One would influence the other. Thats an extremely complicated question. What happens is many chinese are come to america and white workers accuse them of working for lower wages and of being imported here, meaning being carried in on contracts. And some go out of their way and say were not against chinese immigration, were just opposed to them being brought here on contracts. Politicians in this period, the 1870s and the 1880s is an era in that the two parties are virtually equal in numbers. For the last 20 years or so there have been been dimensions but weve had some of the closest elections in history. Now, as well see this year, there are a half dozen Battle Ground states. Whoever wednesday ohio and florida will likely twin election. Democrats and republicans were evenly divided. Anything that could gain a few votes would switch the election. They claim they kind of fudge over the argument about importation and say if we keep the chinese outs, this will be good for the american economy, good for the working man and it will help the United States. And even though workers have never really been asking for this except for several in california its different. But east of the rockies workers could care less about this, but politicians see immigration as a way to demagogue votes. Theres no more advice al issue in america as race and immigration. When you combine the two and this is the first time its really done its against the irish in the 1850s. But this is the time it really gains weight and it worked. The mark of a great talk is when we have to interrupt the speaker for the next speaker. Thank you. My pleasure. More road to the white house Coverage Today with hillary clinton. Shell be campaigning in tampa. C cspan will have coverage of that. Hillary clinton won the states march primary with more than 64 of the vote and she takes 141 of floridas delegates to mondays convention. It begins at 4 30 eastern. During the civil war, ki, as its known was only in as the abolitionist temple. Since then it has a long history of social activism, but in addition to that, lance has a ph. D. In history from the university of cincinnati. Hes written a number of books on American Jewish history and written a number of scholarly articles as well as articles in the more popular press and i had the honor of coarthuring an article with lance in the huffing on the post this year on the brandeis confirmation, which we are also celebrating this year. I requecan add to the program whenever i want. And to the great credit of the United States congress, then in the hands of the antislavery Republican Party who had just led the nation to both saving the nation and ending slavery, the majority of congress simply said no, all persons means all persons. We are not going to get into the business of excludeing particular groups of people one final footnote on that before i bring on lance, during world war i, Congress Passed a law which said that if you were honorably discharged veteran, you could become a citizen of the United States automatically. But in toyota versus the United States, in the 1920s, the Supreme Court ruled that that was true except for immigrants from east asia, china and japan, who could not become citizens, even if as in the case of mr. Toyota, he served honorably in the coast guard and navy. So we have always had a kind of distinct prejudice against people from east asia that only in the post 1965 world have we changed. Now i would like to introduce lance sussman, who will talk to us about the 1924 act and how it relates ultimately to the 1965 civil immigration act. I should also add that lance, in addition to being a rabbi, and in addition to being a historian, has taught at a number of institutions including Hunter College and princeton when hes not busy writing sermons hes writing lectures. I dont have time to write. I just wing them. Want to thank the United StatesCapital Historical Society for the opportunity to speak today. Especially the wonderful staff and the chair of the symposium, my friend Paul Finkelman. As you have heard, paul and i have been friends for many years and currently are collaborating on a number of projects of which this is a particularly important one to me. It is a special honor for me to be here and have an opportunity to share my thoughts about one of this countrys most important political and policy issues. An issue which affects the lives of millions of people every day in this country, and around the world, which is, of course, the issue of immigration. I also would like to read it in a much larger context. The in that migration and more specifically immigration has played a consistently Important Role in Human History since our species first emerged in africa over 200,000 years ago. The movement of Indigenous People to the western hemisphere, celts into europe, the possible movement of central asians into india are all typical ofur migratory species. And not surprisingly there are a number of theories, competing theorys from economic to climate based, which attempts to explain the mass movements of entire peoples within and among various nations, regions and continents. Migration, immigration, sanctuary, diaspora, deportation, and expulsion present challenges to International Systems of law and seriously test the proposition that every person has inalienable rights. We migrate because were human and our individual and collective humanity invariably is tested when we migrate. Not surprisingly, then, the regulation of migration by the modern nation state is complex, and pits economic, cultural and legal factors against one another. Countries variously promote, block, ignore and selectively