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Sh'ma Ed, "I Feel Distress for You My Brother Jonathan." I I I Have Learned Much from Jonathan, "My Brother"

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Sh'ma Ed, biblical David and Jonathan; of Jonathan, David lament- , Sh'ma ed, "I feel distress for you my brother Jonathan." i i I have learned much from Jonathan, "my brother". He ! a journal of Jewish responsibility has taught me much about Jewish pride, about admit- 23/453 APRIL 30, 1993 ting wrong in the most difficult of circumstances, about inner strength in the face of unbearable prison condi- tions. about going on and believing in our people even as certain segments of the American Jewish leadership and, in earlier years the Israeli government, abandoned him. Over the course of these years, I've tried to step back to reflect on Jonathan's human condition. What follows is an attempt to connect with Jonathan's soul, to under- stand his inner feelings and to articulate what I believe to be Jonathan's sentiments on some of the key issues and conflicts he faces. For those in government who may read this piece, let it be said clearly, none of the thoughts here are Jonathan's unless otherwise indicated. One can only truly understand the moral dilemma Jona- than Pollard faced as a U.S. Naval Intelligence officer when one takes into account the background of his With jonathan pollard early years. Avi Weiss "If Not Me, Who?" When Jonathan Pollard first asked me to serve as his Jonathan Pollard was raised in a family where loyalties personal rabbi in May of 1987, 1 did so with a sense of as a Jew and as an American were one. Jonathan was rabbinic responsibility. I knew little about the Pollard interested in fully becoming part of his country. case. But I have always felt that a rabbi's sacred task is : to reach out to eveiy Jew—to be there in their time of At an early age. Jonathan became aware of the horrific 1 need, to lend support, and when necessary, to help in a toll the Holocaust had taken on his immediate family— i process of growth-even rehabilitation. 75 of whom were murdered by the Nazis. When he was about to become bar mitzvah, he asked his parents to Once I learned more about the details of the case, how- take him to visit the death camps. He made the trip > ever, I was moved to become one of his political advo- shortly after the Six Day War and the confluence of cates. A rabbi is there for someone right or wrong; an those two events made a tremendous impact on Jona- advocate only supports someone he/she agrees with. I than's life and his way of thinking. have become a Jonathan Pollard advocate because I believe a grave injustice has been done. Years later, Jonathan's work with Naval Intelligence brought him face to face with information which point- During these past six years, I have come to know Jona- ed to a growing deadly threat to the very existence of than Pollard the man. Since August of 1988, when I Israel and therefore to the Jewish people. To his horror, was first given clearance to see Jonathan, I have visited he discovered that material was being withheld. This him in the Marion Federal Penitentiary 29 times, once was in violation of an Executive Agreement between every two months. Each time we spend six intense the U.S. and Israel not to mention in violation of the hours talking to each other. I feel as if we have become human obligation to save innocent victims from a catas- "brothers". Our relationship is something like that of the trophe if not genocide. Like Moses in the Bible, "he looked here and there and he saw there was no person" who would bear responsibility. AVI WEISS is senior rabbi of The Hebrew Institute of Jonathan felt he could not simply acquiesce to a policy Riverdale and national president of The Coalition for Jewish which itself could result in the death of tens, if not Concems-Amcha. hundreds of thousands of innocent people. He was fully 97 aware that his decision to transfer intelligence to Israel Uncompromisingly American was legally wrong, but Jonathan Pollard is someone I saw Jonathan Pollard a few days before the large who understands the imperatives of zechira—remem- Pollard demonstration at Congregation Kehillath Jesh- brance and the critical importance of Jewish survival, a urun in New York last June 1992. Just before leaving, survival which is inextricably bound with a strong Jew- Jonathan said: "Tell the people, G-d bless America." ish state. As he wrote from prison one year before the Jonathan has often described himself as an unabashedly Persian Gulf war: "The same gas which the Nazis used loyal American. There is little doubt in my mind that at. to murder our European brethren could just as easily be no time did Jonathan Pollard feel that he was damaging j used today by the Arabs to exterminate