Session: 123456789101112131415161718         Page 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 of 617

about 75% Jewish and about 25% black.

Then we moved in 1941 to New York, and I went to CCNY. I stayed there for two years, and then I went into the Army in 1943. In New York we had moved to Brooklyn, Ocean Parkway. In 1943, in April, as I recall it, I was drafted and went into the Army, and I came out in 1946 and went to New York University School of Law and became a lawyer, admitted to the bar in 1949, and started my own practice at that time. I took in my first partner in 1963 after my first political race.

I really got started in politics in 1952 when I supported Stevenson and became a street speaker throughout the city. They had a street speaking campaign operation with a flag and a soap box. But I didn't do more than that. In 1956 I decided I was going to move to the Village. I looked for the group that was supporting Stevenson, and I became their major street speaker in 1956. That group was called something like Citizens for Stevenson. It had been opened as a result of the fact that Carmine would not support Stevenson, and that group ultimately grew into the Village Democrats. There's a history to that, which we can go into if you'd like to. I began with them and left them because I didn't think they were a particularly good group. Tt was a very feisty operation with Dick Kuh, whom I ultimately prevented in a way from becoming the d.a. I was very instrumental in contesting his race. In any event, he was the president and founder of the VID, and I found him very obnoxious at that time and I never got over it.

I left the VID and for a year or so didn't do anything,