Dr. Ahmad Jaber Way (Brooklyn)
Present name:5th Avenue
Location:Between 72nd Street and Ovington Avenue
Honoree: Dr. Ahmad Jaber (1947-2020) a Palestinian born obstetrician,immigrated to the United States in 1974. He began his medical residency at Lutheran Medical Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where he was affiliated for his entire career. In the course of his career as an OBGYN, Dr. Jaber personally delivered over 5,000 babies. He established a private practice on 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge, where he became a mainstay of the community. Joining forces with a then-nascent community of Arab-American doctors in the United States, he founded the NYC Chapter of the National Arab-American Medical Association in 1988. In May of 2001, Dr. Jaber alongside other community leaders founded the Arab American Association of New York, which began in a small office on the second floor of Dr. Jaber’s 5th Avenue practice. The organization started as a one-room social service agency, and is now a well-established nonprofit and advocacy agency serving thousands of people a year. He remained on the Board of the organization his entire life. Dr. Jaber was also an Imam, who served at the State Street mosque in downtown Brooklyn, one of the oldest mosques in the United States. His religious and interfaith work touched many areas of New York City, through multiple organizations he helped to found or lead: the Al-Noor Islamic School, Beit Al-Maqdis Islamic Center, the Islamic Mission of America, the Arab Muslim American Federation, and the Brooklyn Heights Interfaith Clergy Association, among others. Above all, Dr. Jaber was known for his generosity and his reputation as a bridge builder. He is personally credited with helping to establish countless newly-arrived Arab immigrant families in Brooklyn, hailing from Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere. He was civically active and often acted as a liaison to elected officials and institutions on behalf of the growing Arab and Muslim community. The presence of a large, diverse, and civically engaged Arab and Muslim community in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn is in large part due to Dr. Jaber’s work - professionally, civically, and personally. (Brannan)
LL:2022/54