Arriving in America, August 6, 1949

Seventy-four years ago today I arrived in America. Below is an excerpt from chapter one of my memoir. (Photo not in the book)

Note:  If you become an annual paid subscriber, you will receive an autographed copy of my memoir.Please send me your address and I will mail you my book. 

Robert Wright’s review of my book captures the essence of my journey in America. 

“There is a right way and a wrong way, always choose the right way.”  Abraham Sabrin (1914-2001)

On August 6, 1949, I arrived in America with my parents - the only members of their respective families to survive the Holocaust - and older brother on the General W. C. Langfitt, a U.S. military transport ship that sailed from Bremerhaven, West Germany on July 27th. The Langfitt carried displaced persons primarily from West Germany. Although I don't remember being on the ship - I was two and a half years old at the time - years later my father told me I clung to him throughout the voyage across the Atlantic and did not throw up once. I earned my sea legs, and 33 years later, my wife and I were on a small ship (9,000 tons, tiny compared with today’s massive cruise ships upward of 200,000 tons) cruising in the Mediterranean when a storm hit. The ship was rocking and rolling, but I didn't get nauseous once - neither did my wife - as passengers in the dining room were fleeing to their rooms…

When we arrived in New York, my mother’s aunt and uncle from Paterson, NJ met us at the pier. Her aunt said to Mom that your letters told us you have two sons, but you are holding a little girl in your arms with long blond hair. That was me, shoulder length blond hair, which was strange since neither of my parents had blond hair. Having been born in West Germany outside of Munich, maybe I was switched at birth? Nah. I have many of my mother’s physical features and my father’s mannerisms.

For my parents, World War II ended in July 1944, when they were liberated in their native Poland by the Russian army. My father had been a partisan commander fighting the German army in the forests of Poland. His experiences during World War II were recounted in his memoirs, We Dared to Live, which he wrote in Yiddish. My father also spoke Polish, Russian, German, and Hebrew. Unfortunately, his “language gene” was not passed on to me. I was bilingual as a youngster; Yiddish was my first language and then I learned English after we arrived in America. I studied Spanish in junior high school, high school and college but did not become fluent. My older brother, Joe, had Dad’s manuscript translated into English many years ago. Dad’s memoir is described online at the Holocaust Museum website, (https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib248787), and is available on Amazon. I grew up asking my father questions about his World War II experiences, which he recounts in detail in his book. At the end of the book, Dad retells a story he never shared with me. When I read the passage, chills went down my spine. A brief bio and pictures of my father are posted here, (https://www.jewishpartisancommunity.org/partisans/abrashe-abe-szabrinski-sabrin/).

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Several years ago, I was invited to speak at a swearing in ceremony of naturalized citizens in Newark, NJ.  A couple of years later Ramapo College hosted a similar event where I also spoke.  As a naturalized citizen I mentioned the oath new American citizens take—to defend the Constitution unlike native born citizens unless they are public officials who swear to defend the rule of law as outlined in the Constitution.  In short, I urged new American citizens to passionately defend the Constitution.  I wasn’t invited again to speak at a swearing in ceremony. 

Since I became a naturalized citizen in June 1959 and especially as a US Senate candidate in the 2000s, I have pointed out that the federal government when it is controlled by either Democrats or Republicans who both have disregarded their oath by voting to spend taxpayers’ money on programs not authorized by Article I, Section 8. 

In other words, we have an ongoing constitutional crisis because the ideology of statism is embedded deeply in our political culture.  This is the case that must be made to the American people, namely, our prosperity and civil liberties are being undermined by the DC big government philosophy.  And where is the criticism of the engine of inflation and bubble creator, the Federal Reserve?  In addition, the military-industrial-congressional complex has given us endless wars and put us at the brink of direct confrontation with Russia, and a possible nuclear war.  WTF!

The welfare-warfare state is unsustainable.  It is up to us defenders of free enterprise, civil liberties, and a peaceful foreign policy to step up to the plate to turn the ship of state around.

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My latest piece on the economy was published in Fortune, https://fortune.com/2023/03/27/recession-2023-layoffs-tech-finance-unemployment-outlook-fed-rates-murray-sabrin/  This is an update of my 2021 forecast, https://fortune.com/2021/12/09/next-recession-heres-everything-bubble-markets-2021-2022-covid-murray-sabrin/ 

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Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle.  Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.