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PERSPECTIVE The Dual Loyalty Question—Or Will Jonathan Pollard Become A Hero? The problem with the case of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for Israel,...
...he believed in what he was doing...
...Now that the community has finally been jolted into action there is still the danger that millions of dollars will be squandered on ineffective programs or simply that promising programs will not reach their potential...
...I asked Chicago Sinai's rabbi, Howard Berman, if his congregants were anti-Zionist...
...Jonathan Pollard's spying was clearly ideological...
...Despite Pollard's expression of remorse at the time of his sentencing, it is doubtful that the judge believed him...
...At least so it seems to many...
...Now that people of power and resource are stepping up to the challenge, the questions remain: Will they make it happen and will they do it well...
...A generation ago the voices of people with ideas but little power were not heard and so the community suffered for its elitism...
...There are other kinds of politically sensitive matters that Pollard and his defenders can be expected to raise once he is released and free to say what he wishes...
...Historians will be writing about it 50 years from now...
...It is straight lecture...
...At Chicago Sinai their principal weekly service, using the old Reform prayer book, is on Sunday, although they also have a small, sparsely attended Sabbath service on Friday before dinner and on Saturday morning...
...They have an extraordinary building whose main sanctuary seats 2,200 people...
...In an innovation that will hopefully be repeated at all Jewish conferences, two hours were set aside in the middle of the day for small group Torah study sessions...
...GA participants this year were wrestling with how to combat an intermarriage rate that is higher than 50 percent and climbing fast...
...Someone would always mention them...
...Will the discussion on how to tackle the problem of Jewish identity and continuity be open to more than the small circle who normally control Jewish communal life and budgets...
...I don't know anyone who has defended the severity of the sentence...
...Back then the interfaith marriage rate was roughly 10 percent...
...The experience engendered a few thoughts: For years I have attended a well-known lecture series at the largest Reform synagogue in Washington: Washington Hebrew Congregation's Sunday Morning Scholar Series...
...There must be some way the public can be informed...
...Mainstream Reform has moved to a more traditional stance—more Hebrew, a strong Zionist orientation, even kippot...
...Freedom of speech doesn't apply in that situation...
...The Pollard case will not end with his release...
...I hope he rots in prison...
...The life sentence you imposed in the Pollard case is very hard to understand...
...This may explain why some elements in the Israeli government as well as the American government are not anxious to see him released...
...Indeed, his release— presumably by commutation of the sentence to time served (now seven years already) by the new president—will only escalate the interest in some unanswered questions...
...A brief reference at the dinner table to my Pollard pieces led to my friend's explosion: "I hope they never let him out...
...When that happens, the dual loyalty issue will again surface...
...When I got there, I learned that it is one of only four synagogues in America that follow the strict Classical Reform practice of having their major worship service on Sunday morning...
...Eventually, we will learn whether— and, if so, how—this helped Israel during the Gulf War and, according to some scenarios, helped the United States...
...Was there any justification for Pollard's doing what he did...
...True, he received money—or money was put away for him...
...But I was impressed by it and by Chicago Sinai's own tradition, what Rabbi Berman called their own minhag...
...October 1992...
...Well, Pollard disobeyed the judge...
...All enrich us...
...At some point, security considerations will no longer justify keeping this information secret...
...It's true only if you say that to a judge— it's called contempt of court...
...Jewish life needs to be exciting and inclusive if we are to involve the unaffiliated...
...Many Kinds of Jews I recently accepted an invitation to lecture on a Sunday morning at .the Chicago Sinai Congregation...
...For two hours Jewish knowledge was valued over ego, over money and over organizational affiliation...
...and the fact that he spied for an ally, not an enemy—if any weight were given to these factors, he could not have received the maximum sentence...
...This may account for the hesitation in some quarters in working for Pollard's release...
...The significance of the speech did not lie in her specific words—which were eloquent, powerful and well-received—but in the people who echoed them...
...If not by a letter, could I interview you about the case...
...But it may not take 50 years...
...The still-secret affidavit submitted to the judge by then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger claiming extraordinary damage to American security as a result of Pollard's massive breach may have had something to do with it, but it was not the key...
...But I have to tell you it was a beautiful, sensitive and moving worship service...
...And, in the process, small communities were formed where everyone listened, learned and participated...
...Did you know that even in this great country, if you tell a certain person to go screw himself, you can lawfully be put in jail instantly without ever being tried—-simply summarily punished...
...He believed Israel needed this information for its defense, perhaps even for its survival...
...This year in New York, however, it seemed as if they were running the show...
...A Jewish friend of mine who held a high and sensitive government position at the time Pollard was caught recently blew up at me at an otherwise warm and congenial dinner party...
