Suleman Tahtamoni
Suleman Tahtamoni
Keep up at school. Work hard, keep up with your homework, listen to your teacher and respect everybody in the school. That’s my advice for everyone.
Suleman Tahtamoni
My name is Suleman Tahtamoni. I am a father of four kids. I was born in Jordan, July 28, 1965. I grew up there. I left Jordan when I was 36 years old and I got to the United States. I left my family in Jordan for six years and worked hard in this country to get them here.
I’m from Jordan but my parents are from Palestine, which is Israel right now. In 1948, my whole family—all my relatives—were kicked out of their country and they got to Jordan. As a Jordanian citizen people look at you there as if you are still a refugee, even if you have a passport. My parents came from Palestine and were in the Jordan Valley for 20 years. My family lived in a tent and then a house made of mud. When my father got kicked out of Palestine he had 5,000 acres of land. It’s a lot of land. You could do whatever you want with that land. He went back to zero. It’s not easy for him.
My father, he was a barber. He didn’t have a shop. He had a bike and a small bag with his tools. He was traveling between cities just to do business. My mom was a teacher for UNRWA, which is with the United Nations. My mom passed away in 1998 but my father is still alive and he lives with me now. My father and mother worked for us to be in college.
Why was my family kicked out of Palestine? I wish all people would know the reason for it. Palestine used to be a country before 1948. After World War II, Palestine was under the United Nations control and they gave the right for the Jewish people to have their own country on our land. They kicked us out. We had no power.
It was really sad and really painful to go to the United States and leave my family in Jordan. The first few months whenever I tried to sleep, I couldn’t go to sleep. I had been crying every single night when I go to bed. I never forgot them. They are in my heart, in my mind. Thank God I got them here.
My favorite book is the Koran, which is the holy book for Muslims. That’s my favorite book. All the books that come from God are my favorite. The Bible, for Christians, and the Torah, which is the Jewish book.
For me a big thing is respect and being responsible. If you show respect and manners, people will respect you, will help you and do things for you. So all the time it’s all about respect and manners.
To Live As Family
Honoring Suleman Tahtamoni
To Live as Family
(Honoring Suleman Tahtamoni)
I am a father of two kids
I was born in Jordan
I left Jordan as a young man
To come here
Far away from my family
Working hard to make money
So my kids could get over here
To be with me
From Palestine my family
Grew up in the Jordan Valley
To become refugees
In Jordan when I was born
5,000 acres my family had
They simply came and took the land
If you were I wouldn’t you be mad,
At those who took it from you?
So with a small bag and a bike
To make it, to survive
As a barber, my father would
Cut hair from town to town
My mother she worked, too
At a United Nations school
All the money she made
Sent us to college
From a tent to a house of mud,
After losing the land we loved
To Israel in a war
That seems to never end
Now my mother has passed away
And now I live in the U.S.A.
With my brothers and father, too
With my family
Without respect who are we?
To have respect for the elderly
For the children, no matter who
Christian, Muslim, or Jew
To end all war we must respect
What it is that we have left
To live here, a gift from God
To live as family
Music by LARRY LONG. Words by LARRY LONG with Ms. Terhaar’s Fourth Grade Class of Forest Elementary, Robbinsdale, Minnesota
© Larry Long 2010 / BMI