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PROFILE: JOSEPH HAIEK, FIGHTING FOR AMERICAN ARAB RIGHTS
The Arab Daily News
March 11 2014
By Ray Hanania
Joseph R. Haiek immigrated to the United States right after the
1967 Arab-Israeli war after his city, Jerusalem, was occupied by
Israeli forces.
But no American Arab has done more to embrace his newfound nation
of America more than Joe Haiek, who in 2011 was recognized with the
Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his distinction as a proud American
who has never forgotten his roots.
Born in 1932 in Jerusalem, Haiek came to America with his family and
his wife, Teresa who passed away last year. Teresa Haiek was Armenian
and she spoke several languages, including Arabic, English, Armenian
and Italian.
"She was my inspiration always pushing me to do what I could to
help our community," Haiek said about his late wife. "She always
supported me in my efforts to tell our story not just to Americans
but to American Arabs, too."
Haiek said he has no regrets about not becoming a doctor or a lawyer.
Instead, his first job was in an advertising agency in Los Angeles,
where his family settled in the 1960s. Haiek said he was always
surprised at how little American knew about Arabs, so he rolled up
his sleeves and started working on telling the Arab story.
"I came to the United States for the same reasons many people came
to the United States. I was an immigrant escaping conflict. We were
having problems in Palestine and there was the fighting between
Jews and Arabs. I came here with my family he four of us, plus my
father-in-law and mother-in-law," Haeik, 82, remembers.
"I found work at an advertising agency, starting in the mail room.
Eventually, they promoted me into accounting."
Haiek said he was impressed with the professional of communications,
advertising and journalism and in June 1972, while still working at
the advertising agency during the day, spent his nights and weekends
putting together the first issue of the News Circle Magazine, which
focused on American Arabs and the history of Arabs in America.
In 1974, Haiek took it one step further, publishing the first edition
of the must-read Arab American Almanac which was only 96 pages. In
1978, Haiek founded the Arab American Historical Foundation to
support the Almanac. In 1992, the Almanac grew to 448 pages. And it
has continued to grow ever since.
In 2011, Haiek published the 6th edition of the Arab American Almanac,
which grew to more than 608 pages of detailed information of the
history of Arab settlement in America, pictures from American Arab
communities and people, and profiles and biographies of famous Arabs
in America.
"It never failed from the day I lived her until now, Americans will
come up to me and ask, 'Did Arab serve in the military to defend
America?' I would say of course we did. Do you not know John Abizaid,
who was the former head of the U.S. Central Command during the war
in Iraq?" Haeik said still amazed at how little Americans know about
Arab history in this country.
Former commander of the US Central Command John Abizaid, an alumnus
of University of Jordan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Haiek can recite name and instance of many great Americans and was
proud to remind the public that Arabs have been active in the American
military going back many generations. There is Korean War hero, U.S.
Air Force Col. James Jabara. World War II Army officer Maj. Gen. Fred
Safay who fought alongside Gen. George S. Patton. There was Brig. Gen.
Elias Stevens who served on the staff of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower,
who later became a U.S. President. In 1944, one of our Navy's ships,
the destroyer escort USS Naifeh, was named in honor of an Arab American
hero Navy Lt. Alfred Naifeh from Oklahoma.
Retired Brigadier General James J. David served as Company Commander
of the famous 101st Airborne Division's "Screaming Eagles" during
the Vietnam war in 1969 and 1970. More recently, West Point graduate
and retiredfour-star Gen. George Joulwan was the NATO Supreme Allied
Commander of Europe overseeing European and U.S. troops. And there
is Brig. Gen. William J. Jabour, the director of the U.S. Air Force
Program Executive Office for Fighter and Bomber programs in charge
of the F-22 System Program Office (SPO).
While many Americans don't know these basic facts, worse, Haiek says,
is that many American Arabs don't know those facts either.
The Arab American Almanac is available online from the Arab American
Heritage Foundation's website at www.ArabAmericanHistory.org. The
Almanac is only $39 and is packed with information about the history
of American Arabs.
Haiek is also an advisory board member of the Arab American National
Museum, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Arab
American Press Guild.
In May 2011, Haiek received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his
contributions to his community and the nation. The prestigious honor
is recognized by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and
recipients are listed in the U.S. Congressional Record. The medal was
established in 1986 by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations,
whose mission is to foster respect and understanding among religious
and ethnic groups and to honor and preserve the cultural diversity
that makes the United States a strong nation.
"Arab Americans are independent," Haiek said at the awards ceremony.
"They are proud of being Americans -- and one of them is me."
Haeik today is retired, disappointed only in the fact that the Arab
community has not changed from the disorganization of the 1960s to
the disorganization of today.
"It was a lot of work to start a news magazine. We started with heavy
distribution in the Los Angeles area and then we slowly started to
expand to Washington D.C, then Chicago and then to other cities. We
received lots of encouragement from people from around the country,
but it was very hard to get support," Haiek concedes.
"The failure of the community is that they can never come together
as one strong voice. I lived with it all my life. They just don't care.
They could come together and be a very strong community."
