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Transcription: [00:27:05]

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} OK,
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} *coughs*
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} But we found out - I found out here that lots of our people don't belong to the Orthodox church, but we felt--
[00:27:16]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} But where do they go to church [inaudible]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} To the Catholic churches, some of them Catholic.
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} Even the- oh I see.
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} Not the Orthodox church.
[00:27:22]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} And I found out, and I work with some very very intelligent, nice class of people to work and organize a club, and we did-
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} What year was this, please?
[00:27:35]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} That I will say in 19- in 1920.
{SPEAKER name="Both"} *Talking over each other*
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} And we organized the first club. We call it "American-Syrian [[???]] fraternity", and that belonged to everyone regardless of the religion, and it was successful.
[00:28:07]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} After that, when our people-you know the families-those people begin to bring their vi- wives from the old country. Most of them came here and they left their lives behind.
[00:28:22]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} Ohh, yeah...
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} [Unintelligible]
[00:28:25]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} They begin to have business, and to start business, and to accumulate a little capital they sent for their wives. And naturally, from then on the number of our community begin to grow, and I grew with it. I watch it. I was doing everything I could-
[00:28:46]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} Now this was in Grand Rapids?
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} That's in Grand Rapids. Well then after a while I began to look a little farther than Grand Rapids.
[00:28:54]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} Mm-hm.
[00:28:55]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} And I began to feel that I should have more or less a little connection between all my people who come from my town in [[??]]
[00:29:07]
Well I organized a club they called it [[Rashaya?]] Unity Club.
[00:29:17]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} Dad belonged to that, didn't he?
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} Yeah, your Dad was — one year he was the [[treasurer?]], and he was good [[??]].
[00:29:23]
Well we had that, and the first convention we held, it was in 1937. It was very successful, the people come from all over.
[00:29:36]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"} Where was it held, here in Grand Rapids?
[00:29:38]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"} In Grand Rapids, yes. They come from all over the United States. We held it in one very nice resort here, they call it White City. [[??]] It's beautiful. Beautiful place, and the people enjoy their [[??]] and we renew our acquaintances and we had wonderful time.
[00:29:57]
And we want — we want our young people to know about their background, that we came from a very good place [[life?]]. And it was successful, even the officers of the city and the state work with us. And they always [[unintelligible]]