Niyū Yūrk

Opening October 4, Niyū Yūrk will explore the often overlooked history of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) immigration to New York City, from the first waves in the late 19th century through to present day. The exhibition examines how New York City has shaped MENA communities as well as their enduring contributions to the city’s cultural landscape, from Yemeni bodegas in Brooklyn to Arab nightclubs along Eighth Avenue.

Through a rich array of materials—including Arab American newspapers, rare books, photographs, digitized music recordings, and film clips—Niyū Yūrk showcases MENA voices, stories, and creative legacies. The exhibit also reflects on The New York Public Library’s evolving role in documenting this community that has never been accounted for in the national census.

Augustus F. Sherman, 1865–1925
Algerian Man from Ellis Island Portraits Series, 1910
Gelatin silver print
Credit: The New York Public Library

Mohamed Juda was among the earliest Algerians documented at Ellis Island. He arrived on April 23, 1910, with three other Algerian men, intending to work for Martin Labe, a Sephardic Algerian merchant in Manhattan’s Syrian colony. This portrait shows Juda before he was denied entry after officials labeled him a “believer in the practice of polygamy,” a charge commonly used at the time to bar Muslim immigrants to the United States. Although being a Christian often facilitated one’s entry and access to citizenship, the 1891 Immigration Act prohibited “polygamists, or persons who admit their belief in the practice of polygamy,” posing a major barrier to Muslim immigration.

Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874–1940
A Syrian Arab at Ellis Island, 1926
Credit: The New York Public Library

Some of the earliest visual documentation of MENA immigrants in New York City was made at Ellis Island in the early 20th century by Augustus Sherman, chief clerk at Ellis Island and avid photographer, and Lewis Hine, a pioneering photojournalist. While they sought to portray the diversity of newcomers, the images were often staged, with names left unrecorded and descriptions frequently inaccurate. The woman pictured here reflects a generation of Syrian women who, though initially a minority within the predominantly male Syrian colony, soon grew in number and influence. Women’s labor was crucial to the community’s survival. Many defied traditional gender roles to support their families, working as peddlers and in factories, and running businesses.

Ai Weiwei, b. 1957
Banner #2 (After Algerian Man by Augustus Sherman, 1910), 2018
Courtesy of Public Art Fund. Originally presented as part of the citywide exhibition Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, presented by Public Art Fund in New York City, October 12, 2017-February 11, 2018.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors was a citywide exhibition of 300 artworks, sculptures, installations, and lamppost banners, displayed across New York City’s five boroughs. It drew attention to the global refugee crisis and the rise of anti-immigrant nationalism in the U.S. and Europe. The series of banners that Ai WeiWei made as part of the 2017-18 exhibition feature images of contemporary refugees alongside historical figures who experienced displacement or were denied entry to the U.S., such as Augustus Sherman’s famous photo Algerian Man. Ai Weiwei, himself once a refugee and a former New Yorker, saw the city’s immigrant communities as central to the project. By taking over public space, the exhibition invited viewers to reflect on the need for boundaries and asked, in the artist’s words, how a “global society [might] emerge from fear, isolation, and self-interest.”

Berenice Abbott, 1898–1991
The Lebanon Restaurant (Syrian), 88 Washington Street
Federal Art Project (New York, N.Y.): Changing New York, 1936
Credit: The New York Public Library

Many early Syrian Americans began as peddlers before establishing themselves as business owners. By 1908, more than 300 Syrian-owned businesses were listed in the Syrian Business Directory of New York, most concentrated along Washington and Rector Streets in the Syrian colony. While this photograph focuses on The Lebanon Restaurant, it also reveals an adjacent music store selling Syrian and Egyptian records. Posters in the window advertise new releases by two of Egypt’s most iconic stars—singer Umm Kulthūm and singer-composer Muhammad Abd al-Wahhāb. Arab New Yorkers remained closely attuned to the latest

Columbia Syrian Arabic Records, 1920
Credit: The New York Public Library

As Middle Eastern American communities grew, so did their desire to recreate the sounds and feelings of home, especially through music. Men and women from present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Turkey, hailing from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish backgrounds, recorded songs and poems that expressed romantic and familial love, faith in God, and longing for homeland. This longing was particularly acute for survivors of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

From the early 20th century, major American record labels such as Victor and Columbia recognized the commercial potential of ethnic music markets in the United States. They signed artists from the Middle East and its diasporas in New York, producing and releasing recordings for immigrant audiences as well as American listeners drawn to these “exotic” sounds. Much of this music featured takht ensembles, small chamber groups built around instruments including the oud, qanun, violin, and nay that fit the 78 RPM record format, unlike longer classical Arabic songs.

