Story for Hey Teves

I would like to share with you a story that happened with me in connection with Hey Teves.

During the summer of 2002 I travelled on Merkos Shlichus to Saskatchewan, Canada together with Gershy Borenstein. We visited Jews in the two main cities of Saskatoon and Regina over a period of nearly three weeks.

Amongst the people we visited was an elderly couple, the husband was an accomplished musician who had been awarded a prestigious Canadian honour, I think it was called the Order of Canada, for his contribution to Music. The wife (a 'giyores') was more interested in our visit than he was, she was an artist and seemed very spiritual, she had bought seforim in the past from the previous Merkos Shluchim bochurim including a Lessons in Tanya. When we showed her some of the books we had brought she noticed the book 'Despite All Odds' and she said she already had that one and it has a chapter that mentions her cousin.

She explained that Judge Charles P. Sifton, the presiding Judge during the court case, was her cousin.

Interestingly, she told us that their grandfather was a Jew from Russia (she said the name, but I can't remember it, there was definitely a Solomon in the name) who rebelled and ran away to Brazil where he became a galach.

Anyway, she remembers talking with her cousin a short while after the case and him saying that he was inclined to side with BG for most of the case until he heard the testimony of a remarkable lady that totally changed his perspective.

A Gut Yom Tov