Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania
Born Ray Hanania
(1953-04-17)April 17, 1953
Chicago, Illinois
Alma mater Northern Illinois University University of Illinois at Chicago
Religion Antiochian Orthodox and raised Lutheran[1]
Awards Peter Lisagor Award (1985, 2002, 2006, 2009) Sigma Delta Chi Award (2009) Best Ethnic Columnist New America Media (2007) [2]

Ray Hanania (born 1953) is an Arab-American Palestinian Christian[3] journalist and stand-up comedian. After the September 11 attacks, he created the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour and Comedy for Peace, which brought together Israeli and Palestinian comedians. He founded his own public relations firm, called Urban Strategies Group.

Life and career

Hanania was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Palestinian Christian parents. His mother is from Bethlehem; his father, George John Hanania, from a prominent Christian family in Jerusalem, served with the U.S. Army during World War II and with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA. He himself served with the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War and in the Illinois Air National Guard. Hanania's wife, Alison, is Jewish; they live in Orland Park, Illinois.

From 1977-1985 Hanania reported for the Daily Southtown, and from 1985-1992 for the Chicago Sun-Times. From 1993-1996 he was publisher of the suburban Villager Newspapers group, was spokesperson for the Town of Cicero and published the Arab American View, an English-language American Arab newspaper. In 1992 Hanania founded his own public relations firm, Urban Strategies Group doing media consulting for political, government and private clients including the Town of Cicero (2009 to present). His career in broadcast radio began in 1980 at WLS (AM) until 1992, WJJG AM 1530 (2004–2008) and hosts "The Ray Hanania Show" every Sunday morning on WSBC AM 1240 in Chicago and WCFJ AM 1470 in Chicago Heights and the Chicago Southlands. He is also the host of Radio Baladi which broadcasts every Friday morning in Detroit.

His internationally syndicated column is distributed by Creators Syndicate from 2002–2005 and 2010 until the present. Hanania describes his writing as "defining the moderate Palestinian & Arab Voice." He continues to write a Chicago political column carried locally with the Southwest News-Herald and the Lawndale News Newspaper, and formerly wrote a weekly column with the Arlington Heights Daily Herald (2002–2009), and has written a humor/serious column for the online website of Yedioth Ahronoth and also for the Jerusalem Post Newspaper Jerusalem Post.

Earlier in his career, Hanania wrote a weekly syndicated column for the Jerusalem Post and his columns advocated the "moderate Palestinian and Arab voice" and rejected extremism, embraces peace between Palestinians and Israelis, and opposed the use of violence. However, in November 2012, he wrote "the real obstacle preventing peace is the fundamental refusal of most Israelis and most American Jews to accept the right of Palestinians to exist as a people with a state." In addition, Hanania says that "until Israelis and Jews accept the right of Palestinians to exist, Palestinians have no option but to struggle and resist and defend themselves against violence, land confiscation and theft, and ethnic cleansing from historical Palestine.[4] However, Hanania has committed himself to non-violence, embraces peaceful negotiations and maintains consistently on his web site that "The best way to fight extremism in the Middle East and bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians is through truth and facts. In my columns, you will read my opinions which provide a balanced view of the conflict, to let you understand the facts and the issues. I don’t just criticize Israel. I also criticize the Arabs. I don’t just point a finger at Israel and blame them for everything, I also point out the faults of the Arabs, too." Hanania describes himself as the Baby Boomer Blogger and editor of Arab American TV Online.

Hanania launched a standup comedy career in 2001 to advance his belief that humor can calm the animosity between Jews and Arabs, promoting peace through moderation. He was featured in a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. In May 2002, the owner of Zanies Comedy Club in Chicago invited Hanania to perform comedy and enrolled him in comedy classes to hone his stage skills. He performed 35 shows for Zanies. In June, Zanies booked Hanania for a nine show performance over Labor Day weekend. A few weeks before the show, Zanies owner informed Hanania they were going to add Jewish American comedian Jackie Mason to the bill so he could get stage time before his planned appearances on Broadway.

But hours before the first show, Mason refused to have Hanania open for him. Hanania was called at home as he was leaving for the theater and told not to show up, even though the show had been pre-sold (sold out) a month before. Mason's manager and wife, Jyll Rosenfeld, who was in New York at the time, said that Hanania could not perform because he was "Palestinian" and not Jordanian as Mason had thought. After the controversy broke making international headlines (that lasted seven days), Zanies' management claimed the cancellation was because of Hanania's alleged "inexperience" as a professional comedian, even though Hanania had performed 35 shows for Zanies. But Mason's manager and wife Jyll Rosenfeld told a reporter for the Associated Press that Mason was "uncomfortable" being on the same stage with Hanania because Hanania is a "Palestinian."[5] Hanania later developed a unique Palestinian-Jewish standup comedy routine that features his experiences growing up Arab in America and satirizing his marriage to his wife, Alison, who is Jewish.[6]]. He co-founded with Israeli comedians Charley Warady and Yisrael Campbell and African American comedian/Journalist Aaron Freeman "The Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour, which broke the Arab and Palestinian comedian taboo of refusing to appear with Israelis.

Hanania is the national coordinator of the former National American Arab Journalists Association[7] which coordinates and networks American Arab and Muslim Journalists in the United States, and is a partner affiliate of the Union of Arab American Journalists in Detroit.[8]

Hanania is Managing Editor of The Arab Daily News online newspaper which is self-described as "The Newspaper of Record for the American Arab community."

Professional awards

Books

See also

References

  1. ↑ [cite news|url=http://www.themediaoasis.com/hanania.htm]
  2. ↑ [cite blog|url=http://www.themediaoasis.com/hanania.htm]
  3. ↑ A Palestinian Refusenik's Open Letter To the Jewish People
  4. ↑
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ Video of Hanania's Arab-Jewish Comedy Act
  7. ↑ Who we are
  8. ↑ About NAAJA
  9. ↑ 2009 Sigma Delta Chi Awards
  10. ↑ Article on the alleged discrimination against an Arab grocer in a suburb of Chicago, Wordpress blog, 2009
  11. ↑ 2006 First National Ethnic Media Awards Winners
  12. ↑
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.