By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — It was heartwarming to read on the front page of the San Diego Union-Tribune today (July 4) about members of the military who were born in other countries becoming U.S. citizens in a ceremony yesterday aboard the museum ship USS Midway. I particularly was pleased by the comment of Melissa Maxim of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service who said: “Immigrants in the U.S. have always had a profound impact on our nation and the world. They strengthen the fabric of our nation.”
Indeed they have. We Jews are but a tiny drop in the ocean of immigrants who built our country. Look at what Jewish immigrants were able to do, and then multiply that by the multiplicity of ethnicities who, like us, came to American shores in search of a better life.
Here are just a few examples, at the national level, of wonderfully talented Jewish immigrants who made successes in their chosen fields: Joseph Pulitzer in journalism; Irving Berlin in music, who incidentally composed “God Bless America,” which is so appropriate for today; Albert Einstein in physics, and Henry Kissinger in diplomacy.
California history is filled with Jewish immigrants who made important contributions to the state and to their cities.
In San Diego of 1850, our very first Jewish settler, Louis Rose, was an immigrant from Neuhaus-an-der-Oste, Germany. He served as a member of the city board of trustees, and on the first county Board of Supervisors. He helped to establish roads that we still use today. He laid out the portion of Point Loma known as Roseville, and it is for him that Rose Canyon is named.
In San Francisco of 1853, Levi Strauss, a native of Bavaria, began his career as a merchant. Eventually, he brought to market the invention which today we know as “blue jeans,” created by Jacob Davis, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia, who had settled in Reno, Nevada.
In Temecula approximately in 1857, merchant Louis Wolf, a native of the Alsace region of France, arrived. His trading post today is the oldest structure in the Temecula Valley. Married to Ramona Place, who was part West Indian and part Chumash Indian, he and his wife hosted Ramona author Helen Hunt Jackson, whose romantic novel alerted Americans to the plight of California Indians.
In Los Angeles of 1859, Isaiah W. Hellman arrived from Bavaria. He became a successful merchant, and later a banker. Eventually, he became the head of Wells Fargo, transforming it into a major banking institution.
The list of successful Jewish immigrants goes on and on. Of course, it is not only those who became wildly successful who helped to build our country. There were others who worked hard, paid taxes, raised families, fought and sometimes died in wars for the United States, and contributed in every way they could to the country where they found freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and the freedom to pursue their dreams. When I think of that category of immigrants, I immediately call to mind my maternal grandparents who came to this country in the late 19th century from Lithuania, and my paternal great-grandparents who immigrated before them from Lithuania and from what is today Poland.
How well they—and hopefully we—could understand the comment of Seaman Apprentice Samuel Awenti, an immigrant from the Cameroons, who was one of those military personnel who participated in the naturalization ceremony about the Midway.
In the story written by Kate Morrissey, he was quoted as saying: “I’ve always admired America from my childhood. I wanted to be part of that great force and add more dignity to my name.”
Thanks, Mr. Awenti, I’m sure you’ll also add dignity to the United States, our country, yours and mine.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Beautifully written, Don. I’m sharing this.