Haiek said he dealt with the rivalries and divisions throughout
his life.
"I remember one day a doctor came to me and asked why I put his photo
below the photo of another Arab American. They were on the same page
but he didn't care. He wanted to be above the other person. That was
the mentality of our community that we faced then and we face today.
We focus on insignificant things instead of what's important,"
Haiek observes.
Haiek says he is most perplexed by the divisions that exist between
Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, and the lack of recognition of
Christian Arabs throughout.
"So many Americans come up to me and ask if I am Christian, or am I
Muslim? I said I am Christian. They say, why are you saying you come
from Palestine if you are Christian? That is a Muslim country. I tell
them Jesus is from Palestine," Haiek says with a sardonic laugh.
"People would come up to me and asked me why I have a cross on the
door of my home? I said, because we are Christian. We are the original
Christians. Christianity came before Islam and they adopted Arabic
to print their Quran. As a Christian we love Muslims. Muslims and
Christians work together. We have made great contributions to each
other. Yet, we don't always work together."
Haiek praised Muslims and said Muslims and Christians can do a better
job of coming together to promote Arab heritage, culture and issues.
"We can be so much stronger if we would all work together and if we
didn't get so upset about silly issues that separate us. We have so
much that brings us together, yet the little differences are what
sometimes keep us apart," he says.
Haiek says he continues even in his late retirement to distribute
the Arab American Almanac which showcases the great success stories
of Arabs, Muslims and Christians in our community.
"The most important issue that I am concerned about is to distribute
the Arab American Almanac. We still have some copies in stock and
I would like to get them out to our community so that our community
knows its history. Many in our community don't even really know who
we are or who they are themselves," he says.
"I never regret becoming a journalist. I am proud of what I have done
and I served the community with the little means we had. I wish the
community would recognize how powerful we could be if we did a better
job publishing our views and stories."
Haiek acknowledges that many Arabs fail to recognize the power that
exists in being involved in the news media and in supporting the Arab
American news media.
He helped found the Arab American Press Guild in Los Angeles in 1985
and the group continues to meet on the last Thursday of every month.
"We bring speakers and host events but so many in our community don't
even know we exist and don't participate," Haiek says.
"The largest concentration of Arab American press is right here in Los
Angeles but they don't work together. In our community, people won't
support a good cause because someone they don't like is involved or at
the event or publishing a newspaper. We don't have a television show
and we don't have radio but we have six or seven newspapers. We don't
support each other. We divide each other. We don't come together."
http://thearabdailynews.com/2014/03/10/profile-joseph-haiek-fighting-american-arab-rights/
From: A. Papazian
The Arab Daily News
March 11 2014
By Ray Hanania
Joseph R. Haiek immigrated to the United States right after the
1967 Arab-Israeli war after his city, Jerusalem, was occupied by
Israeli forces.
But no American Arab has done more to embrace his newfound nation
of America more than Joe Haiek, who in 2011 was recognized with the
Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his distinction as a proud American
who has never forgotten his roots.
Born in 1932 in Jerusalem, Haiek came to America with his family and
his wife, Teresa who passed away last year. Teresa Haiek was Armenian
and she spoke several languages, including Arabic, English, Armenian
and Italian.
"She was my inspiration always pushing me to do what I could to
help our community," Haiek said about his late wife. "She always
supported me in my efforts to tell our story not just to Americans
but to American Arabs, too."
Haiek said he has no regrets about not becoming a doctor or a lawyer.
Instead, his first job was in an advertising agency in Los Angeles,
where his family settled in the 1960s. Haiek said he was always
surprised at how little American knew about Arabs, so he rolled up
his sleeves and started working on telling the Arab story.
"I came to the United States for the same reasons many people came
to the United States. I was an immigrant escaping conflict. We were
having problems in Palestine and there was the fighting between
Jews and Arabs. I came here with my family he four of us, plus my
father-in-law and mother-in-law," Haeik, 82, remembers.
"I found work at an advertising agency, starting in the mail room.
Eventually, they promoted me into accounting."
Haiek said he was impressed with the professional of communications,
advertising and journalism and in June 1972, while still working at
the advertising agency during the day, spent his nights and weekends
putting together the first issue of the News Circle Magazine, which
focused on American Arabs and the history of Arabs in America.
In 1974, Haiek took it one step further, publishing the first edition
of the must-read Arab American Almanac which was only 96 pages. In
1978, Haiek founded the Arab American Historical Foundation to
support the Almanac. In 1992, the Almanac grew to 448 pages. And it
has continued to grow ever since.
In 2011, Haiek published the 6th edition of the Arab American Almanac,
which grew to more than 608 pages of detailed information of the
history of Arab settlement in America, pictures from American Arab
communities and people, and profiles and biographies of famous Arabs
in America.
"It never failed from the day I lived her until now, Americans will
come up to me and ask, 'Did Arab serve in the military to defend
America?' I would say of course we did. Do you not know John Abizaid,
who was the former head of the U.S. Central Command during the war
in Iraq?" Haeik said still amazed at how little Americans know about
Arab history in this country.
