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I then give you lists of names of people who are here in the United States who have families there, would you look into the possibility of allowing them to come out and join their families here?” He said, “Yes.”

So I then got in touch with which is the Hebrew immigrant society, and I got in touch with the American Jewish Congress, and also the American Jewish Congress was going to do a big article on Syria using my earlier article as a takeoff and some other things I had gotten involved in. For example, I had correspondence with Kissinger's office, where they admitted that there was a problem in Syria for Jews and they were trying to help but in a very soft sell way, and how any Jew who was allowed out of Syria and got to any other country would automatically be given refugee status to come to the United States. The American Jewish Congress was going to do a big article on that. I called up Phil Baum, who's the director in charge of this operation. I said, “Don't run the article, don't do it, because I maybe still can get some Jewish families out.” I told him what had happened, and I said, “Send me a list of some Jewish families, and I'll put them all together,” and he did. In the meanwhile, I had sent to Dr. Kabbani a list of 12 Jewish families, and I prepared the letter to be signed by Joe Early and myself -- very soft sell -- saying, “In the interests of compassion, in reuniting families, here is a list of names.” We have not heard from them, but at least it's the first step.