The White House rejected an appeal by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to release Jonathan Pollard from jail. Charles Ruff, counsel to the president, recounted a 1996 decision by the president that “based upon all the information before him, the president decided that the extraordinary remedy of executive clemency should not be used in this case.” In his own letter to the Conference of Presidents, Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for spying on the U.S. for Israel, called on the umbrella group to “immediately protest as disrespectful and unacceptable the government’s use of a form letter response.”
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.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
