Rabbis of Three Branches of Judaism Ask Thatcher’s Help on Pollard Affair

Rabbis representing three branches of Judaism in Britain are asking Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to intervene with President Bush on behalf of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

The rabbis, all residents of Finchley, northern London, plan to hand the prime minister a letter shortly asking that she convey to Bush the “deep concern” felt by “Jewish people everywhere” about the life sentence imposed on Pollard in 1985 and the way he has been treated ever since.

Pollard has been imprisoned in solitary confinement and strictly limited in who may visit him and in corresponding with people outside the prison.

Four of the eight signatories are Orthodox rabbis, three are Reform and one is from the Progressive branch.

They charge that Pollard, a former civilian intelligence analyst employed by the U.S. Navy, was the victim of harsh and vindictive treatment when he was sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for Israel.

Their letter states, “We appreciate that the United Kingdom government cannot intervene in the United States’ internal affairs, but human rights arc an international matter,” and “we therefore respectfully ask you” to raise with the U.S. administration “the concern which is felt by your constituents about the plight of Jonathan Pollard.”

The rabbis acknowledge that Pollard was convicted for passing classified information to Israel, but “at no time was it alleged, or was he convicted, of passing United States’ secrets,” they wrote.

They claim that “all the information was specifically about the Arab front line states” and was intended to help Israel defend itself against chemical weapons such as are manufactured by Syria and Iraq.

The rabbis note that after more than five years in prison, Pollard is still in solitary confinement and, they say, suffers “mistreatment more befitting the KGB Gulags of pre-Gorbachev Russia.”