Each Shabbat morning, I am wont to ascend to the bima (dias) to give a special Mishabeirach for Cholim (prayer for the sick), for Yonaton Ben Malka - Jonathan Pollard (Yehonatan Pollard, for the benefit of native-born Israelis). Every Shabbat morning, no matter which synagogue I'm in here in Israel, when I make this Mishabeirach for Cholim followed by my saying Pollard's full name in English and in Hebrew, I hear the same derisive muttering in the background, "What? Is Pollard Ill?" Every Shabbat I feel the same shock, to put it mildly - no, make that outrage.
Some of what I feel is particular to the case of Jonathan Pollard and the frank indifference to his plight on the part of olim (immigrants to Israel), of ?Anglos? ? English speakers . Notice, I said Anglos, not native-born Israelis. I hear the mutterings and its always Anglo voices, not Israelis. I never hear Israelis mutter either in Hebrew or in broken English "What? Is Pollard Ill?" Granted that Israelis don't know near enough about the Pollard case and the Israeli Government's part in it. They are not aware of the fact that when Pollard tried to take shelter and ask for asylum in the Israeli Embassy in the US, sovereign Israeli territory under international law, the Israeli Government rewarded Pollard for saving thousands or tens of thousands of Jewish lives by turning him over to US for prosecution. Pollard gave information, information that the US was bound by agreement to provide, but did not do so, to Israel, a US ally, which enabled Israel to take out the Iraqi nuclear reactor in the early 1980s. Israel's action in bombing the Iraqi reactor ironically didn't save just Jewish lives, but American lives as well. Reference the Gulf War in 1991, for example.
Israelis are not aware that the US made a plea-bargain agreement with Pollard to plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence, which the US Justice Department then violated when it sentenced Pollard to life imprisonment based on then-Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger's dubious "If you only knew" document submitted to the sentencing Judge shortly before sentencing was passed.
Israelis also are not aware of the daily mistreatment of Jonathan Pollard for some 17 years at the hands of the US Prison System. They don't know of the years when Pollard was incarcerated in isolation, denied the barest minimum medical care and denied a Kosher diet. They don't know that despite all of this, Pollard had the strength and will of character to become a religious Jew - a Ba'al Teshuva.
Israelis, by and large, don't know that there is a so-called "principled Jew" named Joe Lieberman, who, after attacking Clinton for the "Lewinsky Affair", nearly became US Vice President in the closely contested election between Al Gore and President George W. Bush. Israelis don't know, have no clue, of the fact that Joe Lieberman to this day proclaims that Pollard had a trial by jury when, in fact, such trial never occurred, as Pollard was sentenced as a result of a violated plea-bargain and never had "his day in court." Israelis don't know that Lieberman has spent years evading attempts by people like NY State Assemblyman Sam Colman to set the record straight.
Israelis also, by and large, don't know that their current Prime Minister and previous Prime Ministers, with the possible exception of Netanyahu, have acted with equivocation and have made no effort to bring about Jonathan Pollard's freedom. They also, by and large, probably have no inkling, no clue that the current Prime Minister has tried, on two occasions ? first with $1 million and then with $2 million, to buy Pollard's silence and languishing in prison until death.
I spoke recently with a friend, an American reservist living in Israel who was activated in the aftermath of the Twin Towers event of 11 September, 2001. While in the United States, he was able to visit and spend some time with Jonathan Pollard. My friend related to me the following: "Jonathan is a genius, plain and simple, and he's a joy to be with. Despite it all. he has a sense of humor and his breadth and depth of knowledge is breathtaking. The hardest thing to take is when he talks about his plans for a family and starting a business when he gets out. Heartrending - because you know he can make a serious difference in Israel and every minute that he is hindered from his goals is a not only a personal tragedy, but a national one."
I asked my friend, "Do you think that we have a shot with Bush to get him Free? My friend responded, "Best chance there's been in many years." Then I asked, Is Sharon really the one throwing the monkey wrenches into efforts to free Pollard? He responded, "Let's put it this way, it's not much higher than priority #72 by him." I restated the question this way, Is that 28% from rock-bottom or 28% below top priority? The answer came quickly, "The former, unfortunately."
Israelis don't know and must be brought "up to speed". For religious Anglos, however, no such excuse - "we didn't know" - exists. One would have had to be deaf, dumb and blind not to know. You name it, every major religious publication - The Jewish Press, Jewish Week, Jewish Action, Hamodia, Viewpoint, etc. - has had extensive coverage over the years of the Pollard case. There have always been, through these many years, and still are, American TV and radio talk shows devoted to Jonathan Pollard's plight. The bottom line is that in light of the great mitzvah of Pidyon Shvu'im - freeing of an unjustly imprisoned Jewish captive - the mutter of "What? Is Pollard Ill?" is really quite lame and quite infuriating.
Some of what I feel is Pollard-particular, but much of what I feel is symptomatic of our collective malaise. The malaise of doing things totally by rote ? of constantly playing "beat the clock" at the expense of the quality, concentration and intensity of our tefillah (prayer) as delivered to and ultimately received by God. When tefillah is continually said at a speed needed to break a time-barrier and when the gabai (beadle) similarly utters Mishabeirachs for the sick at break-neck, mumbling speed as he races against the clock, lest the congregants spend one extra minute in synagogue on shabbat, how do you think that such tefillah is received in Heaven?
Why do I make a point each Shabbat, the day of the largest synagogue attendance of the week, to explicitly see that there is an appropriate tefillah said for my brother Jonathan Pollard? If there is no other tefillah which reaches Heaven unimpeded, ungarbled by break-neck speed, this one will. God-willing, if others pick up this call in other synagogues throughout Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) and in Chutz L'Aretz (abroad), we hope to be worthy to soon witness Jonathan Pollard's freedom and the day when he is physically among us here in Eretz Yisrael. I know that I long for that day and will do all that I can to bring it about.
