In a joyful, bipartisan moment, lawmakers briefly interrupted the State of the Union address to serenade a survivor of October's Pittsburgh synagogue shooting with an impromptu version of "Happy Birthday."
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Judah Samet is also a Holocaust survivor and celebrated his 81st birthday on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump saluted Samet during his address, saying Samet can still recall the moment nearly 75 years ago when he was put on a train after 10 months in a concentration camp.
Suddenly the train screeched to a halt. A soldier appeared. Samet's family braced for the worst, but then his father cried out with joy, "It's the Americans."
Lawmakers jumped to their feet and applauded as Trump told the story, and they spontaneously sang "Happy Birthday." Samet smiled and shouted "thank you."
Noting the singing lawmakers, Trump told Samet that members of Congress "wouldn't do that for me."
Samet emigrated to Israel after World War II and served in the Israeli Defence Forces before moving to the United States in the 1960s.
In October he escaped the shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue, in which 11 people were killed.
Australian Associated Press
