ISRAEL POLITICAL BRIEF
ISRAEL POLITICAL BRIEF: ISRAEL NEWS
Canadian Rabbis Urge Peres to Advocate for Pollard
Int’l Jewry continues to press Israel’s leaders to act on behalf of Johnathan Pollard.
Pollard
Israel news photomontage
President Shimon Peres received a letter from a delegation of rabbis and professors in Montreal, Canada imploring him to seek the release of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.
To the Honourable President Peres,
We warmly welcome you to our community in Montreal. As a distinguished representative of the State of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide, it is our pleasure to host you. We all share your pride at being awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.
As representatives of the Jewish community of Canada, we support your humanitarian appeal to President Obama for clemency for Jonathan Pollard. The Jewish community of Montreal stands behind your efforts on behalf of the release of Jonathan Pollard. We would like to encourage you and to ask that you act according to the best of your abilities so that your appeal will be answered in the affirmative.
Mr. President, we all recognize that your efforts can bring about Jonathan’s release and save his life. Please act in order to bring this terrible tragedy to an end.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Shachar Orenstein, Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue – President of Rabbinical
Council of Canada
Rabbi Benjamin Weiss, Chief Rabbi of Montreal
Rabbi David Sabbah, Chief Rabbi of Quebec
Rabbi Jacob Benaroch, Young Israel of Chomedy
Rabbi Tuvia Hoffman, Beth Zion
Rabbi Moshe Jablon, Beth Ora
Rabbi Asher Jacobson, Chevra Kadisha
Rabbi Mendel Kaufman, Young Israel of Montreal
Rabbi Ronnie Fine, Chabad of Queen Mary
Rabbi Leibel Fine, Chabad of Dollard des Ormeaux
Rabbi Mark Fishman, Assistant Rabbi Beth Tikvah
Rabbi Dov Harrouch, Jewish Experience
Rabbi Michael Harrosch, Jewish Experience
Rabbi Leibish Hundert, former rabbi of Ghetto Shul
Rabbi Nadav Levin, Kollel Torah Mitzion
Rabbi Avraham Marouani, Or Shalom
Rabbi Dovid Merling, Agudath Israel
Rabbi Moishe New, Montreal Torah Center
Rabbi Moise Ohana, Or HaHayim
Rabbi Ben Vago, Hillel House
Rabbi Yossi Shanowitz, Chabad West Mount
Rabbi Zushe Silberstein, Chabad Chabanel
Rabbi Pesach Sperlin, Chabad of Montreal West
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, Tiferet Beth David Jerusalem
Rabbi Shmuly Weiss, Chabad McGill
Rabbi Mordecai Zeitz, Beth Tikvah Ahavat Shalom Nusach Hoari
Prof. Fred Krantz, Canadian Institute of Jewish Research (CIJR)
Prof. Philip Carl Salzman, McGill University
Prof. Gil Troy, McGill University
Pollard, a Jewish-American convicted by the United States on one count of supplying classified data to a foreign nation, has been serving a sentence of life without parole since 4 March 1987.
In recent years, as Pollard’s health has deteriorated, his release has become a growing concern of the American Jewish community – and Israel’s nationalist camp.
The disproportionate length of Pollard’s sentence when compared to other’s convicted of the same crime – almost always less that 7 years – has also become a point of contention with American Jews.
Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres personally asked US President Barack Obama to grant Pollard clemency on humanitarian grounds during their respective meetings in the White House earlier this year.
Peres made a second, direct personal appeal to Obama for Pollard’s release following the latter’s sudden hospitalization on April 4.
Israel’s president is expected to ask Obama to grant Pollard clemency a third time when he recieves the Medal of Freedom in Washington DC in June.
Peres will carry with him a letter bearing the signatures of 80 Israeli lawmakers.
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