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.