Former commander of the US Central Command John Abizaid, an alumnus
of University of Jordan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Haiek can recite name and instance of many great Americans and was
proud to remind the public that Arabs have been active in the American
military going back many generations. There is Korean War hero, U.S.
Air Force Col. James Jabara. World War II Army officer Maj. Gen. Fred
Safay who fought alongside Gen. George S. Patton. There was Brig. Gen.
Elias Stevens who served on the staff of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower,
who later became a U.S. President. In 1944, one of our Navy's ships,
the destroyer escort USS Naifeh, was named in honor of an Arab American
hero Navy Lt. Alfred Naifeh from Oklahoma.
Retired Brigadier General James J. David served as Company Commander
of the famous 101st Airborne Division's "Screaming Eagles" during
the Vietnam war in 1969 and 1970. More recently, West Point graduate
and retiredfour-star Gen. George Joulwan was the NATO Supreme Allied
Commander of Europe overseeing European and U.S. troops. And there
is Brig. Gen. William J. Jabour, the director of the U.S. Air Force
Program Executive Office for Fighter and Bomber programs in charge
of the F-22 System Program Office (SPO).
While many Americans don't know these basic facts, worse, Haiek says,
is that many American Arabs don't know those facts either.
The Arab American Almanac is available online from the Arab American
Heritage Foundation's website at www.ArabAmericanHistory.org. The
Almanac is only $39 and is packed with information about the history
of American Arabs.
Haiek is also an advisory board member of the Arab American National
Museum, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Arab
American Press Guild.
In May 2011, Haiek received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his
contributions to his community and the nation. The prestigious honor
is recognized by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and
recipients are listed in the U.S. Congressional Record. The medal was
established in 1986 by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations,
whose mission is to foster respect and understanding among religious
and ethnic groups and to honor and preserve the cultural diversity
that makes the United States a strong nation.
"Arab Americans are independent," Haiek said at the awards ceremony.
"They are proud of being Americans -- and one of them is me."
Haeik today is retired, disappointed only in the fact that the Arab
community has not changed from the disorganization of the 1960s to
the disorganization of today.
"It was a lot of work to start a news magazine. We started with heavy
distribution in the Los Angeles area and then we slowly started to
expand to Washington D.C, then Chicago and then to other cities. We
received lots of encouragement from people from around the country,
but it was very hard to get support," Haiek concedes.
"The failure of the community is that they can never come together
as one strong voice. I lived with it all my life. They just don't care.
They could come together and be a very strong community."
Haiek said he dealt with the rivalries and divisions throughout
his life.
"I remember one day a doctor came to me and asked why I put his photo
below the photo of another Arab American. They were on the same page
but he didn't care. He wanted to be above the other person. That was
the mentality of our community that we faced then and we face today.
We focus on insignificant things instead of what's important,"
Haiek observes.
Haiek says he is most perplexed by the divisions that exist between
Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, and the lack of recognition of
Christian Arabs throughout.
"So many Americans come up to me and ask if I am Christian, or am I
Muslim? I said I am Christian. They say, why are you saying you come
from Palestine if you are Christian? That is a Muslim country. I tell
them Jesus is from Palestine," Haiek says with a sardonic laugh.
"People would come up to me and asked me why I have a cross on the
door of my home? I said, because we are Christian. We are the original
Christians. Christianity came before Islam and they adopted Arabic
to print their Quran. As a Christian we love Muslims. Muslims and
Christians work together. We have made great contributions to each
other. Yet, we don't always work together."
Haiek praised Muslims and said Muslims and Christians can do a better
job of coming together to promote Arab heritage, culture and issues.
"We can be so much stronger if we would all work together and if we
didn't get so upset about silly issues that separate us. We have so
much that brings us together, yet the little differences are what
sometimes keep us apart," he says.
Haiek says he continues even in his late retirement to distribute
the Arab American Almanac which showcases the great success stories
of Arabs, Muslims and Christians in our community.
"The most important issue that I am concerned about is to distribute
the Arab American Almanac. We still have some copies in stock and
I would like to get them out to our community so that our community
knows its history. Many in our community don't even really know who
we are or who they are themselves," he says.
"I never regret becoming a journalist. I am proud of what I have done
and I served the community with the little means we had. I wish the
community would recognize how powerful we could be if we did a better
job publishing our views and stories."
Haiek acknowledges that many Arabs fail to recognize the power that
exists in being involved in the news media and in supporting the Arab
American news media.
He helped found the Arab American Press Guild in Los Angeles in 1985
and the group continues to meet on the last Thursday of every month.
"We bring speakers and host events but so many in our community don't
even know we exist and don't participate," Haiek says.
"The largest concentration of Arab American press is right here in Los
Angeles but they don't work together. In our community, people won't
support a good cause because someone they don't like is involved or at
the event or publishing a newspaper. We don't have a television show
and we don't have radio but we have six or seven newspapers. We don't
support each other. We divide each other. We don't come together."
http://thearabdailynews.com/2014/03/10/profile-joseph-haiek-fighting-american-arab-rights/
From: A. Papazian