First Sikh In New Jersey Public Office Elected to Hoboken City Council

July 1, 2009

Author: Staff Writer

Source: NJ.com

http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2009/07/first_sikh_in_new_jersey_publi.html

New Hoboken Councilman-at-large Ravi Bhalla is the first Sikh to be elected to office in the entire state of New Jersey.

And when he was sworn in today, Bhalla gave a moving speech about his heritage and the American dream.

"My father arrived in America in the 1960s. He came to Penn State to study physics," said Bhalla, who is also an attorney in Hoboken. "He had no friends, no family; he had a foreign accent and less than $50 in his pocket."