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Moshe Burt, of Ramat Beit Shemesh, is the Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network.
Some of what I feel is particular to the case of Jonathan Pollard and the frank indifference to his plight on the part of olim (immigrants to Israel), of ?Anglos? ? English speakers . Notice, I said Anglos, not native-born Israelis. I hear the mutterings and its always Anglo voices, not Israelis. I never hear Israelis mutter either in Hebrew or in broken English "What? Is Pollard Ill?" Granted that Israelis don't know near enough about the Pollard case and the Israeli Government's part in it. They are not aware of the fact that when Pollard tried to take shelter and ask for asylum in the Israeli Embassy in the US, sovereign Israeli territory under international law, the Israeli Government rewarded Pollard for saving thousands or tens of thousands of Jewish lives by turning him over to US for prosecution. Pollard gave information, information that the US was bound by agreement to provide, but did not do so, to Israel, a US ally, which enabled Israel to take out the Iraqi nuclear reactor in the early 1980s. Israel's action in bombing the Iraqi reactor ironically didn't save just Jewish lives, but American lives as well. Reference the Gulf War in 1991, for example.
Israelis are not aware that the US made a plea-bargain agreement with Pollard to plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence, which the US Justice Department then violated when it sentenced Pollard to life imprisonment based on then-Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger's dubious "If you only knew" document submitted to the sentencing Judge shortly before sentencing was passed.
Israelis also are not aware of the daily mistreatment of Jonathan Pollard for some 17 years at the hands of the US Prison System. They don't know of the years when Pollard was incarcerated in isolation, denied the barest minimum medical care and denied a Kosher diet. They don't know that despite all of this, Pollard had the strength and will of character to become a religious Jew - a Ba'al Teshuva.
Israelis, by and large, don't know that there is a so-called "principled Jew" named Joe Lieberman, who, after attacking Clinton for the "Lewinsky Affair", nearly became US Vice President in the closely contested election between Al Gore and President George W. Bush. Israelis don't know, have no clue, of the fact that Joe Lieberman to this day proclaims that Pollard had a trial by jury when, in fact, such trial never occurred, as Pollard was sentenced as a result of a violated plea-bargain and never had "his day in court." Israelis don't know that Lieberman has spent years evading attempts by people like NY State Assemblyman Sam Colman to set the record straight.
Israelis also, by and large, don't know that their current Prime Minister and previous Prime Ministers, with the possible exception of Netanyahu, have acted with equivocation and have made no effort to bring about Jonathan Pollard's freedom. They also, by and large, probably have no inkling, no clue that the current Prime Minister has tried, on two occasions ? first with $1 million and then with $2 million, to buy Pollard's silence and languishing in prison until death.
I spoke recently with a friend, an American reservist living in Israel who was activated in the aftermath of the Twin Towers event of 11 September, 2001. While in the United States, he was able to visit and spend some time with Jonathan Pollard. My friend related to me the following: "Jonathan is a genius, plain and simple, and he's a joy to be with. Despite it all. he has a sense of humor and his breadth and depth of knowledge is breathtaking. The hardest thing to take is when he talks about his plans for a family and starting a business when he gets out. Heartrending - because you know he can make a serious difference in Israel and every minute that he is hindered from his goals is a not only a personal tragedy, but a national one."
I asked my friend, "Do you think that we have a shot with Bush to get him Free? My friend responded, "Best chance there's been in many years." Then I asked, Is Sharon really the one throwing the monkey wrenches into efforts to free Pollard? He responded, "Let's put it this way, it's not much higher than priority #72 by him." I restated the question this way, Is that 28% from rock-bottom or 28% below top priority? The answer came quickly, "The former, unfortunately."
Israelis don't know and must be brought "up to speed". For religious Anglos, however, no such excuse - "we didn't know" - exists. One would have had to be deaf, dumb and blind not to know. You name it, every major religious publication - The Jewish Press, Jewish Week, Jewish Action, Hamodia, Viewpoint, etc. - has had extensive coverage over the years of the Pollard case. There have always been, through these many years, and still are, American TV and radio talk shows devoted to Jonathan Pollard's plight. The bottom line is that in light of the great mitzvah of Pidyon Shvu'im - freeing of an unjustly imprisoned Jewish captive - the mutter of "What? Is Pollard Ill?" is really quite lame and quite infuriating.
Some of what I feel is Pollard-particular, but much of what I feel is symptomatic of our collective malaise. The malaise of doing things totally by rote ? of constantly playing "beat the clock" at the expense of the quality, concentration and intensity of our tefillah (prayer) as delivered to and ultimately received by God. When tefillah is continually said at a speed needed to break a time-barrier and when the gabai (beadle) similarly utters Mishabeirachs for the sick at break-neck, mumbling speed as he races against the clock, lest the congregants spend one extra minute in synagogue on shabbat, how do you think that such tefillah is received in Heaven?
Why do I make a point each Shabbat, the day of the largest synagogue attendance of the week, to explicitly see that there is an appropriate tefillah said for my brother Jonathan Pollard? If there is no other tefillah which reaches Heaven unimpeded, ungarbled by break-neck speed, this one will. God-willing, if others pick up this call in other synagogues throughout Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) and in Chutz L'Aretz (abroad), we hope to be worthy to soon witness Jonathan Pollard's freedom and the day when he is physically among us here in Eretz Yisrael. I know that I long for that day and will do all that I can to bring it about.
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Moshe Burt, of Ramat Beit Shemesh, is the Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network.