Focusing on the educational efforts of a diverse ethnolinguistic community, this article considers the rationales, mechanisms, and channels adopted by Arabic-speaking communities in the US to teach and learn the Arabic language. The article draws on research conducted with a number of Arabic speaking populations in New York to situate Arabic language education in the US within the transnational context of conflict and migration. By employing a transnational lens, it provides insights into both the growing interest in the Arabic language, and conversely, the challenges posed to Arabic bilingual community efforts. The findings illustrate the embeddedness of Arabic language efforts in the US within a larger sociopolitical and sociohistorical context of conflict. This context, I argue, has shaped the rationales and means adopted by US Arabic-speaking communities to teach the Arabic language to their American children.