Paul Bass Photo
Omar Rajeh was behind the counter at his Mediterranea restaurant on Orange Street when his cell phone rang. The call came from his native Syria.
That didn’t worry him. Rajeh gets calls from Syria all the time.
This time a friend was calling to tell him that someone had shot a man named Ali dead in Damascus. Rajeh was stunned. Rajeh and Ali grew up together in Damascus. Rajeh came to America to pursue a freer life. Ali remained home and became a doctor. The two had stayed in touch.
It was just one of what would become daily reminders of how fortunate Rajeh was to leave when he did, and of how miserable life has become for those he left behind. Since war has broken out in Syria in 2011, at least 250,000 people like Ali have been killed. At least four million others have fled the country, prompting an international refugee crisis.
Rajeh, who’s 47, spoke about his journey in an interview on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven.” He also appealed for the United States and European nations to take in the Syrians who didn’t have his fortune, the refugees fleeing a humanitarian crisis that has the world both transfixed and largely stymied.
Plan B
The year was 1989. Rajeh, then 20, had begun university studies in Damascus to become a civil engineer. He bristled at the lack of freedom of speech as well as the lack of opportunity available to people who failed to kowtow to the Assad dictatorship.
So he obtained a visa to study at a small college in Friendly, Ohio. He planned to get his degree there and pursue a civil engineering career.
It didn’t quite work out that way. But it worked out well just the same for Rajeh.
To support his studies in Ohio, Rajeh found roofing work through a Syrian friend. He also found that a full-time job and full-time studies left him just two hours a night to sleep. He decided to work full time and leave school.
During a trip visiting Syrian friends in Connecticut, he fell in love with an American woman who would become his wife. He moved to New Haven and began working at Est Est Est pizza (owned by a friend) at Chapel and Park. Then, with friends lending him $7,000 and their volunteer labor, he opened Aladdin, a Middle Eastern restaurant, in the Crown Street bar district in 1993.
The restaurant did well, but the late nights wore him down. So Rajeh sold the restaurant and learned how to cook Italian dishes at Gabriel’s in Orange and Michaelangelo’s on Route 34 just over the West Haven line. When he was ready to open a restaurant of his own again, he had a double menu in mind: pizza and other Italian fare mixed with Middle Eastern.
“I love to cook. I love to make the lamb. Falafel, I love it. I make great hummus, too,” said the gregarious host. “Unbelievable.”
He called the place Mediterranea and opened it on Whitney Avenue in 1998. When the landlord declined to renew the lease three years later, he moved it to its current location at 140 Orange St., across from Pitkin Plaza and a stone’s throw the Chapel Street edge of the Ninth Square.
At first he stayed open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. “It was like a ghost town, that area,” Rajeh recalled.
Not for long. By 2004 a revival had begun, with new restaurants and coffee shops nearby and Ninth Square taking off (“like Soho in New York,” he noted). Then came the construction of the 32-story 360 State St. apartment complex. Rajeh found customers around until late into the night; he returned to staying open until 2 a.m.
Mediterranea is a cozy, casual spot, with great food that can fill you up at well under $10 for lunch and under $15 for dinner. (Personal favorite: The ful mudammas.) Pillows cover some of the bench seats by the front window; soft music plays. It draws government workers and other downtowners during the day, diners in the evening; a hookah lounge in the back is popular on weekend nights.
Rajeh and his wife have three children. The oldest is 16. The youngest is 7 months. “I work very hard,” Rajeh said. “But I have time to see them. I drive them to school, pick them up from school, play soccer with them, spend time. Weekends, Sunday.”
Asked if he regretted not becoming a civil engineer, Rajeh responded no: “I’m very happy now. I meet a lot of good people. I see a lot of people, I’m friends with everybody. I love to be social.”
He has two people working for him at the restaurant (plus, sometimes, his oldest son). One is his brother Eric, who arrived here in 1995. “He was a troublemaker [in Syria]. So my mother sent him here: ‘Go see your brother!’” Rajeh taught his younger brother the business. Eric went on to own Amity, a brick-oven pizza place, in Woodbridge. He sold that and landed in a bad business deal with a partner. Now he’s learning the ropes at Mediterranea; the plan is for him to become part owner.
Of a bigger space. A next-door tenant has vacated the building. So Rajeh is seeking a $100,000 loan to double the restaurant’s size, with a full-scale dining room planned for the adjoining space.
