We Are All Immigrants by Barry Rosenbaum

Of all of the despicable and wholly illegal actions that this administration has undertaken, its continued flagrant mistreatment of the immigrant communities and the brutality of their removal and disappearance—reminiscent of the Nazis, the KKK, and the KGB— is the most heart-wrenching and immoral. I am a descendant of immigrants. Damn it!! We are all descendants of immigrants.

My family’s story is like that of millions of others who left Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s to escape famines, economic distress, religious persecution, or to join other family members who had already found new opportunities here, opportunities that were not possible in their homeland. I recognize that millions of others have a quite different story—being forced to come to the Americas as slaves and ending up in this country very much against their will. Their descendants, too, make up a vital part of this immigrant tapestry.

Just like this woman at last month’s No Kings protest here in Santa Monica, my grandparents on my father’s side came from Czarist Russia. My grandfather, Harry Rosenbaum (“Zaidy”), immigrated in 1913 from Kupel, Russia, now Kiev, Ukraine. My grandmother, Eva Rubin (“Bubby”), immigrated from Krasilov, Russia, in 1905. They were married in 1924 in New York. Both left Russia because life under the Czar was exceedingly hard and dangerous for Jews. Increasingly frequent pogroms inflicted horrible casualties and property damage. During World War I, Zaidy was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he learned his trade as an automotive mechanic, a skill that he would practice for the rest of his life.

My grandparents on my mother’s side were Irving Peterman (also “Zaidy”) and Leah Zinn (“Nana”). This Zaidy immigrated from Lodz, Poland, in 1906. Nana was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1902. Nana’s father (my great-grandfather), who had immigrated in 1872 from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, sold vegetables and fruit from a horse-drawn carriage. Nana and Zaidy were married in Galveston in 1928. Zaidy had several professions, first working as a fabric salesperson, then as an owner of a dry cleaner, then in the oil fields, and finally becoming co-owner and then owner of what became known as Peterman’s Jewelry Store. Nana first worked as a secretary and then together with Zaidy at their store. During World War II, Zaidy served as a Coast Guard volunteer patrolling the Gulf of Mexico for German submarines, a real threat at that time.

Each of my ancestors arrived with few, if any, possessions, other than a strong will to succeed. Each managed to earn a living, raise a family, give back to their new country, and gain the satisfaction of watching their children and grandchildren prosper. The decision to leave Europe was not only a wise one for the opportunities that America provided, but it also unwittingly enabled them to escape the future horrors that befell many who stayed and lost their lives in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, or Belzec.

Given that all of us who aren’t Native American can trace our lineage to immigrants, the broad outlines of this story are the same for Trump, Vance, and Miller. Not only were Trump’s immediate ancestors immigrants, but his first wife and his current wife were foreign-born. Vance’s wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants. Miller is descended from Jews who fled Russian pogroms and the Holocaust. Yet rather than honor this heritage, Miller, Trump, and Vance have chosen to foment hate and destroy the lives of those who now seek no more than the same opportunities that their families were provided. Miller’s hatred for immigrants seems long-standing. Trump’s and Vance’s attacks seem more based on political expediency. In either event, it is evil.

Their ongoing effort to destroy what made this country a beacon to the world may well be the legacy that takes the longest to reverse. This mean-spirited rejection of the American dream and the gross illegality in which it is being undertaken must be resoundingly defeated, and these three men must be made to bear a heavy price for their treasonous conduct.

We are all immigrants. We are all of the same humanity and entitled to the same rights and freedoms. We must continue this fight. Our ancestors did not struggle as they did for their now-living descendants to stand down and allow this noble experiment to be vanquished by neanderthals. I do not believe that we will allow this to happen and foresee a United States that will once again become a beacon to the world.

But it is up to all of us. We may not see its full fruition, but it is our task to continue the work that our ancestors began, however they came to this country. Voting today is an important step on the long road to renewal.