Help Racheli Reunite with Her Children

Dear Friends, Family, and Compassionate Souls,

I come to you today with a broken yet hopeful heart. After over a year of silence, I have no choice but to come forward and ask for your help. I have written and rewritten this GoFundMe dozens of times, each time reluctant to publicly share our story for fear of the ramifications on myself and my children. However, the continued child neglect, abuse, and parental alienation that my children endure every day simply cannot continue any longer. They are suffering and, without your help, I will not be able to save them.

I ask you, dear reader, to have an open mind and heart as I bear my soul and beg for your help so my children and I may be together again soon.

In January 2023, I faced the most difficult decision of my life as a wife and mother of four young children living in Miami, Florida. Behind closed doors, my children and I were suffering every day in silence from my now ex-husband’s verbal, physical, emotional, psychological, and financial abuse. The escalating violence finally drove me to flee with my children and seek refuge in a domestic violence shelter. However, even there, we still felt afraid and missed the warmth and love of family.

With the unwavering support of my sister, Sarah, we found comfort in her two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles where we finally felt a sense of peace and safety. Yet, our hopes were shattered when my ex-husband ambushed me in court, lied about my competency as a mother, and legally had the children removed from my custody with no certainty of when we would ever be together again. The legal, yet unethical, immoral, and vindictive battles that my ex-husband has unleashed in court this past year resulted in the devastating loss of any custody of my children, which broke me beyond measure. I found myself penniless, homeless, and living in my car on the streets of Miami having been stripped of my dignity, my motherhood, and any chance of rebuilding.

As I worked tirelessly at various odd jobs to afford visitation trips with my kids, my ex-husband callously disregarded my homelessness and destitution, instead skillfully persuaded others that he was supporting me and that I am the kind of mother who would abandon her children. Despite the November 2023 court order, he has adamantly refused to pay any alimony and has strategically destroyed my reputation with libelous lies across the entire Florida Jewish community network. His baseless defamation of character has left me frighteningly scarce in resources for support, forcing me to temporarily leave the state to ensure my survival.

Meanwhile, my ex-husband has continued to manipulate the children against me, controlling my access to them and what they are allowed to share with me under threats of punishment. When I do manage to speak with them, I have had no choice but to helplessly hear their cries from the ongoing neglect, gaslighting, emotional and physical abuse that continues every day. However, despite the children's immense agony, they only share their pain with me because they are afraid of his punishments and still depend on him for basic daily survival.

As of this writing, it has been over 15 months since that gut-wrenching day when he tore my children from my arms, and not a day goes by without our yearning to be together again.

This coming September 2024, the Florida Court will be deciding my and my children’s fates and we desperately need your help. Your support will provide us with:

Legal Assistance: Just the retainer fee alone to secure a Florida family law attorney ranges between $3,000 to $15,000. In addition to the retainer fee, attorneys charge hourly rates for their services, which range from at least $350 to $500 or more. Your contributions will help cover the costs of legal representation to help me save my children.

Your kindness and compassion mean more to us than words can express. Knowing that we are not alone as my children and I have to walk this journey separated but still together gives us the strength to keep moving forward with hope.

I understand that times are tough for all of us now. The smallest gesture of support, sharing our GoFundMe with others, and even a kind message would make all the difference to me and my children.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

May your path be blessed always, Racheli