Hannah Sabbagh Shakir (1895-1990) was a
Lebanese-American
Lebanese Americans ( ar, أمريكيون لبنانيون) are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States of America, as well as immigrants from Lebanon.
Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the ...
businesswoman who co-founded the Lebanese-Syrian Ladies' Aid Society of Boston with 13 other Syrian women, including; Adele Ashook, Adelle Shayab, Rose Handy, Sady Besharra and others. The first President was Sadie Abdelnour. The Society's fundraising events made it a center of social life for Boston's Arabic-speaking community for many years. Shakir was also an entrepreneur who went from working in a factory to owning a successful clothing factory. She is remembered on the
Boston Women's Heritage Trail
The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating w ...
.
Early life
She was born in 1895 in Ain el Rwmmaneh, a small village in the mountains of Lebanon, then within in the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
to George Sabbagh and Marion Ashook.
In 1907, she migrated with her family to the United States. At the age of fourteen she began working in the textile mills of
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state.
Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...
.
She said in an interview later, "We made gingham. I learned to operate the looms, six big looms, just like a man. I did it very well."
As a young woman she worked as a stitcher in a Boston textile factory.
Lebanese-Syrian Ladies' Aid Society
On November 13, 1917, Hannah Sabbagh Shakir and 12 other immigrant women from St. George's Orthodox Church formed a group called the Society for the Relief of Syria and Lebanon. The original aim was to provide aid to people in their homeland who were suffering from hunger, terror, and disease in the wake of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The women went door-to-door recruiting members, and within a week their ranks had grown to more than 250. Members were mostly from Mount Lebanon, Beirut, and Damascus, and included
Maronites
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the largest ...
and
Melkites
The term Melkite (), also written Melchite, refers to various Eastern Christian churches of the Byzantine Rite and their members originating in the Middle East. The term comes from the common Central Semitic root ''m-l-k'', meaning "royal", and ...
as well as
Orthodox Christians
Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion.
Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churc ...
. As more and more refugees arrived in the United States, the women decided to focus on helping needy Syrian and Lebanese people in the Boston area, and in July 1918 they renamed the group the Syrian Ladies' Aid Society of Boston.
(At the time, Arabic-speaking immigrants were usually referred to as Syrians, since most of them came from the
Ottoman Province of Syria, which included what is now Lebanon, most of Jordan, Palestine/Israel, and Syria.)
To raise funds, the women put collection boxes in local stores, sold and raffled off their own handmade lace and embroidery, and organized dances, rummage sales, plays, picnics, and other activities. With the proceeds, they supplied poor families with milk, coal, and other aid, such as a pair of eyeglasses for a young girl.
They held their first meetings in rooms provided by St. George's Church. By May 1920 they were able to rent their own flat.
In addition to fundraising, the women visited the sick in hospitals, marched in parades, and hosted prominent speakers such as
Abraham Mitrie Rihbany
Abraham Dimitri Rihbany known as Abraham Mitrie Rihbany ( ar, أبراهام متري الرحباني; sometimes spelled ''Rahbany'') was an American theologian, philologist and historian of Greek Orthodox Lebanese descent.
"''In debt and nea ...
and
Kahlil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...
. Men who paid dues were also admitted as honorary members, and helped out in various ways. By the mid-1920s the club had 400 members and was headquartered at 101 Tyler Street—next door to
Denison House, the neighborhood
settlement house
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...
.
In 1929, the Society bought a house at 44 West Newton Street. Following the stock market crash of 1929, the Society served as an informal employment agency and provided financial aid to the families of the unemployed.
In 1962 the club was renamed the Lebanese-Syrian Ladies' Aid Society. Membership began to decline in the 1960s. As of 2017 it still existed as a
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organization based in
Westwood, Massachusetts
Westwood is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,266 at the time of the 2020 United States Census.
History
Westwood was first settled in 1641 and was part of the town of Dedham, originally called 'West De ...
.
The records of the Society from 1917-2005 are on file at the
Schlesinger Library
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director ...
,
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...
,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.
Other records are included in the Evelyn Shakir Collection at the
Arab American National Museum
The Arab American National Museum (AANM, ar, المتحف الوطني العربي الأمريكي) opened in 2005 and is the first museum in the world devoted to Arab American history and culture. Located in Dearborn, Michigan, the Museum se ...
Archives.
Business
In the 1920s, Hannah and her brother Naseeb started a small apron factory in
East Boston
East Boston, nicknamed Eastie, is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts annexed by the city of Boston in 1637. Neighboring communities include Winthrop, Revere, and Chelsea. It is separated from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown and do ...
, where they were living at the time. After some initial success, they made the mistake of moving to downtown Boston, where the high rent drove them out of business. For the next twenty years she worked for other people.
In 1944 she opened her own textile factory, Parkway Manufacturing in
West Roxbury, Boston
West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to the ...
, which employed fifteen people and manufactured women's clothing for thirty years.
She retired at the age of 71 and died on April 22, 1990.
Shakir's daughter,
Evelyn Shakir, was a pioneer in the field of
Arab American literature.
Evelyn Shakir included her mother's history with those of other Arab-American women in her scholarly work, ''Bint Arab: Arab and Arab American women in the United States''.
See also
*
Woman's club movement
The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part ...
*
Saturday Evening Girls
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakir, Hannah Sabbagh
1895 births
1990 deaths
American women in business
American women philanthropists
Philanthropists from Massachusetts
Clubwomen
Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States
People from West Roxbury, Boston
20th-century American philanthropists
20th-century American women
20th-century American people
20th-century women philanthropists