control immigration. Immigration can be celebrated or vilified, but it can never be ignored. Immigration is also a very personal matter to me. My own familys graentd story is central to my narrative as a person, and determinative in my choice of careers and historical work. My paternal grandfather arrived in this country from czarist russia as a child, he had no money, he had no education, and he had no skills. But by the mid1920s, sussman and lev emerged as one of the outside standing jewish dell ka testens in east baltimore. Who knows what jacob sussmans fate would have been on the Eastern Front during world war i or during the bolshevik revolution or the russian civil war, let alone under communism and naziism in east europe. Instead, he ended up living a solidly middle class american life, and was the father of sons who won combat medals for bravery during world war ii in korea. His mothers story is more harrowing. She came to america alone, at the age of 13, in september 1938, from nazi germany. After crystal night her parents and little brother eventually joined her, they were obviously the lucky ones. They had american relatives who signed papers for them, high level political connections, sufficient funds, and a Transatlantic Network to get them into this country. But the story which really shapes me is a very different one. After arriving safely in america in 1939, my maternal grandfather max psaki worked tirelessly to bring others out of nazi germany. He even returned to germany after the nazi attack on poland, to try and save others. Except for his own family, he totally failed. The friends he sought to save were all slaughtered. Money and political connections were not enough. Indifference and even hostility within the American Jewish community to german jews sealed the fate of those max sought to save. Quote, you cant save every third cousin, one rabbi told my grandfather. My opa in turn vowed to spit on the grave of that clergyman, and in time he did. Immigration is a difficult undertaking. It requires courage, fortitude, assets, connections, luck, ways of thinking which value the stranger and the dispossessed, the endangered, and sometimes the hopeless. To value them as equals as equal to those who are secure and undisturbed. It requires an incredible faith in the humanity of the storm tossed and discarded that they too be given a chance that they will add to the richness of a host society, and not be a burden or a threat. One such individual who was a true champion of the immigrant, and particularly the refugee, a person who had incredible faith in the humanity and capacity of the storm tossed was representative emanuel celler, democrat of brooklyn. He alone was present in the house of representatives when the doors of america closed and in 1924 and again when they began to reopen after world war ii. More than anyone else, he was responsible for the content of the immigration act of 1965, which bears his name, and is the symbolic anchor of this symposium were at, the 50th anniversary. Were going to take a quick look at several aspects of manny celler. His own story, his reaction to the 1924 National Origins act, his participation in the culture and dynamics of the house, his relentless struggle during the holocaust for rescue, and finally his combination of Immigration Law with civil rights. About manny celler, he was born in brooklyn, new york, may 6th, 1888. His father, henry, was a whiskeymaker, echo spring. They had a big vat in the basement of their row home. He had three jewish and one catholic grandparent. And he wrote in his autobiography something to the effect, like, he never left brooklyn, even though he lived in washington. My grandfather was catholic, my grandmother jewish, crossing over from bavaria as immigrants to the United States, the ship started to sink. My grandmother jumped overboard. My grandfather followed to save this girl he had never met. Later, of course, they married and as he said here i am. To a certain extent, the business of immigration and rescue became the major themes of his life. It is important to point out that celler was a cultural jew and active cultural jew, not religious, did not attend synagogue. At 8 years of age, he says in his autobiography, important event happened in his life. His dad took him to hear William Jennings bryant speak and apparently was a life changing moment. He pursued a rigorous education at Boys High School in columbia college, but soon after entering the college, he ran into major family problems, his father died, five months later his mother died, and it left him in charge of the Family Business and going to school at the same time. But despite these circumstances, he stayed on track. He graduated from Columbia University in 1910, and went to columbia law, admitted to the bar in 1912. Married in 1914, to stella barr, two girls, one daughter freida had Cerebral Palsy and predeceased him and his daughter jane survived him. The period of world war i, he claims he became a zionist in favor of jewish statehood in palestine as a result of reading theodore hertzles book and made good on that commitment throughout his political career. When world war i broke out, he was working on a draft appeal board in new york city when he caught the attention of Democratic Party officials in the city. They asked him to run for congress, and he ran a door to door campaign. He was elected to the United States congress, 10th congressional district, which actually changed many times over his career. Not surprisingly, given the Family Business, he ran on an antiprohibition platform in a district heavily populated by immigrants. Manny celler was in