The big day
had arrived. It was Tuesday, October 28, 1969 --the
day that I arrived in the United States. We had a
direct flight with the American PAN AM Airline
from Rome, Italy to the JFK International Airport in
New York. Since at that time we belonged to no
country and thus had no passports, each immigrant
refugee traveled with an Italian document entitled
"Permit to Reenter" containing a "Conditional Entry"
Visa to the United States good for two (2)
years.
That "Permit to Reenter" document with the
"Conditional Entry" Visa was an extremely humane and
considerate Visa that was designed to work in this
way:
If, for whatever
reason, an immigrant refugee could not adjust to
life in America, he or she, within two (2)
years could have had the possibility of returning to
Italy and picking another country for immigration.
If, however, the immigrant refugee stayed for these
two (2) years in America that would have
indicated that the respective immigrant accepted
America as his or her new adopted country.
Each immigrant
refugee in the plane carried a huge envelope with
the person's Chest X-Ray. In the plane we were
told that the first thing that we needed to do
upon arrival at the JFK Airport was to show our
Chest X-Ray to the Immigration Official in order
to be cleared that we do not have tuberculosis. I
remember going down on the ramp of the plane with
my big Chest X-Ray envelope. As I was about to
open this big envelope, an Immigration Official (a
man in his fifties with all white and curly hair)
approached me and stated:
"You
do not have to show me your X-ray. I know that
YOU DO NOT HAVE tuberculosis"
Then, after a
brief pause looking straight into my eyes, he
said:
"Welcome
my friend, welcome to your new country THE
UNITED STATES!"
Those were the
very first words spoken to me in the United
States. My face was all red. I was overwhelmed
with emotions.
As we left the
customs inspection in the airport, a man was
waiting for our group. We could easily be
recognized as each of us carried, on the lapel of
our garment, a large HIAS button. In addition, all
of us had a small black handbag with the HIAS
insignia. (That handbag was a present from HIAS
containing in it a bar of soap, toothpaste with
toothbrush, shaving cream and a razor bundled in a
small towel.) The man, an American, said that he
was from HIAS, and that arrangements were made
that everybody would sleep that night in a nearby
hotel and that on the next day each of us would
continue with his or her flight to our final
destination. (Because my guarantor in the United
States was the Jewish Community for the City of
Pittsburgh, next day I was scheduled to fly
there.)
The man from
HIAS took us in a minibus to the nearby hotel.
There, in the lobby, he said something very fast
that I could not completely understand. Soon after
that, he gave everyone from the group a $10 bill
and he left. Since I did not know what that money
was for, I assumed that it was for that evening
while we were staying at the hotel. Nearby in the
lobby of the hotel, I saw a rather unpretentious
restaurant so I went in. I ordered a big juicy
steak with lots of French fries and a coca-cola
drink. It was heaven! I enjoyed that meal
tremendously. With the tip and everything, it came
to $8. With my $2 left I went to the lobby to buy
a pack of the famous Pall Mall cigarettes. (At
that time they were 49¢!) [Pall Mall
cigarettes with no filter were, by far, the most
famous American cigarettes in Romania. Later in
the story you would be able to find out why that
was so!]
As I gave a dollar bill to the woman from the
lobby, I saw the HIAS man coming towards me and
saying:
"Don't
waste your ten dollars as you will need it
tomorrow for the taxi."
"What ten dollars?", I replied. "I have only one
dollar left!" To this, in disbelief, the HIAS man
said:
"Here
is another ten dollars. Do not spend it. It is
for tomorrow for your taxicab. Is this clear?"
Nodding my head
in the affirmative, we left saying "Good Night" to
each other. For me it was a particularly good
night --it was after all my first night in
America! I could not have been happier.
[Years later, to
my surprise, I was able to learn from reading an
article on the history of the Statue of Liberty in
the National Geographic magazine, that October 28
--the day of my arrival, was also the official day
when the Statue of Liberty was inaugurated by
President Grover Cleveland in 1886! What an
incredible coincidence and what a tremendous
symbolism this day carried for me!]
