Rep. Emanuel Celler - an unsung hero

During World War I, Celler became a Zionist after reading Herzl.

Representative Emanuel Celler (D-NY, 1888-1981) was the longest-serving Congressman from New York (1924-1965). During his first term in the House, Celler was present when Congress completed legislating the highly restrictive “national origins” system limiting immigration to the United States to under 400,000 a year based on country of origin. The goal of the legislation was to keep America an Anglo-Saxon country. Celler spent the next 40 years seeking to overturn the Johnson Acts and finally did so in 1965 as a co-sponsor of the Hart-Celler Act.

Emanuel “Manny” Celler was born in Brooklyn, NY on May 6, 1888. Although he lived in Washington, D.C. for much of his adult life, he felt he “never left Brooklyn.” His father, Henry, made whiskey in the basement of his childhood row home. Celler had three Jewish grandparents. His mother’s father was Catholic He did not attend synagogue but was raised as a cultural Jew. When he was 8, his father took him to hear William Jennings Bryan speak and it changed his life. Later, he attended Boys High School, Columbia and later Columbia Law.