PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Arieh Lebowitz, Executive Director of Jewish Labor Committee, on Resolution 438
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142 sec
Arieh Lebowitz, Executive Director of the Jewish Labor Committee, provides testimony in support of Resolution 438, which recognizes "Landing Day" to commemorate the arrival of the first Jewish community in New Amsterdam in 1654. He emphasizes the importance of educating people about this historical event and its significance for all New Yorkers.
- Lebowitz shares his personal connection to New York City and Jewish immigration history
- He highlights the parallel between historical prejudice against Jewish refugees and current immigration challenges
- The speaker urges support for the resolution, stating its importance for both Jewish and non-Jewish New Yorkers
Arieh Lebowitz
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Good afternoon.
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My name is Aria Leibowitz.
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And I'm the executive director of the Jewish Labor Committee.
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I'll get back to that in a moment.
0:15:23
I wanna thank everybody who sponsored this resolution crafted its staff as well as members of this committee and who are supportive of it, and I hope that you all are.
0:15:35
My apologies.
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A number of people have said over the years when they're speaking, you may have heard some of this before, but you haven't heard it from me.
0:15:41
So some of this will duplicate slightly what's been said before.
0:15:46
It's it's not the easiest thing to edit on the fly.
0:15:49
But about myself, while we're talking about the mid 16 fifties, I wasn't born here until 300 years later in Manhattan in 1954, and I'm a son of Manhattan parents were also both born in New York, but they 3 of their parents were immigrants from other countries.
0:16:08
As we're talking about Landing Day, and then Peter Stuyvesant and so on, but we also add that I grew up in Stuyvesant town, and I am a proud graduate of Stuyvesant High School.
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The 115th Street.
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I never learned about Landing Day until recently, although the arrival of 2 dozen Jews from Recife in Brazil into New Amsterdam is something that came to my attention a few years ago during my studies at Harper College in Binghamton, New York.
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But that's why this resolution is important because a lot of people don't know about this history.
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Officers have noted and will note that the modest wave of Jews to our shores from Even before it was called New York, people escaping persecution and trying to make better lives from the South American children were part of successive ways of Jewish and non Jewish immigrants of a wide range of ethnicities cultures, faiths, and countries of origin from 16 fifties and before to now.
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The prejudice and opposition of some leaders to letting these Jewish refugees into Amsterdam has been repeated over the decades and centuries.
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So, well, to now.
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And I could go on further, and it'll be in the, what do you call it, send in testimony, but I I very much urge your support of this which will be of significance not only to the Jewish New Yorkers but the all New Yorkers from now going forward.
0:17:37
Thank you.
