News of restored relations between the U.S. and Cuba making headlines this week during Hanukkah has me remembering the 937 Jewish refugees seeking asylum from the Nazis on the S.S. St. Louis that set sail from Hamburg, Germany for Havana, Cuba, in May of 1939, 75 years ago. But for the ship's heroic German captain, Gustav Schroeder, who never abandoned the passengers and helped secure entry for them all in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, or France, after being refused by Cuba and even the U.S., this truly would have been the "Voyage of the Damned," as so many termed it then. A book and movie were made about the historical event.

Sometimes I forget what a young country America, and certainly so much of the world, is in terms of civil and human rights. It often feels, the more I examine history, as if we've really only begun making real progress within the last 50 years (or, sadly, maybe less). Next year's 50th anniversaries of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, will hopefully be cause for many progress reports and remind us that time alone does not measure advancement. They will remind us that ordinary heroes certainly walk among us and often do extraordinary things that change the world for the better.