Midwest Mahjar: The Recorded Sounds of the Arabic-Speaking Diaspora in the United States at 78 RPM

Saint Elias Syrian Orthodox Choral Society We know very little about those who recorded on the set, but the Saint Elias Syrian Orthodox Choral Society was a part of the Saint Elias Syrian Orthodox Church in Toledo, Ohio.   It was established in around 1938, after the congregation of Saint George Orthodox Church split over the question of who the next Archbishop of the North American Archdiocese would be. The Syrian and Lebanese American founders of Saint Elias Syrian Orthodox Church favored Rev. Antony Bashir over Reverends Samuel David and Agapios Golam as North American Archbishop. After their break from Saint George, their new church building caught fire and they were forced to construct a new building. Hostility between to two congregations ran deeply. Families who were neighbors, once worshiped together, and whose children played together, stopped speaking and avoided one another when walking the neighborhood. The animosity continued for decades...