Macedonian Americans Explained

Group:Macedonian Americans
Македонски Американци
Total:65,107
Total Year:2024
Total Source:estimate
Total Ref:[1]
Popplace:New York metropolitan area,[2] Metro Detroit, Ohio,[3] [4] and other metros in the Northeastern and Upper Midwestern United States
Langs:Macedonian, American English
Rels:Macedonian Orthodox
Related-C:Macedonians, Macedonian Canadians, Macedonian Australians

Macedonian Americans (Macedonian: Македонски Американци) are Americans of ethnic Macedonian heritage.

History

Review

Macedonian national feelings had shifted throughout the 20th century.[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, almost all of Macedonians in the U.S. until World War II classified themselves as Macedonian Bulgarians or simply as Bulgarians.[11] Nevertheless, the Bulgarian national identification during the late Ottoman Empire, from where most of the emigrants arrived, was based on ethno-religious principles and still ambiguous.[12] [13] [14] Macedonian immigrants identified also as Macedonians.[15] Early 20th century census documents and newspaper articles mention Macedonian language/mother tongue and race/nationality,[16] [17] [18] [19] but that designation was used then mainly as a regional identification.[20] The sense of belonging to a separate Macedonian nation gained credence after World War II, following the establishment of the People's Republic of Macedonia within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the codification of a distinct Macedonian language.[21]

Late 19th and early 20th century

The first Macedonian immigrants to the U.S. arrived in the late 19th century from the Bansko region of what is today Bulgarian Macedonia. These Macedonians had often been educated by American missionaries and were encouraged to migrate to the United States for higher education or to attend missionary schools.[22] But the first large swath of Macedonians came in the early 20th century from the border regions in the north of what is today Greek Macedonia, primarily the regions near Kastoria (Kostur), Florina (Lerin), and the south-west of North Macedonia, notably around Bitola. These Macedonians had faced the greatest retributions from the Ottoman military due to the fact that the 1903 Ilinden uprising was centered in these areas.[23] In December 1918 in Chicago was summoned a congress, which lasted a week, where ca. 200 delegates were present. In the course of the First World War events its organizers prepared a mutual agreement about the eventual after-war status of Macedonia. With a great majority the delegates supported the proposal for annexation to Bulgaria. In January 1919 after Bulgaria lost the war, a memoir was sent to the Great Powers, submitted by the Macedono-Bulgarian Central Committee in the US. In it was explained the real motives of Bulgaria to enter the war and it demanded Macedonia to join to Bulgaria.[24]

Between the World Wars

In the 1920s, many Macedonian-Americans became very suspicious that the main Macedonian organization at that time - the Macedonian Patriotic Organization, existed merely to advance Bulgaria's political interests. Thus, some Macedonian-Americans began to form smaller clubs and societies whose members were limited to fellow villagers. Members of these small groups could trust the others in their group, and they knew that they were not being taken advantage of the leaders of the MPO.[25] During 1930s, some Macedonians began to indicate that their nationality was "Macedonian", and promoted this new ethnic identification, following political directives. The first organization in the United States to support the idea that Macedonians constitute a separate nationality was the pro-communist Macedonian People's League.[26] MPL, which was financially supported by the Soviet Union, acted aggressively against the MPO, which it believed was a Bulgarian weapon.[27]

Immigration restarted after the wars; most of the new immigrants were from Greece, many of whom had been expelled from Greek Macedonia in the 1920s. The immigrants' organizations used Bulgarian language in their official documents. Since the 1920s and 1930s the Macedonian language has been recorded in American censuses.[28] [29] However, several Macedonian immigrants did list Macedonian as their native tongue in the 1910 U.S. Census.[30]

Post World War II

The aftermath of the war led to a fresh round of Macedonian immigration; 70,000 emigrated to Canada, Australia, the U.S., and other European countries.[11]

