From arriving in the Bay Area as an 18-year-old immigrant with limited English to teaching math at Diablo Valley College’s Pleasant Hill campus while running a successful Italian restaurant in Pittsburg, Johny Khalilieh’s life traces a path defined by persistence, education and entrepreneurship.
Khalilieh, who fled instability in his homeland in search of safety and opportunity, built a career in higher education even as he helped establish and operate Clayton’s La Veranda Cafe, balancing classrooms and kitchens while embodying a version of the American dream shaped by sacrifice and hard work.
Khalilieh was born and raised in Beit Jala, a small Palestinian Christian town in the West Bank between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He grew up attending the Greek Orthodox Saint Nicholas Church in a close-knit community shaped by faith, family and hard work.
“My nationality is Palestinian,” Khalilieh said.
At such a young age, Khalilieh left home alone for the United States, carrying little more than determination and a limited grasp of English.
“The very little English I knew I learned from watching old Clint Eastwood cowboy movies,” he said.
Those films shaped his expectations of America, which were quickly challenged upon arrival.
“To my surprise, when I got to California, no one was wearing cowboy hats,” he added.
His departure from Israel’s Palestinian territories was driven by fear and urgency. Khalilieh says he recalls increasing aggression by Israeli soldiers and a moment from his childhood that left a lasting mark. He says while walking to school one day, he crossed paths with three soldiers who beat him because he carried a school project written in Arabic.
“They had thought it was anti-Israel propaganda,” he said.
His mother decided then that he would need to leave when he was old enough, hoping he could help the family start a safer life abroad. He says that Israeli settlers taking homes in neighboring towns added to his parents’ anxiety. After saving enough for a one-way plane ticket to California, Khalilieh left with the hope that hard work would let him reunite his family in the future.
In the Bay Area, Khalilieh stayed with a family in Pleasant Hill who owned Oak Park Liquor, where he worked before and after school and helped care for their children in exchange for room and board.
In the 1990s, he moved to Pittsburg, paying $100 a month for a place to live while doing chores and gardening. There he attended Los Medanos College (LMC), where tuition was “$200 a unit” (nonresident student rates at the time — today’s it’s $438 per unit) and balanced school with work after realizing he needed income beyond the liquor store.
Education became a turning point. Khalilieh transferred to San Francisco State University, where he met his wife, Joane. Both majored in mathematics and earned master’s degrees in 1999. Teaching soon followed.
“The first college I taught at was LMC in 1998,” he said, noting that he and his wife began as interns.
His first course was intermediate algebra. Over the years, Khalilieh taught at LMC, Diablo Valley College, Solano Community College, San Francisco State and Travis Air Force Base. He still laughs about the discipline of his military students at Travis.
“Everything I said was followed by a ‘yes sir’ and salute!” he said.
When Joane became pregnant, Khalilieh took on additional classes, driving daily between campuses to support his growing family. That same period marked the beginning of another chapter: the restaurant business. Khalilieh says he’ll never forget the opening of Clayton’s La Veranda Cafe.
“It was the same day my son was born: May 4, 2002,” he said.
A second La Veranda opened in Pittsburg on May 28, 2008, fulfilling Khalilieh’s desire to give back to the community that supported him as a young immigrant. The roots of that restaurant, La Veranda Ristorante Italiano (laverandapittsburg.com), trace back to his wife’s family, who opened a small San Francisco Italian restaurant in the 1980s. Recipes from that kitchen eventually became the foundation for Pittsburg’s La Veranda.
“I wanted to open it in Pittsburg to give back to the community that raised me,” he said.
The family’s resilience was tested again in 2022, when the Pittsburg restaurant burned down two days before Valentine’s Day. With limited insurance coverage, Khalilieh leaned on savings and customer support to restore the restaurant — and even became an insurance agent to better understand the process. Before it was eventually restored and repopened, seeing the damage was devastating.
“When I saw my life’s work in ashes I grew very emotional,” he said. “It’s the first time my daughter ever saw me cry.”
Family remains central to Khalilieh’s story. His daughter, Reyna, earned degrees from UC Davis and UC San Francisco and is now a doctor of pharmacy. His son, Jake, graduated from UC Davis and is attending medical school, aiming to become a neurologist.
“I am most proud of my kids and my lovely wife,” he said.
Khalilieh credits his struggles — including times living out of his car and showering at the LMC gym — with shaping his outlook.
“The American dream isn’t just given to you on a silver platter, you have to put in the work and effort to reach your dreams here,” he said.
Now 54, Khalilieh continues to teach, serve customers and mentor students. He says what he loves most about teaching is “helping kids.”
His advice reflects the journey that carried him from Beit Jala to the Bay Area: “Always shoot for the stars and beyond and never give up on your dreams and goals in life.”
Reach Charleen Earley, a freelance writer and journalism professor at Diablo Valley college, at charleenbearley@gmail.com or 925-383-3072.