...He was a committed Zionist...
...If any credit were given for the fact that he pleaded guilty, thereby saving the government the time and expense of a trial and the exposure of an enormous amount of classified information...
...But there was yet another reason for Pollard's harsh sentence...
...And this brings us back to the issue of dual loyalty: He was not really remorseful...
...As many as 600 people attend these lectures...
...As a result of the Pollard case, my friend and other Jews in similarly sensitive positions had become suspect...
...A short concluding service followed my lecture...
...and Rabbi Arthur Green, president of the Reconstruclionist Rabbinical Seminary...
...Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk, president of Hebrew Union College...
...Many, including this writer, are likely to conclude no...
...The judges make these rules...
...But more and more his supporters are saying—sotto voce, to be sure—that what he did was not so bad, was maybe even justified...
...This year, for the first time, the people with the power and the money sang a similar tune...
...The General Assembly is the annual November gathering of over 3,500Jewish federation and other leaders...
...Not so Classical Reform...
...It was the dual loyalty issue—not only a still persistent fear among Jews but perhaps a widespread belief among other Americans as well...
...At the very least, Pollard could have taken the matter to a higher level within the government...
...It is difficult, if not impossible, for ordinary human beings not to be affected by all this bowing and scraping...
...How then explain the sentence...
...It's a crime...
...In 1969, student activists protested that the federations—the central fund-raising and distributing organs of American Jewry—were neglecting the educational and spiritual needs of Jews, especially young Jews...
...For example: Bronfman's announcement was welcome, but absent from his video presentation of the Israel experience program was any significant contact between American and Israeli youngsters...
...No, he said, he would describe them as non-Zionist...
...Incidentally, we will probably never hear from the sentencingjudge,Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., on this subject...
...Is there any forum in which you would be free to explain...
...The first time I had said Pollard's clearly excessive sentence was inexplicable ("How To Resolve the Pollard Case," June 1992...
...I enjoyed Chicago Sinai...
...All day lawyers rise to address him, call him "your honor," belly laugh at the slightest effort at judicial humor, respectfully request permission to "approach" the bench, as the high seat on which he (and now more frequently she) sits is called...
...I didn't quite know what to make of it all...
...These are serious Jews...
...After numerous discussions with people in a better position than I to know, I have come to the conclusion that two factors led to Pollard's unusually severe sentence, one of which will lead us back to the dual loyalty issue...
...Eventually, we will learn what Pollard gave to Israel...
...And that may be one reason why it won't be so easy to secure his release, despite President Clinton's pre-election promise to personally consider the Pollard case and despite the recent full-page ad in The Nejv York Times calling for his release signed by nearly 600 rabbis and other Jewish leaders including Rabbi Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University...
...Alan S. Jaffe, president of the New York federation, called for establishing minimum Jewish literacy standards for Jewish lay leaders...
...It's too bad...
...Is there any procedure or motion by which the sentence could be reconsidered by you...
...So far as I am aware, you have never explained your reasoning in imposing a life sentence in the face of these factors...
...The service on Sunday morning— the main weekly service—took nearly 20 minutes before my lecture...
...Needless to say, very few of the people in attendance on Sunday morning attend shul on Saturday morning or Friday night...
...These are the kinds of questions that will surely be raised when and if Pollard is released...
...After a few years on the bench, it is very difficult for a judge not to believe, not simply that he was divinely appointed, but that somehow, in the administration of justice, he partakes of that divinity...
...A few days later I sent him another letter: "I just noticed the enclosed article in this morning's Washington Post, which indicates there is some precedent for what I am asking in the Pollard case...
...Student Ghosts Materialize at GA For the past decade of General Assemblies (GA) of the Council of Jewish Federations (CJF), the ghosts of the visionary 1969 GA student protesters have lurked...
...Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary...
...But when the participants convene at next year's GA in Montreal, how much will have really changed...
...Apparently Judge William Hoeveler rather openly discussed the Noriega sentence in what the Post story calls 'an informal interview.' " Here is Judge Robinson's reply: "In reply to your letters of July 13 and July 20, 1992, please be advised that I intend to continue the practice to which I have adhered as ajudge of not discussing with the press, or the media, any of the matters in the cases over which it has been my responsibility to preside...
...By all accounts, this highly respected judge is not antisemitic...
...In my second piece on Pollard, I explained why I thought Pollard's clearly excessive sentence was a Jewish issue ("Is the Pollard Case a Jewish Issue...
...There are many kinds of Jews...
...Fortunately, instead of leaving the issue of Jewish continuity at the bottom of the communal agenda behind Israel, Soviet Jewry and fund-raising, it was the central issue at this year's GA...
...He believed that, on the basis of understandings between Israel and the United States, Israel was entitled to the information he provided...
