The Rev. Mounir Raphael Sa’adah, 99, died July 25, 2008 at Harvest Hill Retirement Community in Lebanon, NH. Born in Damascus, Syria, he worked as a librarian and taught history and ethics at American University’s Near East School of Theology. He married Marjorie Anne Abrahamian in 1937. The family immigrated to the US in 1947. The American Friends Service Committee recruited the Sa’adahs in 1949 to organize the care of the first Arab refugee settlements in Gaza. Rev. Sa’adah taught history for 18 years at Woodstock Country School in VT and initiated a program in Arabic and Near Eastern Studies at the Choate School in Wallingford, CT. Ordained in 1947, he served congregations in Woodstock, VT, and Mt. Kisco, NY. When he retired in 1976, he was named minister emeritus of the All Souls UU Congregation in New London, CT. He is survived by three children, two brothers, three grandchildren, four step grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and nine step great grandchildren. His wife died in 2002.