New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind led a delegation that met with Jonathan Pollard.
Hikind, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, National Council of Young Israel’s executive vice-president, and two others met Pollard on Tuesday at his North Carolina prison.
Hikind said the U.S. Jewish community has not done enough to free Pollard, who has served more than 20 years of a life sentence for spying for Israel. Pollard’s defenders say his crime is not commensurate with his sentence, pointing to other spies who have been released after serving sentences of 10-20 years.
“Have we fully extended ourselves in the mitzvah of pidyon shvuyim to redeem Jonathan?” Hikind said in a statement released by Justice for Jonathan Pollard. “A crime? Yes. A debt? Yes. A life? Yes, not a life sentence. We have to pull together now as a community to pull for Pollard.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
