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Speaker Menin reflects on her family's immigrant history and the diversity of New York City
1:27:29
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3 min
Speaker Julie Menin shares her personal family history as the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who escaped Hungary and eventually settled in Manhattan's Little Hungary. She connects her story to the broader narrative of New York City as a sanctuary for immigrants from all over the world.
- She details her grandmother's courageous escape from Soviet-occupied Hungary into Czechoslovakia
- She highlights the diverse immigrant communities across the five boroughs, including Dominican, Mexican, Haitian, Polish, Chinese, and South Asian families
- Menin emphasizes that her current role representing the East Side of Manhattan brings her family's journey full circle
Julie Menin
1:27:29
So I know that I am here today in part because of the past that every single member in this city council has blazed, and I really wanna give a special thanks and shout out to our incredible historic majority women city council.
1:27:47
There is truly no greater honor in my life than to stand before you as your speaker.
1:27:55
And when I think about what that honor means, I think about what brought me to this moment and what frankly brought all of us here today, and that is the story of America, which is the story of New York, and that is the story of immigrants.
1:28:10
Right now, we gather here at City Hall, but just a few blocks from here is where that story starts, by the shoreline of Battery Park.
1:28:19
It's a place where land meets the water and history meets the present.
1:28:24
The place where newcomers become New Yorkers and where immigrants came to seek a better life.
1:28:31
But they came here with hope, hope that this city and that this country could give them a chance to achieve the American dream.
1:28:38
In the early nineteen fifties, two of those immigrants were my mother and grandmother.
1:28:44
Yet their journey to the land of the free was far from a timid one.
1:28:49
They both survived the holocaust in Hungary by hiding in a cellar.
1:28:54
And my grandfather and other of our relatives were murdered just because they were Jewish.
1:29:00
After the war ended, my mother and grandmother stayed in Hungary, but even this new chapter did not lead them into a world of freedom.
1:29:09
When the Soviets took over Hungary, they planted mines, bombs all along the border and there was literally no way out.
1:29:17
But my grandmother was fearless and thanks to the compassion of a stranger, in the middle of the night, she took my mother and escaped into Czechoslovakia.
1:29:26
Europe was still no friendly place for Jews and the only country that would take them in was Australia.
1:29:33
But after living in Sydney for six years, they finally fulfilled their dream to come to New York.
1:29:41
When they arrived, they settled into a rent controlled apartment in little Hungary with little more than that newly American hope and the stubborn refusal to give it up.
1:29:51
The East Side Of Manhattan was a community that welcomed my family with open arms, a community that gave them a better life after the horrors that they had been through.
1:30:02
And with the beauty of life brings things full circle, I now have the great honor and distinction of representing that neighborhood.
1:30:09
Yeah.
1:30:10
This is a story of so many New Yorkers.
1:30:18
It's Dominican families in Washington Heights and Mexican families in Sunset Park, opening doors to their homes and small businesses to new arrivals.
1:30:27
It's Haitian households in Flatbush and Canarsie embracing those fleeing instability, and Caribbean communities in Crown Heights and in East New York extending the same support that they once received.
1:30:41
It's Polish families in Greenpoint and Ridgewood helping the next generation find their footing, and Chinese families in Flushing supporting them through family networks and local shops.
1:30:52
It's South Asian families in Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill welcoming newcomers with opportunity, and West African families in The Bronx and Staten Island building communities that are rooted in faith, in work, and in mutual care.