certainly grateful to his wife and his family and all the members of the community here in d.c. that have worked so hard. and the bipartisan congressional and senate delegation that have worked so hard. you just spoke to the congresswoman. but this has been a big effort behind the scenes for many years. and, andrea, the significance of having this release happen on the first day of hanukkah, of course, one of the things alan gross was accused of doing was accused of distributing radios to the jewish community. there is a flourishing jewish community in cuba. de talk about that, his religion and how that played into what he was doing in cuba and the significance of having this first day of freedom during the hanukkah season? reporter: it s clearly meaningful to him. he wished everyone happy hanukkah. he talked to one of his daughters who lives in israel, another is in the pacific northwest. he talked to his sister bonnie. he was given a pancake known as