The growth of a distinct Macedonian-American community have occurred since the late 1950s, when the first immigrants from Communist Yugoslavia arrived. They have been instrumental in transmitting even the national feelings of the older, pro-Bulgarian oriented immigrants from Macedonia. Most of the American-born people of Macedonian-Bulgarian descent had little knowledge of Bulgaria and increasingly have identified during the second half of the 20th century simply as Macedonians. Still, some remnants of the pre-1945 Macedonian diaspora, from the whole area, have retained their strong regional Macedonian identity and Bulgarophile sentiments, while nearly all post-WWII Macedonian emigrants, from Greece and Yugoslavia, have a strong ethnic Macedonian identity.[31] After Yugoslavia liberalized its emigration policies in 1960, another 40,000 Macedonians emigrated during the period 1960-77. Most have been economic migrants rather than political dissidents. At that time most of the Americans born of Macedonian Bulgarian descent have hardly any knowledge of Bulgaria and increasingly began to identify themselves simply as Macedonians.[32]

Demographics

A large proportion of Macedonian Americans live in the New York metropolitan area and the Northeastern United States.[33] Another large cluster of Macedonian Americans lives in the Midwest, particularly Detroit, where roughly 10,000 (nearly 5% of all Macedonian Americans) are reported to be living.[34] In 2016 census, Macedonian Americans community reach by 57,221.[35]

Religion

Most Macedonian Americans, especially those immigrating to North America in the last half of the 20th century, belong to the Macedonian Orthodox Church, under the American-Canadian Macedonian Orthodox Diocese. Macedonian Americans immigrating before that time were generally affiliated with the Macedono-Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Smaller numbers of Macedonian Americans attend parishes affiliated with the Serbian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church or the Greek Orthodox Church. Through assimilation or intermarriage, many who remain observant are members of the Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations.

There are about 20 Macedonian Orthodox Churches in the United States, of which all but four are located in the Northeast or Midwest.[36] The oldest parish of the Macedonian Orthodox Church in America is the Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary located in Columbus (Reynoldsburg), Ohio. The parish was organized on September 17, 1958.[37]

Macedonian language in the United States

Three universities in the United States, the University of Chicago, Arizona State University, and Indiana University, offer Macedonian language courses.[38]

Michigan has more Macedonian language speakers than any other state with 4,425. Five more states, New Jersey, New York, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, also have more than 1,000 speakers.[39]

Counties by concentration of Macedonians

RankCountyState% Macedonian
1MacombMichigan0.4%
2BergenNew Jersey0.2%

As of 2000, 0.5% of residents of Hamtramck, Michigan, a city primarily surrounded by Detroit, are of Macedonian ancestry.

Culture

Cuisine

Macedonian Americans have been involved in the development of regional food dishes like Cincinnati chili and Coney Island hot dogs.

Media

Makedonski Glas (Trans. Macedonian Voice, Macedonian: Македонски Глас) was a Macedonian independent newspaper that was published bi-weekly in Garfield, New Jersey. The first issue of Makedonski Glas was published in November 2004.[40]

Notable people

Arts & Academia

Business

Politics

Sport

See also

General:

