We Are Pilgrims

My dad’s first job in the U.S. was a baker’s assistant. No English was required—just a willingness to start baking at 4:00 a.m. at a resort in New York’s Catskills.

My dad was a Jewish pilgrim.

The original pilgrims were members of a separatist group. They broke with the Church of England and fled to the Netherlands. There they found tolerance and opportunities to be successful in business and education.

But Amsterdam was too libertine. They feared their group would die from assimilation and a low birth rate.

So they risked the two-month journey by ship to come to America.

We are all pilgrims. Most of us trace our ancestry to another nation. 

If we’re Native Americans, we are dispossessed in our own land—like the pilgrims, a group that has been outside the mainstream of cultural and religious life.

I thank the resort that hired my dad and launched his career. Our family has had more than a million things to be thankful for since that fateful moment.

Happy thanksgiving to all.