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Arab American Heritage Month

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Mandala artwork representing Arab American culture

Celebrate Arab American Heritage Month!

The City of Hillsboro is proud to celebrate the culture, contributions, and local community of Arab Americans.

In 2021, Arab American Heritage Month became federally recognized with a designation by the State Department. In July of the same year, Oregon became the second state in the country to permanently recognize Arab American Heritage Month. In 2023, President Biden became the first president to make a proclamation designating April as National Arab American Heritage Month.

Celebrate this diverse, rich culture by exploring the events, information, and resources below.

Notice:
Many of the links included in the following content sections are to third party websites. The City of Hillsboro does not endorse any of the following products or services and the quality of each website will vary.

Events

“We are stronger when we listen and smarter when we share.”

— Queen Rania Al Abdullah

Making a Difference

Meet four notable Arab Americans who made incredible advancements in science, environmental issues, and activism to create positive impacts in our world today.

Profiles of these notable scientists, educators, engineers, architects, and advocates, and will be on display at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve through the month of April. You can also read them below.

Library Books & Movies

Honor the past, celebrate the present, and inspire the future with these recommendations for all age groups from Hillsboro Public Library.

Kids & Teens

Adults

Arabic Storytime: Meet the Storyteller

Bushra Ayoub Presents Arabic Storytime

Bushra Ayoub showcases a book at Arabic Storytime From Bushra: International Storytime in Hillsboro Public Library is a wonderful program and one of my favorites. I’m thankful to Hillsboro public library for supporting foreign languages, cultures and community engagement. Just like any other storytelling, the purpose of the Arabic Storytime is to engage the creativity of all my participants mainly young ones, promote community engagement and bonding, conveying the middle eastern culture, and values.

Arabic language is one of the fundamental languages in the world. Hence, teaching our young children Arabic is essential to the U.S. engagement with the world. Arabic can be introduced to my audience through singing the alphabet song, playing games, reading books in Arabic/English during Storytime and simple art.

Learning foreign language will increase our children’s social skills, in addition to opening a door for them to continue learning Arabic as a foreign language and increase their career opportunities in the future.

I feel satisfied when I bring my community together, especially families with young children. Arabic speaking families are thankful to the library for offering Storytime in Arabic language. In fact, I found the program so supportive to teach my young children Arabic.

I highly encourage any person from our community who can speak a foreign language to dedicate a time to join the storyteller volunteers and bring more stories in foreign languages to our beloved community.

Bushra has been telling stories in Arabic & English at Brookwood Library for more than a year. She and her family have been regular visitors at the Brookwood and Shute Park libraries for over 12 years.

Thank You

Bushra would like to give a big thanks to Mary Davis, Karen Hayes, Paula, Melissa Pebly and her team, and all the librarians who inspired her and her kids through telling stories and doing related art. She would also like to give a shout out to another great program offered by Hillsboro Library, Discovery Storytime with Rob Polivka.

Thank you to WCCLS for bringing International Storytimes to our community. The Library hopes to eventually have Storytimes in all of the most commonly spoken languages in Hillsboro. With English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Mandarin, Romanian and Ukrainian so far, their goal is almost reached!

Lectura en español

History & Culture

Arab Americans in the U.S.

Arab heritage reflects a culture that is thousands of years old and includes 22 Arab countries.

According to the Arab American Institutes:

There are approximately 3.7 million Arab Americans in the U.S.
Most Arab Americans have ancestral ties to Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq.
The majority of Arab Americans are native-born, and 85% of Arabs in the U.S. are citizens.
The number of Americans who claim Arab ancestry has nearly quadrupled since the Census Bureau first measured ethnic origin in 1980 and is among the fastest growing Arab diaspora populations in the world. The number of Arab Americans grew by nearly 30% between 2010 and 2022.
The largest number of new Arab immigrants to the United States between 2010 and 2022 came from Iraq, Egypt, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria.

Museums

Smithsonian

"In 1962, Dr. Alixa Naff set out to tell the story of Arab American immigrants from Syria and Lebanon. In addition to investigating an area that had received little scholarly attention, her use of oral history as the basis of the research was innovative. In 1984, Naff donated her collection including the oral histories, archival materials, and artifacts to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

You can read about her in "Voices from the past: Arab American Oral Histories" and explore items from her collection and others related to Arab American history and culture from across the Smithsonian."

Explore the Smithsonian collection celebrating Arab American Heritage Month.