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2024 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. data.census.gov. 7 June 2024.
  2. Web site: Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2011 Supplemental Table 2. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 2013-03-23.
  3. Web site: Macedonian Ohioans - Ohio History Central. Ohiohistorycentral.org. 14 September 2014.
  4. Web site: Macedonian Americans - History, Modern era, The first macedonians in america. Everyculture.com. 14 September 2014.
  5. Klaus Roth, Ulf Brunnbauer, Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe, Ethnologia Balkanica Series, LIT Verlag Münster, 2010,, p. 127: " During the 20th century, Slavo-Macedonian national feeling has shifted. At the beginning of the 20th century, Slavic patriots in Macedonia felt a strong attachment to Macedonia as a multi-ethnic homeland. They imagined a Macedonian community uniting themselves with non-Slavic Macedonians... Most of these Macedonian Slavs also saw themselves as Bulgarians. By the middle of the 20th. century, however Macedonian patriots began to see Macedonian and Bulgarian loyalties as mutually exclusive. Regional Macedonian nationalism had become ethnic Macedonian nationalism... This transformation shows that the content of collective loyalties can shift."
  6. Zielonka, Jan; Pravda, Alex (2001). Democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 422. : Unlike the Slovene and Croatian identities, which existed independently for a long period before the emergence of SFR Yugoslavia, Macedonian identity and language were themselves a product of federal Yugoslavia, and took shape only after 1944. Again unlike Slovenia and Croatia, the very existence of a separate Macedonian identity was questioned—albeit to a different degree—by both the governments and the public of all the neighboring nations (Greece being the most intransigent).
  7. Sperling, James; Kay, Sean; Papacosma, S. Victor (2003). Limiting institutions?: the challenge of Eurasian security governance. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. p. 57. . "Macedonian nationalism Is a new phenomenon. In the early twentieth century, there was no separate Slavic Macedonian identity."
  8. "The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world," Loring M. Danforth, Princeton University Press, 1997,, pp. 65-66: "At the end of the First World war there were very few historians or ethnographers, who claimed that a separate Macedonian nation existed... Of those Slavs who had then developed some sense of national identity, the majority considered themselves to be Bulgarians, although they were aware of differences between themselves and the inhabitants of Bulgaria... The question as of whether a Macedonian nation actually existed in the 1940s, when a Communist Yugoslavia decided to recognize one is difficult to answer. Some observers argue that even at this time it was doubtful whether the Slavs from Macedonia considered themselves to be a nationality separate from the Bulgarians."
  9. Titchener, Frances B.; Moorton, Richard F. (1999). The eye expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman antiquity. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 259. ; On the other hand, the Macedonians are a newly emergent people in search of a past to help legitimize their precarious present as they attempt to establish their singular identity in a Slavic world dominated historically by Serbs and Bulgarians... The twentieth-century development of a Macedonian ethnicity, and its recent evolution into independent statehood following the collapse of the Yugoslav state in 1991, has followed a rocky road. In order to survive the vicissitudes of Balkan history and politics, the Macedonians, who have had no history, need one".
  10. Kaufman, Stuart J. (2001). Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war. New York: Cornell University Press. p. 193. : "The key fact about Macedonian nationalism is that it is new: in the early twentieth century, Macedonian villagers defined their identity religiously, depending on the affiliation of the village priest. While Bulgarian was most common affiliation then, mistreatment by occupying Bulgarian troops during the Second World war, cured most Macedonians from their pro-Bulgarian sympathies, leaving them embracing the new Macedonian identity promoted by the Tito regime after the war."