the house of representatives longer than almost anybody else in the history of the house. He started under president harding and was still in the house when president ford came to the white house. He was known for quick wit, for love of music, especially opera, and he would do parlor tricks for children. He also had a number of pithy sayings. For example, to be a successful congressman, he once said, one must have the friendliness of a child, the enthusiasm of a teenager, the assurance of a college boy, the diplomacy of a wayward husband, the curiosity of a cat, and the good humor of an idiot. Sounds like a prescription for success. In 1923, celler took his seat in the house. And he took an instant disliking to the culture of the hill. He lived when he was down here in the may flower hotel but said in his heart, he never left brooklyn. The first thing he heard was a junior freshman congressman was the debate over National Origins and it shook him to his core. He was deeply upset by what he heard, and then spent essentially the next 50 of his years of his life trying to reverse it. The world changed not only for manny, but for everybody in 1929, with the crash of the stock market, and then the rise of to power of adolf hitler, which put into motion a whole new Immigration Crisis of jews from germany, austria and central europe. It is quite remarkable to note that in the very active world of holocaust history, and particularly in the assessments of the role of the United States in rescue of Holocaust Victims and potential victims, that there is only one person in that entire literature which is mostly tremendously negative who consistently gets good marks, even for the strongest critics of american behavior, during this period, scholars like david wyman and his protege rafael medoff. Celler is the only person they say who never lost his moral compass. And when one goes through the period, the highlights, low lights of it, you can see he does train his attention on this issue of rescue. And works at it despite essentially no success whatsoever. The first major event in terms of the United States trying to deal with holocaust immigrants was the evian conference in france of july 6th, an intergovernment association, but proved to be totally moribund. Cellers reaction was to try to simply get unused quotas filled here in the United States. The problem accelerated with crystal nacht, the great nazi pogrem, after which immigration from germany greatly accelerates. The response here on the hill was the attempt to pass the wagnerrogers act which would allow for 20,000 German Jewish children to come to the United States, but it completely failed. When fdr himself allowed for admitting germans above the quota, he received praise for celler, but on the other hand, celler was unable to get fdr to challenge the british decision to close the coast of palestine to jewish immigration. Of course, a very complicated decision all the way around. Trying to open other avenues, he wrote to kordell hall at state and it began a 45 year process which ultimately resulted in full diplomatic relations with the holy see in 1984 past his career. For the United States, the situation in europe and of course the pacific changes with the japanese attack on pearl harbor in december of 1941. This then brought the United States directly into the war. And more directly into the problems of refugees coming out of europe and in particular the focus of my discussion. A very important event happens in the American Jewish community that is not in my attention adequately understood or prioritized. And that is a meeting in new york city at the Biltmore Hotel in may of 1942, in which a conscious decision was made at that time to, of course, embrace the win the war strategy as the number one priority, but in terms of within the jewish community, the number one strategy internal to the community would be jewish statehood and palestine. The conscious decision was then to relegate, rescue to the third level, that that was not going to be the primary interest of the community. For celler himself, though, he couldnt accept that and he couldnt deprioritize it. He immediately gets to work in different areas, for example, he learns that, like everyone else from the regular rigor telegram about the final solution, and at the moment there was a particular issue in the jews of france and he tries to work toward legislation for bringing in jews of france to the United States through exceptions. Again, it fails. The year 1943 was perhaps the darkest hours, restoring this period that all avenues of escape were essentially blocked, and in europe the killing the genocide hit its high point. Celler and others went to the white house trying to argue the case, both for relaxation of restrictions to the United States, and to get the british to reverse the white paper in palestine. He also worked with the various rallies that were being held in Madison Square garden and elsewhere. The highlight or low light of 1943 with respect to rescue operations was the socalled Bermuda Conference. The Bermuda Conference was called specifically to deal with the question of jewish immigration and rescue. It was supported by cellers principal nemesis on the hill, another jewish congressman from new york city, representing the upper east side, representative saul bloom was an apologist for the white house, later went on to distinguish himself in his work for the establishment of the united nations. But bloom upheld what happened at bermuda or rather what didnt happen at bermuda as being adequate, and celler didnt. In his own style, celler referred to the Bermuda Conference as a blooming fiasco.