vote on July 11, 1989. He served from 1989 until 1993. Activism for Soviet Jews Before the Reykjavík Summit in 1986, Hecht met with President Ronald Reagan. Hecht urged Reagan to ask Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to ease emigration requirements for Soviet Jews, including those on a list that had been prepared by a member of the Council for Soviet Jewry. Hecht reported his effort as successful: The former senator related that Reagan told him afterwards that he had given the list to the Soviet leader at the beginning of the summit when the two men met alone. Hecht said that Reagan was told by Gorbachev, "as long as nothing is in the paper, there is no publicity, and we don't hear about it," Jews on the list would be quietly released. Hecht credited the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, for prompting him to undertake the effort. Relationship with John Kerry Hecht's name reappeared in the news in the course of the 2004 presidential election because of an event during his term in the Senate. On July 12, 1988, Hecht was leaving a Republican weekly policy lunch when he began to choke on an apple slice from his lunch of fruit salad and cottage cheese. Unable to talk to his colleagues and not wanting to vomit on them, he ran into the hallway, where Senator Kit Bond, a Republican from Missouri, unsuccessfully tried to help Hecht. Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, stepping off an elevator at the same time, recognized what was happening to Hecht and quickly performed the Heimlich maneuver, saving Hecht's life. For the rest of his life, Hecht always called Kerry on Christmas Day (December 25) each year to thank him. Though a conservative Republican who contributed the maximum amount to the re-election campaign of George W. Bush, Hecht said that he would appear in support of Kerry if asked, though he declined to reveal whether he planned to vote for Kerry or for Bush. One of Hecht's daughters, Leslie Helmer, who worked for the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, helped raise funds for Kerry's campaign, out of gratitude for his action. Later career After finishing his time as ambassador to the Bahamas in 1994, Hecht returned home to Las Vegas to focus on his business activities. On May 24, 2016, his brother, businessman and philanthropist Martin Hecht, died in Palm Springs,