Special thanks to Global Clevleand and last night’s panel: Pierre Bejjani, Dr. Ahmad Bana, and Leen Midani
Last night, for an hour or so here at the Maltz Museum, the antidote to our country’s state of conflict felt shockingly, impossibly simple. How do we overcome fear and mistrust? We meet people, we talk to them and we become familiar with their dress, their food, their way of interacting with the world. We open our hearts and minds. In short, we connect. Because, as Dr. Ahmad Bana noted last night, “As humans, we should help each other.”
Thanks to the efforts of Global Cleveland President Joe Cimperman and our very own Education and Public Programs Director Jeffery Allen, this was the launch of a series of conversations on the realities of immigration. Four diverse members of Northeast Ohio’s Arab commun
ity—the second largest immigrant community in Cleveland—came together to talk about the assets and challenges of our region as a place to settle. Among them, Leen Midani, a Syrian immigrant who fled her country in 2014 and is now enrolled at Cleveland State University, volunteers as a translator to help new refugees get settled here. She talked about how inspiring the individuals she meets are—their hope and determination, their excitement to start a productive life free of bombs and torture. Midani urged the audience to take the opportunity to meet some of these people, to understand who they are and why they are here. Clearly, this alone would eliminate so much fear and suspicion and go a long way toward making our community a welcoming place for immigrants. Why is this important? Because it’s our future—we can accomplish so much more together. After all, as the Museum’s An American Story exhibit illustrates, Cleveland’s greatness was built on immigrants’ desire and determination to build new lives.
