San Diego, CA (special) -- Only a short time after they had been sworn on Tuesday, Sept. 21, as new American citizens, 50 persons sang "the Star Spangled Banner" with special fervor at pre-game ceremonies on the field of Qualcomm Stadium. 

Adding to the joy of the occasion for the hometown crowd watching from the stands was the fact that the San Diego Padres went on to defeat the Cincinnati Reds 6-2.

It was a polyglot group of immigrants who excitedly waved their flags to the cheering accompaniment of their fellow Americans following the singing of what had become their National Anthem. According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, they had arrived here from 25 different countries ranging alphabetically from Afghanistan to Yugoslavia. At least two of the 50 new citizens were members of the Jewish community : Rakil Epshteyn from Byelorus and Eric Friedman from South Africa. Others came from such Arab countries as Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait.

NEW FLAG WAVERS — Prior to Tuesday's  Padres game against the Cincinnati Reds (which the Padres won!), new American  citizens join at home plate at Qualcomm  Stadium in the singing of the National  Anthem.

 One woman announced to U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Huff, who earlier had presided over the naturalization ceremony, that she had come from "Palestine." Documents, however, officially listed her country of origin as Jordan.

Whatever might be their political differences, the Jews and Arabs who participated in the ceremony had become fellow Americans. Likewise, so too had new citizens from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China. 

Friedman, while waiting to be sworn in, said that for his family, history has been repeating itself. His grandparents in Europe scattered in many directions, some to the Americas, some to South Africa. 

Today in his generation, "children are leaving South Africa: to Canada, America, Israel, Australia," he said. "The families are being broken, the same as they were at the time of our forefathers. Now it is up to us to build new families, new homes, new everything."

His feelings on this day of becoming an American citizen?

"Since you are Jewish," he replied, "let me put it in two words: Baruch Hashem! "

Epshteyn was similarly grateful: "I am very happy," she said. 'I am very excited. God bless America! God bless San Diego! I am very happy."

The American Jewish Committee had helped sponsor the citizenship ceremonies which also brought into the American fold newcomers from Azerbaijan, Canada, Columbia, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Korea, Mexico, Moldova, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

 "It is not just that we are welcoming these citizens, it reminds us freshly of what a gift we ourselves have in being citizens," commented Paul Meyer, San Diego regional president of the American Jewish Committee.

A co-sponsor of the event was the San Diego Foundation, whose leader Bob Kelly saw in the new citizens a memory of his own family's experiences. "My grandmother immigrated in the early 1900s from Ireland," he said. "She got a job working as a maid on the train from Boston to Chicago and that is how she started her life in the United States. Now all of her grandkids, sons and daughters, are successful and productive members of our society."
 

Jerry Harris, a past regional president of the American Jewish Committee, similarly felt prompted to recall that his grandparents had come from Hungary, Russia and Germany at the turn of another century "and they had to go through a lot of new changes, learning the culture and a new language.  "So every time I see one of the ceremonies I get little chills up my spine," Harris said. "I know how my grandparents and my ancestors came to this country the same way." Steve Shraibman, chair of the AJC's immigration committee, didn't have to think back so many years in his family history to remember the immigration experience. A former South African, he only had become a U.S. citizen two months before.

CITIZEN EPSHTEYN — Rakil  Epshteyn,  formerly of Belarus, happily accepts  congratulations and her official citizenship  papers during naturalization ceremony  cosponsored by the American Jewish  Committee and the San Diego foundation  at Qualcomm Stadium. She also planned  a name change from Rakil Epshteyn to  Rachel Epstein.

Addressing even newer Americans, he commented: "There are those in this society that have raised doubts about the value and contributions of immigrants to this nation. It is your duty to dispel these misgivings and you will do so by your actions and with your voice. Because from this day forward, your voice may be heard in the chorus of this great democracy."

As co-sponsors of the event, the American Jewish Committee and the San Diego Foundation had purchased 150 tickets to the Padres-Reds game -- 50 for the new citizens and 100 for members of their families. They also helped to coordinate the event at which the new citizens were presented fresh roses along with their citizenship certificates. Behind the scenes was another organization with a special Jewish flavor - the Emma Lazarus Fund, named by a Jewish immigrant for the Jewish poet whose words are inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-lost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."  The founder of the Emma Lazarus Fund is George Soros, a Holocaust Survivor from Hungary who set aside $50 million from his successful investments to help

NEW CITIZENS ... AND FANS —  Candidates for citizenship stand  for the Pledge of Allegiance at  Qualcomm Stadium prior to being  sworn in Sept. 21 as citizens in the shadow of a large poster of Padres  slugger Tony Gwinn.

immigrants as they go through the naturalization process.

Soros created the fund "as a way to say 'I think that immigrants are important, that they played a valuable role and we want to support them,'" according to Sushma Ramin, a program officer for the Fund who, herself, is an immigrant from India.

Among recipients of the Fund's largesse have been the San Diego Foundation, which received a $1 million grant to coordinate programs for immigrants in five counties. 

She said that the Council of Jewish Federations received another $1 million to help immigrants and refugees.