You’ve been active in Jewish organizational life for over 40 years now. The one blip on your radar screen is the time you spent working for Alexander Haig when he ran for president in 1987-88. How did you get involved in his campaign and what was that experience like?
As a young person, I was deeply involved in local and state politics in New Hampshire, and even though I chose a career working in the Jewish community, politics has always been of great interest to me. When I was working for the Anti-Defamation League, I met General Haig at one of our annual meetings and I stayed in touch. He was a good friend of Israel and the Jewish community, so when I was offered the opportunity to be his press secretary, I immediately accepted.
I was on that campaign for 13 months. It was a great experience. He was a great American, and it was an opportunity for me to see our presidential electoral process from the inside out – campaigning, preparing issue briefs, fighting to get media time, preparing for presidential debates, etc. It’s a uniquely American experience and I feel very fortunate to have had it.