There was not a dry eye in the stadium at the M.O. Campbell Educational Center as 2,204 people raised their right hands to be sworn in as new Americans. With the oath recited and hands lowered, I saw high fives, broad smiles and group hugs.
When Judge David Hittner asked me to give the address at this Naturalization Ceremony, which was held last December, he suggested that I include in my remarks a history of my family’s journey to the United States.
I told them of Sicilian fisherman Antonio Liberato, my great-grandfather who came from Castellammare to Pensacola, where opportunity – and fish – were plentiful. Ava Trachtenberg, an 8th grader at Emery Weiner School, would later lead us in the pledge of allegiance, which gave me the opportunity to reflect of the courage of her great-grandmother. Unlike her mother and sister, Leona Trachtenberg escaped death at the hands of Nazis by immigrating to the United States in 1938. Similarly, we learned from Judge Hittner that all four of his grandparents, including his namesake, fled oppression in Eastern Europe for the United States. …
Excerpted from Page 41 of the March/April edition of The Houston Lawyer. To read the full article, click here.