...While awaiting sentence, Pollard was ordered not to give any interviews to the press...
...This GA, for the first time, contained the seeds of real change...
...A part of their education-minded agenda would be heralded...
...He gave an interview to Wolf Blitzer, then Washington correspondent for the Jerusalem Post...
...Let's not make the same mistake now that there is positive momentum...
...History will note that students have been calling for these innovations for over two decades...
...No prayer whatever...
...That's not true if you say that to the President...
...I saw one zillionaire sit, quietly fighting away tears, as a young rabbinical student responded to a biblical verse...
...Most people who have called for the commutation of Pollard's sentence have, at the same time, condemned what he did, as I have...
...There is a new regime in Washington...
...One thing is certain...
...Marvin Lender, the bagel guru, is leading a task force on Jewish identity and continuity...
...Over the years the community did make some changes, but never seriously embraced the educational and outreach aspects of the activists' agenda...
...And it may lead many other Americans to question the loyalty of Jews...
...Eventually, we will learn what Cap Weinberger said in that still-secret memo to the judge...
...But this was simply a way spymasters make sure their spies don't defect...
...He was wrong...
...Paradoxically, when the central focus of so many Jews toward their Judaism is not religion—it's ethnic or culinary or traditional or historical, or Israel or peoplehood—the central focus of these Classical Reform Jews is religion, emphasizing a sophisticated and individual understanding of the divine, a continuing prophetic revelation and a commitment to social action...
...Is it better, I asked myself, to have a Sunday morning lecture without a prayer service, as Washington Hebrew Congregation does, or with a prayer service, as Chicago Sinai Congregation does...
...As Wolf Blitzer said in his book on the case {Territory of Lies), "[Pollard] had to show his deep remorse...
...Many of them contribute to Israel, but Israel is not the central focus of their Judaism...
...And that will make a lot of Jews uncomfortable...
...For this realization alone, it was an important conference...
...This newfound focus and urgency of American Jewry on Jewish continuity is a welcome development, albeit two decades late for easy answers...
...will be the question...
...He disobeyed...
...In its heyday, they held two services on Sunday morning to accommodate the more than 4,000 people who attended each week...
...They also invited one of the 1969 dissidents, professor Deborah E. Lipstadt, to keynote...
...Yet the authority of and respect for our judicial system ultimately depends on the public's perception that judges are fair and unbiased...
...I recently wrote him the following letter: "I am aware that judges are not required either to justify or explain the sentences they impose in criminal cases...
...I know these are unusual questions, but this is an unusual case...
...It is an issue that few dare to discuss openly...
...Will voices such as Deborah Lipstadt's remain the keynote or be relegated to whispers that will haunt us in the future...
...They may even have been the subject of special investigations...
...The problem with the case of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for Israel, is that it can't be resolved by his release...
...And if Jonathan Pollard is ever released, that question will be raised more insistently—by Pollard himself, if by no one else...
...the fact that he cooperated with the government after apprehension...
...Pollard's release will not be the end of the Pollard case...
...Hell hath no fury like a judge disobeyed...
...It is like the Rosenberg case or the Alger Hiss case...
...After all, he constantly sits two feet above everyone else looking down on them...
...Will there be new priorities at the grassroots level to answer the needs of young Jews, those who are most likely to count themselves out of the next national Jewish population survey...
...The congregation was established more than 130 years ago—in 1861...
...And the judges make the rules...
...But many others will come to a different conclusion...
...To symbolize the change, CJF leaders for the first time invited a student leader to address the opening plenary...
...Alas, they are giving up the building and plan to construct a new home because their membership has dwindled to about 500 families—but all vigorous, dedicated stalwarts...
...And Jonathan Pollard may be able to make that case better than anyone else—at least better than anyone else willing to talk...
...The billionaire Charles Bronfman, for example, made a commitment to work with the United Jewish Appeal and others to send 50,000 students to Israel every year by the end of the decade...
...While much of the GA is about money and power (who speaks and gets bigger billing), there was a moment when traditional ways of defining power were magically suspended...
...I know of the very high respect in which you are held among the judiciary, the bar and the general public...
...Let's see if any serious answers develop in time for Montreal...
...For them, Pollard may become a hero...
...Hell hath no fury like a woman spurned, said the poet...
...I had twice written about the Pollard case...
...I saw a federation executive listen to a single mother's interpretation of what a Jewish community should be...
...Just as the new regime in Moscow is looking into the old files to find out what really happened—at places like Katyn forest—the new people in Washington will be able to look into the old files...
...I don't think it was antisemitism...
...And I enjoy all kinds of Jews...
Vol. 18 • February 1993 • No. 1
