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Emanuel Celler (May 6 1888 January 15 1981) was a Jewish congressman in the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1923 until 1973. He was a graduate of Columbia Law School. He was one of the longest-serving congressmen in history. He was a Democrat. He was a lawyer before entering politics. In Congress he was particularly involved in issues relating to the judiciary and immigration.

Celler made his first important speech on the House floor during consideration of the Johnson Immigration Act of 1924. Three years earlier, Congress had imposed a quota that limited immigration for persons of any nationality to 3 percent of that nationality present in the United States in 1910, with an annual admission limit of 356,000 immigrants. This "national origin" system was structured to discriminate against Eastern and Southern European immigrants; such and, of course, Yiddish-speaking Jews. Therefore Celler was vehemently opposed to the act.

The Johnson act passed the isolationist Congress and was signed into law. Celler had found his cause, and for the next four decades he strongly advocated eliminating the national origin quotas as a basis for immigration restriction.

In 1965 Celler proposed and successfully lobbied through the democratic controlled Congress the monumental immigration bill (Hart-Celler Act) which dramatically changed US immigration policy. This bill dramatically reshaped American demographics. The act eliminated national origins as a consideration for immigration, culminating Celler's 41 year fight to overcome racialism primarily against Eastern European Jews and non white peoples.

Nearly 75 percent of American Jews descend from immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Celler was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee when, in 1972, he unexpectedly lost the Democratic primary to Elizabeth Holtzman, who went on to win the election and serve as a Representative until 1981. Holtzman eked out a victory over the veteran Celler based chiefly on his bottling up the Equal Rights Amendment in committee for 20 years.

He also proposed the Twenty-Fifth Amendment in the House in January, 1965. He later died peacefully in Brooklyn, New York.

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