the Jewish American interests. population of Israel. Was I really expected to just let I histoiy repeat itself without doing anything to protect The American government agrees. Indeed, we must : our people from such a calamity? Granted, I broke the never forget that the American government did not ' law. But, to tell you the truth, I'd rather be rotting in charge Pollard with intent to injure the United States, j prison than sitting shiva for the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who could have died because of my coward- ice. Have the fires of the concentration camps grown so cold that people have forgotten that 6 million Jews were Sh'ma butchered while the whole world looked on in silence? a journal of Jewish responsibility , You see, I just could not walk away from the intelli- ! gence embargo and pretend that it didn't exist. I had to Senior Editors Eugene B. Borowitz. Irving Greenberg. act." Harold M. Schulweis Editor Nina Beth Cardin j What if Jonathan Looked the Other Way? Administrator Betsy M. Landis | So Jonathan passed on to Israel classified information Production Bambi Marcus concerning the weapons systems and war-making capa- Contributing Editors Michael Berenbaum. David Biale. Balfour Brickner. Elliot N. Dorff. Arnold Eisen, David Ellenson, bilities of various Arab states such as Iraq, Syria and Leonard Fein. Rela M. Geffen. Neil Gillman, Joanne Greenberg, Libya including evidence of Iraqi efforts to produce Susan Handelman. Lawrence Hoffman, Paula Hyman, Lawrence chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and deliver Longer. Deborah Dash Moore, David Novak, Riv-Ellen Prell, Ellen those weapons of mass destruction to Israel's population Umansky, Elie Wiesel, Arnold Jacob Wolf, Walter Wurzburger, I centers. Michael Wyschogrod. I Sh'ma welcomes articles from diverse points of view. Hence, the j Jonathan deeply regrets the tremendous cost of his opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the editors. actions. The cost to the health of his ex-wife Anne; the Donations to Sh'ma are tax-deductible. Sh'ma is available in micro- ; cost to his marriage; the cost of his incarceration, the form from University Microfilms Intemat'l., Ann Arbor, MI. agony of isolation and the mental torture he has been Long book reviews appear quarterly; shorter ones regularly. Un- t forced to endure. signed reviews are by Eugene B. Borowitz. ;' Moreover, on mote than one occasion Jonathan ac- Address all correspondence, subscriptions and change of address ; knowledged that he broke the law and has expressed notices to Sh'ma, c/o CLAL, 99 Park Avenue, Suite S-300, New York, NY 10016. FAX: 212-867-8853. ; regret that he did not find a legal manner through which he could pass lifesaving information to Israel. But when Sh'ma (ISSN 0049-0385) is published bi-weekly except June, July and. confronted with the possibility that his failure to act August, by CLAL, 99 Park Avenue, Suite S-300, New York, NY 10016. Subscription S27 for two years in U.S.; $17 a year overseas. could result in a physical catastrophe of potentially Ten or more to one address, $9 each year. Retired or handicapped [ devastating proportions, Jonathan acted instinctively in persons of restricted means may subscribe at half price. | defense of the Jewish people. This is why many people Copyright © 1993 by CLAL now say that Jonathan was legally wrong but morally right in what he did. While Jonathan has not comment- POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sh'ma, c/o CLAL, 99 Paik; Avenue, S-300. New York, NY 10016-1599. ed on this directly, what he has said is that the motives behind his actions and, perhaps more importantly, the Second-class postage paid at New York, NY consequences of those actions should be taken into account in terms of mitigating his sentence. April 30, 1993 98 Moreover, the government did not even allege that, we not abandon Jonathan to the grasp of vengeful jus- from an objective standpoint, someone in Pollard's tice.D position with all the information that he had at his disposal would have had any reason to believe that any Come Memory of the material transmitted by Pollard to Israel would or could cause injury to the United States. Amnon Hadary Yet, unlike other cases of espionage on behalf of coun- The two worst things that befell me are enmeshed in tries allied with the United States which when prosecut- my memory with war. In 1949, having fought in Israel's ed have typically ended with prison terms in the range War of Liberation, I believed, along with the others of 2-5 years, Pollard was sentenced to life in prison. who lived through that drama, that we had ensured the The government promised it would not ask for life but safe existence of the third Jewish Commonwealth, the it did.
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