A skinny, fair-haired boy stood at the rail of the SS Eider and peered through the fog at the looming New York skyline. All he had in the world was crammed in a small suitcase.
For ten days since leaving Bremen he had lived mostly below deck, crowded in steerage with hundreds of other German refugees, and surviving on one meal a day.
He was used to being hungry. His father had died when he was eight years old, leaving his family destitute, and his mother and six brothers and sisters never had enough to eat.
He didn’t know a word of English. He didn’t even have a high school diploma. But he stared at the statue of the goddess, with her torch held high above her head, and dared to dream of a better life.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
There were no baths on the ship, barely enough drinking water. By the time the ship docked, the stench was so bad, that a millionaire who lived across the street complained to the shipping company.
If only he knew. One of those wretched, smelly passengers was to about to become one of the famous immigrants in history.
Immigration is a hot topic these days. It’s become a political custard pie, fueling sensational headlines in the media and on the internet. Debates on what to do about it even led to the temporary closure of the US government.
Most of the discussion is negative, associating immigrants with criminality and a breakdown in social order. But is that the case, historically?
In the early part of the twentieth century, America invited – no, implored – people from all over the world to populate the fledgling nation. Between 1892 and 1954 over 14 million people came to America through Ellis Island in New York.
In fact, almost half of the United States population would not exist today were it not for the immigrants who once passed through there.
Did those immigrants bring crime and drugs? Yes, some did, like Joseph Bonanno and Lucky Luciano; but Isaac Asimov didn’t, nor did Cary Grant or Martin Scorcese’s grandparents or Colin Powell’s mother (who came from Jamaica in 1923.)
In fact, many of America’s most famous and celebrated figures would not be here today if it had not been for their ragtag ancestors standing in line at the docks with a cardboard suitcase and little else. They came from all over Europe, escaping oppression, persecution, destitution, and violence.
One of the first was a man called Levi Strauss, who came to the US in 1847 and greatly enriched the country’s jean pool. His ‘heavy duty work pants’ changed the course of fashion. I doubt if there is anyone reading this who has never worn something his company made, or inspired. Later in life, Strauss also funded 28 scholarships at the University of California.
Irving Berlin, who wrote “White Christmas” and “God Bless America” was a Russian Jewish Immigrant who passed through Ellis Island as a child on September 14, 1893, under the name Israel Beilin. He went on to compose 1,500 songs, 19 Broadway Shows and 18 Hollywood movies. By the end of his life in 1989, he was lauded as one of the greatest songwriters America had ever produced. (Sorry Kanye.)
Maria von Trapp solved a problem called the Anschluss when she arrived in 1938. For better or worse she brought the sound of music with her.
Then there was an accidental tourist called Albert Einstein. He was a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences and happened to be visiting the US when Hitler took power in Germany. He wisely decided not to go back and applied for US citizenship. He went on to achieve fame as a Facebook meme.
A man called Sergey Brin More is a more recent Jewish refugee. If you don’t know who he is, Google him. Let me give you a clue; if it wasn’t for Sergey, you wouldn’t be able to Google him.
(By the way, Google comes from the mathematical term Googol, which is a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Which is about what he’s worth now.)
Other refugees didn’t achieve fame themselves, but their offspring did. Bruce Springsteen may have been born in the USA but his grandparents were born to run. His grandfather, Anthony Zerilli, came though Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th century unable to read or write. Or even play guitar.
And you will all know of Jerry Seinfeld, creator of the quintessential New York comedy series of the late nineties. His paternal grandfather was a 15-year-old tailor who arrived alone and penniless in 1903 from Stanislau, and his maternal grandfather, Selim Hosni, came from Syria in 1909. That’s gold, Jerry.
Oh, and the skinny seventeen-year-old from Bremen who couldn’t speak a word of English?
Well, you’ve definitely heard of him, or at least, you know his grandson.
His name was Friedrich Trumpf.
His grandson’s name is Donald. Donald Trump.
This week sees the release of LOVING LIBERTY LEVINE, set in early twentieth-century New York, with scenes in the early part of the book set on Ellis island and the Lower East Side.
“From the author of The Unkillable Kitty O’Kane comes a gripping novel about finding the American Dream—and what it costs.
In 1913, Sarah Levine leaves her small village and sails to New York to start a promising new life with her husband, Micha. But all Sarah really wants is what has come so easily to her sisters—a family of her own.
Finally, in her new home, her dream comes true…but at a terrible cost. She names the baby girl Liberty after the great statue in the harbor that she saw when she first came to America.
From struggling to raise Liberty in a Lower East Side tenement to building a fashion empire, the only constants in Sarah’s life are her love for her daughter and the terrible secret that she must keep. Sarah gives Liberty everything she has, but the truth cannot stay hidden forever.
As Liberty grows to womanhood and the world prepares to go to war again, Sarah is asked to make one last impossible choice…” read more
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