How Mayor Fulop's Holocaust Connection Influences His Leadership

JERSEY CITY, NJ — It's no secret that Jersey City is a city of immigrants, from its slogan as "America's Golden Door" to the diversity on display in every storefront, it's obvious. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop is a child of immigrants as well, and a passing tweet on Friday reminded him of that fact.

The Auschwitz Museum tweeted a photo of a Hungarian Jewish baby girl on Friday named Eva Kohn, honoring her birthday. The baby in the photo is Fulop's aunt — she was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz before she was even five. Fulop retweeted the photo, thanking the museum for keeping her memory alive.

Fulop's family, like so many others, sought refuge in Jersey City and hoped to build a new life here.

He explained to Patch that his service to the city and the immigrants who live here is fueled in part by, "The sense that my family is immigrants who came here under similar circumstances with not much in their pockets other than family members that they brought and with just a dream of building a life here," he said.

Fulop said his grandmother never spoke much about her experience during the Holocaust, but kept two photos of her daughter Eva. One photo was the one tweeted by the museum, and the second was a photo that was sent to her husband, who was in a forced labor camp. The back of the photo read in Hungarian, "Eva misses you and can't wait to run to you."

When Fulop's family came to the U.S. the trauma remained — he said his grandmother was "A broken person after the Holocaust, but she came to this country trying to restart as best she can."

The sacrifices his family made to be in the U.S. are not lost on Fulop, and he says it continues to influence his decisions as a mayor.

"I view my commitment to public service as really a partial payment for citizenship in the sense that my family is fortunate to be able to be here, as the majority of my family did not make it out of Auschwitz," Fulop said.

About 42 percent of Jersey City's population identifies as "foreign born" according to the 2019 census, the latest data available. Jersey City's Division of Immigrant Affairs office is the first municipal office in the country to offer federally accredited immigration legal services — Fulop said the investment into the immigrant community is just as personal as it is political.

"During COVID we raised private dollars in order to help dozens upon dozens of families that had no access to any kind of resources because government dollars are restricted," Fulop said, praising the Office of Immigrant Affairs' work, "Those values are really dictated by the fact that we're a city of immigrants, and by my personal family experiences."