  11. Encyclopedia: Thernstrom. Stephan. Stephan Thernstrom. Orlov. Ann. Handlin. Oscar. Oscar Handlin. Macedonians. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. 690–694. 1980. Harvard University Press. 0674375122. 1038430174. The Macedonians: Immigrants from Macedonia came to the United States in significant numbers during the early years of the 20th century. Until World War II almost all of them thought of themselves as Bulgarians and identified themselves as Bulgarians or Macedonian Bulgarians...The greatest advances in the growth of a distinct Macedonian-American community have occurred since the late 1950s. The new immigrants came from Yugoslavia's Socialist Republic of Macedonia, where since World War II they had been educated to believe that Macedonians composed a culturally and linguistically distinct nationality; the historic ties with Bulgarians in particular were deemphasized. These new immigrants not only are convinced of their own Macedonian national identity but also have been instrumental in transmitting these feelings to older Bulgarinan-oriented immigrants from Macedonia..
  12. Noel Buxton, Europe and the Turks, (London: John Murray, 1907), 50-51: "Noel Buxton wrote in 1907 that "no one can understand the outlook in Macedonia without realizing that nationalities are identified with churches…religion is degraded to the level of a pretext for exciting national zeal."
  13. Jacob Gould Schurman, The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1914), Pg. 80: Jacob G. Schurman noted in 1914 that race identification in Macedonia could be changed as easily as religion. He stated that "a Macedonian may be a Greek today, a Bulgarian tomorrow, and a Serbian the next day."
  14. H.N. Brailsford, Macedonia; Its Races and Their Future (London: Methuen & Company, 1906), (Reprinted by Arno Press in 1971), 18-19:In 1906, Brailsford wrote that the average Macedonian peasant "was an ardent Macedonian nationalist, rather distrustful of Bulgaria, and profoundly hostile to Russia. The description [is] good and accurate."
  15. Dusan Sinadinoski, "Macedonians" in Ethnic Groups in Michigan, ed. James M. Anderson and Iva A. Smith, The Peoples of Michigan Series, (Detroit Ethno Press: 1983, Pg. 196.
  16. "Proclaim Clean Up in Three Tongues", Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) · Tue, May 5, 1914 · First Edition · Page 7. In 1914, Burgess Wigfield of Steelton decided to go on a ten-day cleaning spree of the town. He requested from the city council for the City to allow him to print and distribute hundreds of circulars in three languages. "In English, Slavish and Macedonian languages that fact will be proclaimed throughout Steelton today," wrote the Harrisburg Telegraph.
  17. Sample of US World War I draft cards with Macedonians listing their race/nationality as Macedonian: "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6NW-D22 : 12 December 2014), Vany Echoff, 1917-1918; citing Stark County no 1, Ohio, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,851,188. "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6D5-R39 : 12 December 2014), Christ Bogedan Slavoff, 1917-1918; citing Madison County no 2, Illinois, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,614,327. "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K66P-LT7 : 12 December 2014), Thomas Slavoff, 1917-1918; citing Calhoun County, Michigan, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,675,130.
  18. 1920 US Census showing in Granite City that hundreds of Macedonian-Americans put Macedonian as their mother tongue: "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJHF-H7Y : accessed 14 July 2017), Anastas Mitsareff, Granite Ward 5, Madison, Illinois, United States; citing ED 85, sheet 4B, line 84, family 84, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 390; FHL microfilm 1,820,390.
  19. "Macedonian at Embury Church", The Scranton Republican (Scranton, Pennsylvania)31 Oct 1908, Sat Page 12. Mr. Vishanoff (an educated Macedonian-American in the late 19th and early 20th century) would give speeches to crowds of Americans in the Macedonian tongue. Announcements for his lecture often read like this one from 1908: "He will appear in his nobleman’s costume, will sing in Macedonian and Bulgarian language, and will also exhibit some Macedonian and Bulgarian curiosities after his address."
  20. It is clear that even in the pre- 1945 period a large segment of Macedonia's Slavs declared themselves to be "Macedonians," although it would be completely premature to assume that this label stood for a national, as opposed to a regional identity. Victor Roudometof, Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002,, p. 109
  21. Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Vol. 2: Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1983,, pp. 320-321.
  22. Book: Victor Sinadinoski. Macedonians in America: Their Lives and Struggles During the 20th Century. 2017. 11–29. 978-1974101207.
  23. South Slavic immigration in America, Twayne Publishers. A division of G. K. Hall & Co., Boston, George Prpic, John Carroll University, 1976, Chapter 18, The Bulgarians and Macedonians, pp. 213-218.
