Leaving Aleppo

Pauls Toutonghi lovingly recalls his grandfather, Philippe Elias Tütünji, a writer, poet, and translator from Aleppo, Syria. Tütünji immigrated to America during World War II and never gave up his dream to achieve success as a poet in his adopted homeland. Working menial and low-paying jobs to support his family, and “full of immigrant ambition,” he once visited actor Danny Thomas (who was born Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz in 1912, in Lebanon) in a bid to entice Thomas to record the poem as a song — a feat Tütünji felt would make him a star.