Comparing Jewish American efforts for Rubashkin and Grossman to those for Pollard

Hamodia Editorial: That None Be Forgotten


J4JP
20 June '10

J4JP Prefacing Comment:

The editorial below which recently ran in Hamodia is a deeply principled statement and a welcome change - albeit with one fatal flaw.

While we applaud the editorial's main thesis, it is both puzzling and galling to repeatedly be assailed with the canard so prevalent in the American Jewish Community, namely that there does not seem to be anything practical which can be done to help Jonathan Pollard.

It is puzzling because it simply is not true; and it is galling in light of the massive efforts and hyperbolic publicity that the American Jewish Community Leaders, their organizations and related media arms have invested in other recent cases. Never, in 25 years, has the American Jewish leadership done anything remotely similar for Jonathan Pollard! What is more, the others were certainly not "the mitzvah of pidyan shvuyim for one who was moser nefesh for Am Yisrael!"

The gross failure of the American Jewish leaders to advocate even minimally for Pollard was exposed when President Obama recently sat down with 31 Jewish Congressmen to find out what he might do to improve relations with Israel and the American Jewish Community. Imagine how simple it would have been for the Jewish Congressmen (or even just one or two of them) to say: "Mr. President, Jonathan Pollard's release would go a long way to reassuring Jews world-wide of your fairness and your concern for Israel. Please sign Pollard's commutation papers which are sitting on your desk and send him home to Israel. "

But the Jewish Congressmen had never heard from their Jewish constituents (aka the Jewish leaders) that Pollard is an issue to anyone, so they did not bring up Pollard's name at all when they sat with the President.

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