  24. Trendafil Mitev, The United States of America and Macedonia: 1834-1945, Issue 41 of Macedonian library, Macedonian Scientific Institute, Sofia, 1999, p. 28.
  25. Book: Cetinich, Daniel. South Slavs in Michigan. 31 July 2003. MSU Press. 9780870139024. 9 January 2018. Google Books.
  26. Chris Kostov, Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Peter Lang, 2010,, pp. 130-131.
  27. Slave Nikolovski-Katin, The Macedonians in USA and Canada, translated by Vesna Stevkovska (Makedonska Iskra Publishers, Skopje), 2002, pg. 83.
  28. IPUMS USA 1920 Census: Instructions to Enumerators
  29. IPUMS USA 1930 Census: Instructions to Enumerators
  30. Book: Victor Sinadinoski. Macedonians in America: Their Lives and Struggles During the 20th Century. 2017. 72. 978-1974101207. Citing 1910 US Census and in particular immigrants living in Minneapolis who put Macedonian as their native language.
  31. J. Pettifer ed., The New Macedonian Question, St Antony's, Springer, 1999,, p. 52.
  32. Macedonians in the USA, Politics. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, p. 692, edited by Stephan Thernstrom 1980, Belknap Press of Harvard University, Reproduced 2001 with permission of the publisher.
  33. Web site: Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2011 Supplemental Table 2. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 2012-11-06.
  34. Web site: US Demographic Census. United States Census Bureau. 14 September 2014.
  35. Web site: 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. Factfinder.census.gov. 18 September 2017. https://archive.today/20200213004630/https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/16_5YR/B04006#. 13 February 2020. dead.
  36. Web site: American-Canadian Macedonian Orthodox Eparchy. Akmpe.org. 14 September 2014.
  37. Web site: Corporate Records of the Ohio Secretary of State. 2.sos.state.oh.us. 9 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20120331112420/http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/pls/bsqry/f?p=100:7:3647724345891426::NO:7:P7_CHARTER_NUM:274086. 31 March 2012. dead.
  38. Web site: Macedonian Language E-Learning Centre. Macedonianlanguage.org. 14 September 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20131130094749/http://www.macedonianlanguage.org/Services/Classes/tabid/83/Default.aspx. 30 November 2013. dead.
  39. Web site: Data Center Results. Mla.org. 9 January 2018.
  40. Book: Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration. 9781598842197. Barkan. Elliott Robert. 2013. 1112.
  41. Web site: Cetkar About to Start European Tour. Culture: Republic of Macedonia. November 2, 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110927124340/http://www.culture.in.mk/story.asp?id=31138. September 27, 2011.
  42. Web site: Stoyan Christowe - Vermont Historical Society. Vermonthistory.org. 9 January 2018.
  43. Also considered/self-identified as Bulgarian.
  44. Web site: МАКЕДОНСКО ИМЕ НА NIKE ПАТИКИ – МАКЕДОНЕЦ СО СВОЈА ЛИНИЈА NIKE (ВИДЕО/ФОТО). 28 March 2022.
  45. Web site: Macedonia Daily.org: DARKO MITREVSKI IN LA. Macedoniadaily.blogspot.com. 9 January 2018.
  46. PDF. Macedonia Gearing up for Presidential Elections. International Crisis Group, Balkans Report N°77. October 18, 1999. Skopje. 4. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20101221220533/http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/Macedonia%207.ashx. December 21, 2010.
  47. Web site: Macedonian Americans - History, Modern era, The first macedonians in america. Everyculture.com. 9 January 2018.
  48. Web site: Macedonian Patriotic Organization - Convention - MPO Annual Convention. Macedonian.org. 9 January 2018.
  49. Book: Zanger, Mark . The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students . 2001 . 9781573563451 . 46. "A Macedonian-American restauranteur invented "Cincinnati chili" .
  50. Book: Woellert, Dann . The Authentic History of Cincinnati Chili . 16 April 2013 . 9781625840622 .
  51. Book: Freedman, Paul . American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way . October 2019 . Liveright . 9781631494635 . "Tom Kiradjieff, a Macedonian immigrant".
  52. Web site: Development driver: Ilitches' move downtown started several balls rolling . April 28, 2009 . Crain's Detroit Business.
  53. Web site: Soccer America: April 28, 2003. La84foundation.org. 9 January 2018.
  54. Marty Gallagher, Pete George. The greatest American Olympic Weightlifting prodigy of all time. Starting Strength Weekly Report, October 11, 2012.
  55. Book: Barkan, Elliott Robert . Immigrants in American History . 2013 . 9781598842197 .
  56. Web site: Ironmen sign U.S National Futsal Team midfielder Sandre Naumoski - OurSports Central. Oursportscentral.com. 19 November 2008 . 9 January 2018.
  57. Book: Jack Nicklaus. 1997. 9780684836287. Jack Nicklaus.

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