Attorney Honored By Italian Consulate in Los Angeles

Sassan Masserat remembers fleeing Iran at the age of six, with his family.

“I remember my mom dragging me out of the class,” Masserat told the Journal. We walked by flames and I saw tanks, agitation and heard screams of ‘Death To America.’ At that age, I don’t think I understood the gravity of the situation.”

He said he would learn that several weeks before they left, his uncle had been among people rounded up by the government and executed.

Masserat would live with his parents and sister in Bologna, Italy. His father had studied there before the revolution while his mother studied in France.  And he loved the lasagna and the pizza.

“There was a nice small community, made up mainly of Israelis, but nothing compared to Los Angeles,” he said.

Describing his parents as “wandering Jews” he credited them for giving him the connection to Judaism and they arranged to have his bar mitzvah in Jerusalem.

Masserat was recently honored by the Italian Consulate to Los Angeles. On February 9, the day he turned 50, on behalf of the president of Italy, the Consul General, the Hon. Silvia Chiave bestowed upon him the title of Ufficiale al merito della Stella d’Italia or Officer of the Order of The Italian Star. The knighthood is to honor his service to Italian-American communities.

”It is a great honor that is extremely meaningful to me,” he said.

As part of his work, Masserat forged cooperation with diplomats, foreign governments, and institutions such as Milken Community School, the Museum of Tolerance, the Holocaust Museum, the Italian Institute of Culture and supported an International Day of Remembrance in Bologna as well as other locations.

Originally an investment banker, Masserat has been an attorney for more than two decades. He said it is important to him to spread the values of tikkun olam or changes to make the world a better place.

“I came from a place of about 100 or 200 Jews to Los Angeles with about a million Jews,” he said. “I made it a point to immerse myself in what I did not have in Italy.”

He said shortly after college he became involved in the Anti-Defamation League and, until recently, he served as a board member for the organization. At one point, he was a national commissioner.

He said he is both surprised and not surprised by the uptick of antisemitism in Los Angeles and Across America.

“There has unfortunately always been hatred and that is not surprising,” Masserat said. “I was surprised that Kanye West said what he said and that there are those who still believe him. While we never know exactly why things are happening, I think it is likely that the hatred he espoused publicly has some effect and can be a catalyst of some of the violence we are seeing. But there is also a silent wave of antisemitism. I did not expect to see it get to this degree. It’s sad; America was supposed to be our safe haven. I think we have to be proud to be Jewish and stand up for what is right.”

As for Iran, he said that he is hoping for a change that will give citizens more freedoms, but he doesn’t see it as likely at this juncture.

He said he was happy to have a wonderful wife from Milan, who happens to be Ashkenazi and, to pay it forward, he made sure his daughter had her bat mitzvah in Israel. The Beverly Hills-baed attorney said he is thankful to his mother and father who helped set up a life for him where with his hard work he would not only be able to help himself, but others as well.

“I am proud of the Jewish values my parents instilled in me and happy to be able to pass them on to the next generation,” he said.