I was recently looking through
some memorabilia from my Dad’s family, where I found some important documents
that marked milestones for my grandparents, Mendel Karol and Anna (Wolf)
Karol. My bubby Anna/Nechame came
to Kansas City to join other relatives there after arriving at Ellis Island on
the S.S. Bremen (a German ship built in 1897) on May 17, 1904. My grandpa
arrived within the next two years (he had family in Kansas City as well) after
a decade-long sojourn in South Africa (he left Akmine, Lithuania most likely to avoid being drafted into the
Russian army). They were married on March 17, 1907, in Kansas City, Kansas.
What allowed both of my dad’s parents to enter the United States was the open
immigration policy of the time. As
I understand the history, as long as there was someone in the United States to
offer support, a new arrival was allowed to pass through the gates at their
point of entry. Mendel
became an American citizen on April 28, 1924, and Anna was naturalized on
September 22, 1941, a few weeks after my parents’ wedding. She was among the
residents of the United States required to register in compliance with the
Alien Registration Act of 1940. That act established a program to fingerprint
and create a record of every non-citizen within the United States. This
legislation also explicitly declared, as one of its purposes, to prohibit
“certain subversive activities.” It became known as the “Smith Act” because
Virginia Representative Howard W. Smith authored the Act’s anti-Sedition
section. So, my grandmother had to tell a local registration officer, sometime
late in1940, not only that she had hazel eyes and gray hair and that she was
from Nowogrodek, Russia in the district of Minsk, but also that she had not
“been affiliated with or active in organizations, devoted in whole or in part
to influencing or further the political activities, public relations, or public
policy of a foreign government.” I admire the fact that my bubby became a
naturalized citizen following that experience! After many years of operating a
dry goods store (which closed on January 7, 1939), I am sure that she had
nothing to hide!
These
documents reminded me that my grandparents were, at one time, strangers in this
country, and that officially becoming an American was part of a long process of
acculturation. They became citizens when quotas had been established that
prevented the entry of many people who, if they had been given safe harbor
here, would likely have added to quality and character of our nation. Many
controls on immigration still exist today that prevent the possibility of
citizenship for some who might want to add the best of what they have to offer to
the collective American personality. Quotas likely originated, at least in
part, out of fear of the stranger or foreigner, which seems to persist even
today, even when the diversity of our country should provide Americans from
different national or cultural back- grounds with ample opportunities to get to
know one another better.
Attitudes
based in fear and misunderstanding still continue to guide the words and
actions of some political leaders as well as private individuals who feel they
must take the law or their ideology into their own hands, here and in other
places around the world. The
murders perpetrated by Muhammed Merah in Toulouse, France, and the case of
George Zimmerman, who shot Travyon Martin when Zimmerman had been told by a
police dispatcher not to pursue Martin, are two situations that illustrate what
can happen when people act out of anger, hatred or personal assumptions that
fail to view others as fellow human beings but through the lens of a label
placed on those people.
“Do not
oppress the stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having
yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.” “In every generation, we
should see ourselves as if we went free from Egypt.” I am glad that my grandparents had the courage to make a
change in their lives and come to the United States. What
I hope is that the land that they envisioned – a land of freedom, in a world of
freedom – is still within our reach. Let us do what we can to create freedom,
peace and understanding in our corner of the world.
Photo
Wedding of Joseph and Ruth Karol, August 31, 1941, Kansas City, Missouri
Top Row - Joseph Karol and Ruth (Glazer) Karol, my parents
Bottom Row - Anna Karol, Mendel Karol, and Pearl Glazer (my Mom's mother)
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