During my time as a New Jersey senator, Sarah, a close friend and coworker, approached me and asked me to assist her with a serious personal problem. Sarah a talented writer who often provided me with a religious perspective of Jewish issues in the state.
Originally from Paris, Sarah felt she would be more comfortable in a French atmosphere and decided to move to Montreal. There she met and married a French artist and began a new life in Montreal together with her four-year-old son. However, Sarah soon realized that the man she thought to be good and decent, was in fact not a good or kind or decent. He threatened to kidnap her son, claiming he would take the child to the far Northern sections of Canada where no one would ever find them.
And so, at 11:00 PM one night Sarah knocked on the door of my Cherry Hill home, fearful and distraught. I immediately understood that her husband had made good on his threat and kidnapped the child. My heart went out to her.
The next day we drove back to Montreal to hire an attorney and go before the judge so that Sarah could get her son back. I told the Judge the truth about her husband. He had led a very unsavory life. Within ten minutes, the Judge slammed his gavel down and gave Sarah back her son.
That night we waited until the sun went down and drove back to Cherry Hill, NJ, with Sarah and her son. I had informed my husband that we needed to clean out the refrigerator and make our kitchen kosher. While we were away my husband Harold had located a Kosher food market in Philadelphia and stocked up on kosher meats and dairy products for Sarah and her son.
In her unique way Sarah wanted to thank me for helping her. As a deeply religious woman she requested that I write to the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, about myself, my political career etc. At the same time, she wrote to the rabbi telling him how my husband and I had assisted her in her time of need, and asking him to give me his blessing.
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