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there was no automatic way that they could come to the United States because in order to come to the United States, you had to fit into what we no longer call a quota system but in fact is a quota system. From each country no more than 20,000 and it has to be on the basis of skills or family blood ties. That's our new process since 1965. So I said, “We ought to allocate 25,000 refugee visas for Soviet Jews who might be allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union if they could get refugee status here.” And I began my campaign. That campaign was very highly regarded by the Jewish public, but the Jewish organizations disliked it intensely for several reasons, and they tried to subvert it, although they couldn't subvert it publicly. It was such a dramatic idea, and was so supported by the Jew in the street that they could not say they were opposed to it, but they were opposed to it for two reasons.

The ZOA was very public about it. They attacked me in their paper almost as though I was a traitor, that here I was seeking to encourage Jews to come to the United States when those Jews should be encouraged to go to Israel; and to take a Jew to the United States would be harmful to Israel who needed them. And I said in response to that: “I think they should be given an option. I hope they go to Israel, but what bothers me is: the United States has on its record that in World War II, when Jews could have been rescued from Mazi Germany, we took 7000 altogether and we made it impossible for the hundreds of thousands that Hitler wanted to allow out to have a place to go to. I have never forgotten that, and that's why I want to provide that