Summary
A village in the Ramallah area of the West Bank from which the preponderance of Chicago’s post-1948 Palestinian Muslim immigrants came (Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile, PDF p.57).
Details
- The Children of Beitunia Club was organized in Chicago in 1924 to retain place-based identity, resist assimilation and pool immigrant resources for the village; after the war of 1948 it renamed itself the Arab Club, reflecting a growing pan-Arab sensibility, and in the early 1950s sent $20,000 to Beitunia to build an elementary school (PDF p.58).
- The Arab Club, created by immigrants from Beitunia, held occasional meetings in the Nation of Islam’s “Negro Muslim Temple” at 824 East 43rd Street in Chicago (al-Tahir 1952, as cited) (PDF p.54).
- Imm ‘Umar’s father returned to Beitunia to marry in 1947, after arriving in Chicago in 1939 (PDF p.56).