As we Celebrate July 4th – let us remember what the Statue of Liberty meant to people like my father, Hans Masie, who came came to America as a place where Freedom meant acceptance.
Here is the passenger of the list from 1938 of the ship that he was on to flee Nazi Germany. On the bottom of the page you can see my father’s nationality was changed from German to Hebrew on line 29:
As he sailed into New York Harbor, the passengers were afraid of what would happen in the minutes as the immigration officer looked at them. deciding if they were “ready” to come to America. July 4th should be a time to celebrate the spirit of the Statue of Liberty:
Are we that America, still?
Is America a place where we respect our diversity? Is America a place where all of us have the freedom to define our reproductive choices? Is America a place where we respect and teach the history of our people – including wars where soldiers died, as well as slaves who were shipped here? Is America a place that would live our freedom authentically and with a heart filled with acceptance.
Let us create tomorrow’s America as a place where freedom is experienced by all.
Yours in Learning (Shalom),
Elliott
Elliott Masie
MASIE Learning Foundation
MASIE Productions
emasie@masie.com
www.masie.com
PS: Registration is now open for our AI & Learning LAB in September in Saratoga Springs, NY. For Information: http://www.masie.com
Thank you for sharing this. I have a similar document for my grandmother who immigrated through Ellis Island. She came from what is now Croatia. At the time, the island was occupied by Italy. I find the manifest facinating! So informative of the time.
My grandfather came over in 1908 from what was then Austria-Hungary. He always remembered seeing the Statue of Liberty in the harbor and what it meant to him and his family.