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opportunity, whether they use it or they don't use it.” We have done that for Hungarians -- we took in hundreds of thousands of Hungarians -- and Cubans and Czechs who were refugees from Soviet oppression or Communist oppression, and I wanted to do the same thing for the Jews.

Okay. The ZOA never accepted that, and, as I say, they attacked me.

Then there were other groups, like the American Jewish Congress, who were distressed (a) that I was engaging in an issue that was their issue and who am I, a first-term Congressman, getting so involved in something that they have had identification with and I had not been identified with them, and also (and this was the underlying one) they didn't think we could win it. And to take on a major Jewish issue that had to come before the Congress and lose, they felt would be a terrible, terrible problem.

I didn't care. I have a very stick-to-itive kind of personality. If I undertake something, I can't be intimidated, and I moved ahead. I'm really very good at getting things done. I'm a very pragmatic guy. So I pursued it anyway. I was getting hundreds, maybe thousands, of letters on this from Jews, and also many members of Congress loved it whose names were going on this, too, because it was their name on another Jewish issue. They love it if they're not Jewish and they can point to something