“That’s the best way to be, with your brother,” Rajeh said. “I tell him, ‘Here’s it’s totally different. You work, you survive. You don’t work, you don’t survive. In Syria, you don’t work, you survive.’”
A Call About Ali
At least that was once the case. Right now Syria is one of the hardest places in the world to survive. Rajeh, who follows the news daily on TV, on Facebook, and through messages from friends, said he believes the true number of deaths there since war began in 2011 is far higher than the official estimate of 250,000 and the number of people fleeing far higher than the official estimate of four million, out of what was once a population of 22 million.
Syria has significant Muslim, Christian, and Druse populations. But unlike the narrative in other conflict-besieged lands, religious groups aren’t fighting each other in Syria, Rajeh said; people from all backgrounds rose up against a brutal dictatorship.
Following are excerpts from the radio interview:
WNHH: In 2011 the civil war started …
Rajeh: You can’t name it as a civil war.
That’s the word they always use in the media.
It is not a civil war. The people for years were friendly, nice to each other. It’s not a civil war. People say, “We can’t take it anymore. We have to change.”
Has anyone close to you been killed?
A friend of mine. He’s a doctor. He was shot two years ago.
What were the circumstances?
Nobody knows. Somebody shot him. He was just a normal doctor. He was not on any side. He was just helping people injured. He just got shot in Damascus. He left the hospital [on his way home when he got shot].
Why do you think he was killed?
I have no idea. It’s simple. Right now if you’re not doing nothing, your life is in jeopardy.
What was his name?
Ali. We went to school together, college together. We were always in touch. A friend called me [to tell he was killed]. I was at work. It was daytime here. The phone rang.
I went into a week’s depression. I lost my friend for no reason. He worked very hard to become a doctor to help people. He had two kids, young kids. They shot an innocent person.
Were you able to work?
I was not working that week. I did not care who was running [the restaurant]. I stayed home. It hit me very hard.
What got you through it?
God.
Are you religious?
No, I’m not.
It looked like the uprising was going to be successful a year or two ago. What happened?
I think superpower countries saw the country [was] falling apart.
We know that Iran is involved on the side of Assad, correct?
Right.
Russia is on the side of Assad. And China. At first U.S. gave support to the insurgents. …
I believe the U.S. made a big mistake. If they had armed the rebels, Assad would be gone.
Wouldn’t people say the U.S. has no right to be involved in another conflict [abroad]?
Not really. The regime has Russia and Iran [helping], killing civilians and cities and towns. The U.S. has to be involved at least to protect civilians.
If they had gotten [more] involved, could this [have] become a proxy war, like Vietnam or Iraq? Would we have had the U.S. against Russia or China?
No. The U.S. would just help the uprising people to take the regime. It was not the American army on the ground. Just help.
Have you lost other people since Ali?
No. My nephew got arrested. He’s 15 years old. He’s still there. They searched the area and grabbed him.
What does it feel like to make a new life here and see the violent disintegration of your homeland? What goes through your head?
Shame and sad about what’s going on over there. These people have the right to live a good life in dignity, safe and secure.
You said the U.S. made a mistake by not arming the rebels in the beginning of the insurgency. What about now? What should the Untied States and the world be doing?
Right now it’s tough. A lot of people have been killed. It’s hard to find solutions.
An immediate question is taking in refugees. Do you think European countries should be taking in more than they are? The debate in the U.S. is … should we take 10,000? 50,000?
They should take all the people. To have shelter for the children.
What happens to Syria if four million people move out? … What’s the endgame? There’ll still be a land there.
It could be gone. It could be the end. I don’t know. I just hope it can end soon. Today, not tomorrow. A lot of innocent people have been killed for no reason.
Germany says 1 percent of its population will be Syrian refugees. What will be the impact on that society?
Germany is very smart. They took good people. The Syrian people are very smart, smart good people. They will meld with any kind of society. Anywhere you go in the world, you’re not going to see Syrian people not having a job, not working. Syrians are very smart. A lot of doctors, engineers, lawyers, you name it.
Click on the above sound file to listen to the full WNHH radio interview with Omar Rajeh.
WNHH’s “Open For Business” series on WNHH-FM and in the Independent is made possible in part through support from Frontier Communications.