes to many festivals, the Lebanese Food Festival is his favorite one because all of his friends are Arab and he “loves the people here.” The mana’eesh was also his favorite food there. 

Saturday night’s festivities culminated into a popularly-attended belly dance show, as a large, enticed crowd circled around three performers dancing to traditional belly dancing music.

An Egyptian event volunteer, who chose to be called Imad, was wearing a t-shirt that said “Just an Egyptian living in an Illinois world”, illustrating many Arab Americans’ attitudes about their settlement in a foreign land – a struggle to embrace a new American culture, while holding on to their own. 

Imad said he is a Maronite and attended church back home. When his family moved to Illinois, they found the Our Lady of Lebanon Church and have attended their services since. The volunteer said he feels welcome in the States, as he knows many Arabs where he lives. 

“I’ve lived all my life in the Chicago community,” said a church administrator. “And the Arabic community is spread out throughout all the suburbs.” He added that most Arab Americans in the area reside within about a 45 mile radius of Chicago. 

Two high school church-goers, who preferred not to be named, also said Arab Americans in the area are spread out and pointed out that many of their parish members live at least a half an hour to an hour away. Some drive two hours to get to the church.  

Ayman Wahab, a Lebanese engineer attending the festival, said it is the only event he knows of in the area where Arab Americans city-wide can gather and celebrate their heritage, noting that he barely interacts with other Arabs during his daily life. 

Wahab, who also raved about the mana’eesh, said being an Arab American is integral to his identity.

“You pick the best from your own culture and you keep it, and you pick the best from the new culture and you take it – that’s what makes you an Arab American,” said Wahab proudly. 

He added that he doesn’t feel homesick. Chicago is his home, because he is allowed to freely express himself and eat the food he likes.

The story of Arabs in Chicagoland, a term that refers to the Chicago Metropolitan area, can be traced back to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition. The fair drew in Arabs traders who found a market to sell their goods. According to “The Encyclopedia of Chicago”, after those traders settled, their families followed and the city’s Arab population grew.

As the Arabs became entrenched in Chicago, Syrian-Lebanese immigrants purchased homes and opened shops on 18th Street and Michigan Avenue. This street became to be known as the “Plymouth Rock” of the Chicago Arab American Community, or “Little Zahlah”, referring to the fourth most populated city in Lebanon.

“You won’t find any camels at 18th and Michigan,” wrote authors Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer of the settlers in their book “Chicago Confidential.”

They described Chicago’s early small Arabic quarter, which was surrounded by auto shops and dealers, native restaurants and rug sellers. Their favorite pastimes, wrote the authors, was drinking Arabic coffee and playing cards.

The first major wave of immigrants, however, arrived during the period spanning the 1800’s to World War I. They consisted of peasants, craftsmen and entrepreneurs. By the end of WWI, the Arab Chicago community consisted of about 3,000 Lebanese and Syrians, according to Ray Hanania’s book “Arabs of Chicagoland.”

The second wave of immigration— in the wake of the Lebanese civil war— dramatically increased the Arab population in Chicago. Newcomers to “The Windy City” sought to escape political and economic turmoil. More recently, a large population of students in search of professional degrees have added to the increasing number and diversity of Arabs in the area. 

The largest Arab population in Chicagoland are the Palestinians and Jordanians, who began migrating in the late 19th century. As Israeli military occupation prevailed and families from the West Bank were denied residency and return rights in the late 1960’s, they sought refuge in American cities like Chicago. By the 1970’s, nearly 20 percent of the city’s small retails shops were owned by Palestinians. Today, Hanania estimates that Palestinians form about 60 percent of Chicago’s Arab population.

It is difficult to measure exactly how many Arabs reside in the U.S., because they are not included as a minority designation in the Census. However, the 2010 Census reports about 1.9 million Americans are of Arab descent. The Arab American Institute, however, puts the estimate as high as 3.5 million Arab Americans.

In Illinois, the Census reports about 85,000 people of Arab descent living in the state. The AAI estimates the number to be closer to 256,000 Arab Americans.

The Illinois Arab American community grew by more than 41 percent between 2000 and 2008 and has tripled since 1980, according to the U.S. Census.

The hub of Arab American life in Chicagoland is the city’s Southwest suburbs. Bridgeview, Oak Lawn and Orland Park are the oldest and most established of the area’s Muslim community, writes Hanania.

Since the early waves of immigrants, Arabs in the Chicago area have widened their professional pursuits and gained a strong foothold in the Chicago area’s business and political affairs. Immigrant students, for example, attended universities and went on to work as engineers, doctors and pharmacists.

The second wave of immigrant flourished the area with retail, bakery and grocery stores, catering to both the Lebanese and the growing American fondness for Mediterranean food.

Arabs’ establishment in Chicago gave birth to community and ethnic organizations. The Syrian club of Chicago, now the Phoenician Club of Chicago, was established in 1918; the first mosque in Chicago opened its doors in 1956, creating controversy following a newspaper article in the Chicago Tribune; and an Arab community center was established in the 1990’s.

Lebanese Maronites also founded a club in 1948, which raised funds for the Our Lady of Lebanon Church.

The late actor and comedian Danny Thomas (born Muzyad Yakhoob), who formerly attended the church, established the largest childhood cancer research center in the United States in 1962. 

Today, there are 33 cultural and professional Arab American organizations serving and representing Arab Americans in the Chicago area, according to Allied Media Corp., an ethnic outreach and PR firm.