Arab American National Museum

"The Arab American National Museum (AANM) is the first and only museum of its kind in the United States devoted to recording the Arab American experience. It serves as a touchstone that connects communities to Arab American culture and experiences.

Since opening in 2005, AANM’s goal has been to document, preserve and present the history, culture and contributions of Arab Americans. Our exhibitions cover the Arab world and the history of Arab Americans from the first immigrants who arrived in the late 19^th century to today."

Visit the Arab American National Museum website to learn more about the diverse lives and histories of Arab Americans.

Explore Arab American Cuisine

Food & Recipes

From above photo of Moroccan Tagine, a vegetable stew. Image provided by the Mediterranean Dish website

Photo provided by the Mediterranean Dish website.

Food and celebration plays an important role in Arab culture. Arab cuisine incorporates lean proteins, healthy fats, vegetables, and grains into almost every dish, making it one of the healthiest diets in the world.

PBS Arab American Food Traditions

Enjoy this excerpt where author and historian Edward Curtis explores his Arab American heritage in the kitchen, cooking traditional dishes such as dolmas, tabbouleh, tagine, and more.

PBS Arab American Food Traditions

Learn to Cook Tagine

Learn how to cook the Moroccan classic dish Tagine, and many more Arabic dishes at the Mediterranean Dish.

Tagine Recipe —The Mediterranean Dish

Restaurants

Hillsboro

Gyro Spot

320 SE Baseline St
Hillsboro, OR 97123

Visit the Gyro Spot website.

Mama's Shwarma

233 E Main St.
Hillsboro, OR 97123

Visit the Mama's Shwarma Instagram page.

Monte Gyro

7343 NE Imbrie Dr.
Hillsboro, OR 97124

Order from Monte Gyro on Clover.

Oasis Lebanese Cuisine

7109 NE Imbrie Dr
Hillsboro, OR 97124

Visit the Oasis Lebanese Cuisine website.

Salam Restaurant

Lebanese and Persian Cuisine

1002 NE Orenco Station Pkwy
Hillsboro, OR 97124

Visit the Salam Restaurant website.

Sesame Donuts

2401 NE Cornell Road
Hillsboro, OR 97124

727 SW 185th Ave
Beaverton, OR 97006

Visit the Sesame Donuts website.

Twisted Gyros

2301 NE Cornell Road, Suite P
Hillsboro, OR 97124

Visit the Twisted Gyros website.

Portland

Middle Eastern Eateries in Portland

Explore the City's top Middle Eastern restaurants on Travel Portland.

Al Hawr

Lebanese Cuisine

3500 S River Pkwy
Portland, OR 97239

Visit the Al Hawr website.

DarSalam

Iraqi Cuisine

320 SW Alder St
Portland, OR 97204

Visit the DarSalam website.

Hoda's Lebanese Restaurant & Catering

3401 SE Belmont St.
Portland, OR 97214

Visit the Hoda's website.

Karam Restaurant and Bar

Lebanese Cuisine

1111 SW Jefferson St
Portland, OR 97205

Visit the Karam website.

Mama Khouri's

808 N. Williams Ave. #123
Portland, OR, 97227

Marrakesh

Moroccan Cuisine

1201 NW 21st Ave
Portland, OR 97209

Visit the Marrakesh website.

Nicholas Restaurant

Lebanese and Mediterranean Cuisine

1109 SE Madison St
Portland, OR 97214

Visit the Nicholas website.

Queen Mama's Kitchen

Saudi Arabian

Multiple Locations

Visit the Queen Mama's Kitchen website.

Ya Hala Lebanese Cuisine

8005 SE Stark St
Portland, OR 97215

Visit the Ya Hala website.

Catering

Grocery Stores

Beaverton

Aloha Halal

17937 SW Tualatin Valley Hwy
Beaverton, OR 97006

Visit the Aloha Halal website.

Bazaar Food Market

10255 SW Canyon Rd
Beaverton, OR 97005

Cedar Halal Market

4255 SW Cedar Hills Blvd
Beaverton, OR 97005

Mingala International Market

11527 SW Canyon Rd
Beaverton, OR 97005

Portland

Bhai's Meat Market

3172 Northwest 185th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97229

World Foods Portland

Multiple Locations

Visit the World Foods Portland website.

Resources

Advocacy & Community Organizations

Educational Resources

Business & Sales Coaching

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The City of Hillsboro is committed to instilling diversity, equity, and inclusion as essential parts of policy-making and the delivery of City services. Learn more about our equity work and browse our Celebrating Culture series through the buttons below.

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