Why Asylum Is Important?

My first memory of a refugee is of my grandmother, Pauline, who was admitted at Ellis Island in NYC at the tum of the 1900s when the Bolsheviks had taken over Russia. She was and remains the most remarkable and strongest woman I

have ever known. Without a word of English at her disposal, she managed to amass a small fortune with which she bought an estate in Long Island and

also was able to send her four children to college. Without any assistance at all from the government she lived a life full of joy and love, offering solace and encouragement to scores of people whom she was able to help achieve some status in the United States. Her house was always filled with people from all over the world. She was Jewish and lit the candles every Friday night and said the

prayers as she swept the smoke from the candles upwards. She worked as a diamond dealer in the gritty streets of Manhattan, when no other women were allowed to enter that sphere. She worked every day and when she came home she comforted me and gave me unconditional love. The second refugee I met was my aunt Zelda. She somehow managed to escape from Aushwitz by digging a tunnel with her bare hands till she got to safety. I visited her in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

most Saturdays and noticed the numbers on her arm. Her face literally glowed and she expressed nothing but complete love for everyone whom she encountered.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written after these two women were admitted into the United States. However, the Declaration paved the way for others to come and remain here in safety. The identity of the country is largely derived from the fact that people seek refuge here, and often make a huge contribution to our society. This has been said many times before and will continue to be repeated. However, now we face the seemingly endless chanting of those who prefer “blood and soil” ideas. Actually this is not our soil or our land and it is not our blood either. Those belong to the Native Americans who were subjected to genocide by the first settlers. Yet the blood and soil folks refer to newcomers as invaders. Actually the country was settled by invaders who called themselves pioneers or pilgrims. I have been intimately associated with the first settlers, those who came in on the Mayflower ship and those who settled Jamestown. They are not bad people but they truly believe that this land is their Land, not your land or our land. And they believe that every inch of good fortune earned by immigrants is actually stolen from them. I know this from at least 30 years of intimacy with the so-called pilgrims.