In an exclusive interview,
Jonathan Pollard's family
breaks its silence
American
Prisoner
Of Zion
June 4, 1986: Pollard pleads guilty to
selling information to Israel.
March 4, 1987: Pollard receives a life
sentence
DAVID HOLZEL
Staff Writer
s
In solitary confinement in the
outh Bend, Indiana stands agreements, Pollard chose not to look
federal
prison in Springfield,
the
other
way.
in the middle of farm
Instead, he began passing the in- Missouri, where he has been held
country, just across the
Michigan border. The formation on to the Israelis, and so since March 4, Jonathan Pollard can-
town's best known land- began his descent into a web of in- not speak for himself. But through
mark is undoubtably the University trigue which ended with his arrest in conversations with his parents and
of Notre Dame, an enclave graced by November 1985 outside Israel's em-
sand-brown buildings, two small bassy in Washington, D.C. In March
lakes, pleasant drives and shady 1987, U.S. District Judge Aubrey E.
"The worst thing for
walkways. It is here that Dr. Morris Robinson, Jr. sentenced Pollard to life
somebody who is in
Pollard has spent the last 26 years in prison for selling classified infor-
working as a microbiologist, and mation to the Israelis. A second count
trouble is to feel like
where he and his wife, Molly, raised of harming the interests of the United
States
was
dropped
for
lack
of
their three children, Harvey, Carol
you have been
evidence. Anne Henderson-Pollard,
and Jonathan Jay.
The Pollards tried to instill their Jonathan's wife, was sentenced to two
abandoned."
passionate love of America in their concurrent five-year terms for aiding
children, and their equal pride in be- her husband.
Last week, Dr. Morris and Molly others who have known him well, Jay,
ing Jews. "We are firm believers in
the security of the United States and Pollard spoke with The Jewish News as he is called by his family, emerges
in the necessity of the State of Israel," about their son, their daughter-in- as a highly intelligent, highly sen-
Dr. Pollard says with conviction. "The law, and how the Pollard Affair has af- sitive young man, influenced both by
two are interrelated." They also fected their own lives in South Bend. the anti-Semitism he faced as a child
wanted their children to be cognizant Although they chose their words in school and the visits the family
of the "many examples of indignities carefully, the Pollards used the inter- made to the Bergen-Belsen and
heaped upon the Jews" throughout view as a form of catharsis. The only Dachau death camps. A "scholar in
anonymity they sought was their every sense of the word;' as his father
history.
describes him, Jay, in his youth
It seems Jonathan Jay, their refusal to be photographed.
"became a military historian with a
Until
now,
the
Pollards
have
youngest son, took these lessons to
fantastic
recall ability."
maintained
a
public
silence,
fearing
heart and, as a civilian analyst at the
During the years he worked for
U.S. navy's Anti-Terrorist Alert that any publicity they might
Center in Suitland, Maryland, sought generate could hurt their son. Recent- the Navy, Jay served on two U.S.
ly, they changed their minds. "We delegations which exchanged in-
to act on his convictions.
When, in April 1984, intelligence were told to keep quiet (by their at- telligence with Israel. According to
began to cross his desk which he con- torney, Richard Hibey)," Dr. Pollard his parents, his security work earned
sidered vital to the security of Israel, says. "I've stopped. It's counterproduc- him two superior citations and the se-
and which, he discovered, was not be- tive. It has kept the Jewish communi- cond highest award a civilian can
ing disclosed to the Israelis in accor- ty in this country in the dark (about receive from the Navy, for an opera-
tion "that can under no cir-
dance with exchange of information the case.)"
24
Friday, June 26, 1987
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
cumstances be revealed." The record
of those awards, plus a psychiatric
report testifying to his mental stabili-
ty have disappeared from his files, his
parents charge.
Missing files are not the only
discrepancies in this tangled affair.
The Pollards charge that recent in-
sinuations that their son is a drug
abuser is part of an ongoing program
of character assasination, designed to
cow the American Jewish communi-
ty into silence on the Pollard case.
The American Jewish communi-
ty has, on the whole, kept silent or de-
nounced Jonathan Jay Pollard, a
situation which distresses his
parents. But they reserve their
greatest anger for U.S. Secretary of
Defense Caspar Weinberger and
Israel's top leadership. Weinberger,
they say, "manifests an antagonism
to Israel which is out of control."
Israel's top leaders, they say, knew
fully about the Pollard operation, and
callously abandoned him when he got
caught.
Dr. Pollard recalls that
Weinberger forbade American
soldiers in Lebanon from speaking to
Israeli soldiers there; that after the
brutal terrorist attack on Marine
headquarters, Weinberger refused an
Israeli invitation to treat the wound-
ed in Israel and, instead, had them
flown to Germany; and that he claim-
ed the information which Jay gave to
Israel upset the region's balance of
power, a statement for which the