MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from  Syrian Folktales   by Muna Imady      A Brief Overview of Syria   The Syrian Arab Republic occupies an area of 185,000 square km. and has a population of more than 18 million.  It borders Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan and Palestine to the south and Lebanon and the Mediterranean to the west.   Syria also lies along major trade routes linking Africa, Asia and Europe . Since the dawn of civilization, Syria has been a meeting place and a crossroads, where different people, cultures and world empires met.  Syrian soil has witnessed the oldest civilizations on the globe dating back to the fourth millennium B.C., including Mari, Ebla and Ugarit where one the world’s first alphabets was discovered. Syria ’s chief agricultural products are cotton, wheat, barley, different fruits and vegetables, meat, milk and milk products.  Important industrial products include textiles, fertilizer, petroleum products, cement, glass, processed foods, marble

Daybreak Press has published Kan Ya Ma Kan , a new book Muna Imady. Kan Ya Ma Kan is a labor of love and fidelity to the ancient tradition of oral storytelling in Muna Imady’s beloved Syria.  This collection of stories, recipes, games, songs and wisdom meticulously and fervently collected is a gift of love from Muna.  Muna persevered through illness to ensure that these stories and traditions would be preserved despite the war that has scattered Syria’s peoples like seeds throughout the world. Elaine and Susan birthed Muna’s words into the world  to ensure that present and future generations will hear the stories that Muna learned at the feet of her Tete, and collected from the generous people of Syria.     The stories depict clever, resilient and resourceful characters written in a style that lends itself to read alouds in a classroom or library setting.  The bold illustrations are reminiscent of Ed Emberly’s early wood-cuts.  These stories are not whitewashed or sanitized - true

  Honoring Chanukah – A Personal Reflection   (This is the sermon on Chanukah that Steven Steven Greenebaum gave on December 17 th at the Living Interfaith Sanctuary) Chanukah may not be the most pivotal of Jewish holy days but is likely the most universally known. It lasts 8 nights, with an additional candle added every night. In Judaism, the traditional menorah (Jewish candelabra) has 7 candles, but there’s a special menorah just for Chanukah – with room for 8 candles plus the Shamash, the special candle used to light the others. Chanukah also has a hero, Judah the Maccabee, the military leader about whom Fredrick Handel wrote an oratorio, right after writing his world-famous Messiah . That said, what is Chanukah truly about? I take Chanukah seriously, light candles, ponder the holiday, and offer prayers all 8 nights. But it wasn’t always that way. In truth, in my 74 years and counting, Chanukah for me has never seemed to stand still. How I see it keeps changing. This morning, I’d l

We like to think that MSI Press is a family, but sometimes, we have families among our authors. One such family is the Imady family from Damascus, Syria. Elaine Imady, the mother, met her sweetheart in New York and moved with him to his home country of Syria, where she raised three bicultural children. Her love story is told in Road to Damascus . Read more about Elaine and her book HERE .     Muna Imady, the daughter, wrote a beloved and popular book,  Syrian Folktales . Not long after, she died following heart surgery, leaving a mostly finished, unpublished book, Damascus amid the War, due out in August 2020. Elaine and daughter #32, Sausan, put the finishing touches on the book, including a touching memorial to Muna that had been published in the  New York Times . Read more about Muna, her life, and her books  HERE . Dr. Omar Imady, the son, is a professor of political science who has written a number of fiction and non-fiction books about Syria, Middle Ea

  What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  Road to Damascus  by Elaine Imady. Description: Recommended by US Review of Books and First Runner-Up in the Eric Hoffer Awards legacy competition, Road to Damascus describes the Middle Eastern journey of an American who meets and falls in love with a Syrian when they are both attending school in New York. Giving up her country and her religion to follow her husband back to Syria, Elaine Imady has made a life that has successfully bridged two cultures and two con

  What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  Road to Damascus  by Elaine Imady. Description: Recommended by US Review of Books and First Runner-Up in the Eric Hoffer Awards legacy competition, Road to Damascus describes the Middle Eastern journey of an American who meets and falls in love with a Syrian when they are both attending school in New York. Giving up her country and her religion to follow her husband back to Syria, Elaine Imady has made a life that has successfully bridged two cultures and two con

  What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  Road to Damascus  by Elaine Imady. Description: Recommended by US Review of Books and First Runner-Up in the Eric Hoffer Awards legacy competition, Road to Damascus describes the Middle Eastern journey of an American who meets and falls in love with a Syrian when they are both attending school in New York. Giving up her country and her religion to follow her husband back to Syria, Elaine Imady has made a life that has successfully bridged two cultures and two con

  What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  Road to Damascus  by Elaine Imady. Description: Recommended by US Review of Books and First Runner-Up in the Eric Hoffer Awards legacy competition, Road to Damascus describes the Middle Eastern journey of an American who meets and falls in love with a Syrian when they are both attending school in New York. Giving up her country and her religion to follow her husband back to Syria, Elaine Imady has made a life that has successfully bridged two cultures and two con

Read Omar Imady's new article, "The Weaponization of Syria's Reconstruction" in the latest issue of " Syria Studies ":  Find Omar's MSI Press books at our webstore: