OUR FAMILY STORY
Across the ocean.
Always connected to home.
In 1912, Hussein Haidar’s grandfather journeyed from Lebanon through Greece to Ellis Island. Like many young men of his generation, he left to escape compulsory military service under Ottoman rule and to support his family through difficult times.
He settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he worked in shipbuilding. Back in Lebanon, his new bride waited for him. Ten years later, he returned home, and together they raised eight children.
His portrait, taken in New York in 1920, preserves a moment from that journey. It remains a treasured part of AFS’s family story—a tribute to courage, perseverance and the family ties that endure across oceans.
Family history and photograph shared by Hussein Haidar.