By the 1920s, Arab American record labels emerged, including Alexander J. Maloof’s Maloof Phonograph Company and A.J. Macksoud’s Macksoud Phonograph Company. These labels offered a platform for lesser- known artists to experiment and create new music in New York.

Richard Kasbaum (active 1880s)
Photograph of Sir (Sidi) Hassan Ben Ali (1863–1914), undated
Credit: The New York Public Library

Among the more distinctive professions taken up by Middle Eastern and North African immigrants in the U.S. was that of the acrobat. From the 1850s onward, performers from the region appeared in tent shows and vaudeville theaters, capitalizing on their exoticized imagery popularized by world’s fairs. North Africans stood out in particular, with Hassan Ben Ali, an impresario from the outskirts of Marrakech, Morocco, emerging as a leading figure. Active by the 1880s, he toured nationally but gained particular recognition in New York with his troupe of Moroccan acrobats, dancers, musicians, and actors called the Hassan Ben Ali Arabs Co. They performed at the Coney Island venues of Luna Park and Dreamland, and various theaters across the city. This long tradition of Moroccan performance in New York continued into the 20th century through artists like Hassan Ouakrim and Samuel Avital, who performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and off-Broadway productions across the city. Their work extended the lineage of Moroccan performance in the United States.

Alexander Maloof, 1884–1956
“Amerika-ya-Hilwa,” in Oriental Piano Music by Alexander Maloof: Syrian Popular Songs
Maloof Phonograph & Music Co.,
32 Rector Street, New York City, 1924
Credit: The New York Public Library

Born in present-day northern Lebanon, Alexander Maloof (Iskandar Ma‘lūf ) immigrated with his family to New York City, where he became a composer, arranger, pianist, label owner, and conductor.

Maloof engaged both Arab American audiences through Arabic-language piano songbooks, and broader American audiences by composing “Orientalist” music tailored to local tastes. He also composed music for silent films and Broadway, patriotic hymns, and even dances for Adolph Bolm’s Ballet Intime. In 1912, he wrote For Thee, America (Amerika-Ya-Hilwa) and spent years campaigning for it to become the U.S. national anthem. More broadly, the song reflects his enduring efforts to belong to his new homeland. Though never adopted, he advocated for it to be sung in New York schools.

Afīfa Karam, 1883–1924
1921 Character, June (الأخلاق)
New York: The Syrian-American Press: Ya‘qūb Rūfā’īl
Credit: The New York Public Library

Women played a crucial role in shaping the Arabic literary landscape in New York as well as in the Middle East. ‘Afīfa Karam, the first Lebanese American female journalist, was also a prolific novelist and translator. Her work boldly addressed women’s rights and social issues in the community, establishing her as one of the most progressive voices of her era. She contributed regularly Arabic serial publications including al-Akhlāq (Character), an illustrated Arabic magazine of literature and history edited by Lebanese-born Jacob Raphael (Ya‘qūb Rūfā’īl), who actively promoted the writings of female authors.

The Organization of the Arab Students in the U.S.A.
Yearbook for 1958
Credit: The New York Public Library

Formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1952 and later headquartered in New York City, the Organization of the Arab Students (OAS) was the largest and most important activist Arab student group in the United States from the 1950s through the 70s. It initially sought to support Arab American students across the U.S. and improve the “understanding between Americans and Arabs.” It later evolved into an activist group heavily informed by communist groups within the Global South, as well as anti-imperialist and antiracist struggles prominent in the American Black and New Left movements of the period. Among them were the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and later the Black Panthers, which offered powerful models of political organizing.

Engaged with both American civic life and global politics, the OAS also advocated for Arab political unity, educational reform, and constitutional rights. The 1967 Arab- Israeli War marked a turning point, and the Palestinian liberation struggle became central to the organization’s mission. The group’s activism reflected a dual commitment: participation in American civic life and transnational solidarity.

In 1960, for example, the OAS joined the African Students Union in protesting French nuclear tests in Algeria and calling for Algerian independence from France. The 1963 issue of the Yearbook includes a portrait by Pablo Picasso of Djamila Boupacha, an Algerian activist tortured by French forces (seen here, right). Through publications such as the Yearbook, together with demonstrations and conferences, the OAS fostered awareness, resistance, and cross-border alliances that connected Arab students in the U.S. to global movements for justice and decolonization.