UP FRONT
Pollard Kin Describes
`Cruel, Unusual Punishmen
from former U.S. Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger. "Weinberger
Staff Writer
wanted Israel less strong in relation
ernard Henderson's daughter to the Arabs," Henderson said.
Henderson wrote a book, Pollard:
was married three months
The Spy's Story, in which he compared
when, in late 1985, she was
arrested and charged with being a spy the prosecution of his daughter and
son-in-law with the case of Alfred
for China.
Held without bail for 95 days, she Dreyfus, a French-Jewish captain
languished in a Washington, D.C., wrongfully charged with treason.
"People say to me, 'But the
jail, barred from contact with the out-
Dreyfus
affair is about an innocent
side world and denied medication for
a rare digestive disorder from which man wrongfully accused; " Hender-
son told his listeners. Pollard admit-
she suffers, Henderson said.
"I watched her lose some 55 ted to passing information to Israel.
"But that's not what the Dreyfus
pounds, literally dying in front of my
eyes and I couldn't do anything about affair is about. The Dreyfus affair is
about the use of lies and slander
it," Henderson said.
Henderson's daughter is Anne against a Jew because he is a Jew in
Henderson-Pollard, who was con- order to silence the Jewish communi-
victed as an "accessory after the fact" ty!'
At first the Jewish community
to her husband, Jonathan Jay
was silent, he said. Now Jews are for-
Pollard's, actions.
ming Pollard support groups.
Pollard is serving a life sentence
"Our legal strategy now is to have
for passing classified military infor- their guilty pleas withdrawn. They
mation to Israel. Henderson-Pollard were coerced," he said.
received a five-year sentence.
In Israel, the Pollards have the
Henderson told a Book Fair au-
dience Tuesday that the charge of be- "total support of the people," Hender
ing a Chinese spy was trumped up. He son said.
said "accessory after the fact" means
Pollard, who told Israel where
she had nothing to do with her hus- nerve gas weapons plants in Syria
band's crime. She pleaded guilty to and Iraq were located, among other
this "convoluted crime" because, information withheld by the United
Henderson said, U.S. prosecutors pro- States, has been made an honorary
mised to go easy on Jonathan Pollard citizen of.the Israeli town of Mitzpe
in return.
Ramon.
Pollard waived a trial, Henderson
Henderson told the story of a child
said, because prosecutors said they in Mitzpe Ramon, who was asked by
would be lenient on Anne in return. a reporter if he knew the name of
Henderson said neither promise Israel's prime minister. "No," the
was kept. Pollard received a harsher child answered.
sentence than others who passed U.S.
"Do you know who Yonatan
secrets to the Soviets.
Pollard is?" the reporter asked.
The Pollards, he added, were har-
"Yes," the boy nodded. "Yonatan
shly treated as a form of retribution Pollard saved Israel?'
DAVID HOLZEL
B
17,
;E-
a
a
Witnesses to Kristallnacht Marianne Wildstron, Charlotte Beigel, Rabbi Ernst Conrad, Marion
Alflen, Leo Liffman and Fred Samson light candles during a program at United Hebrew
Schools last week to remember "The Night of Broken Glass" in Nazi Germany. More than
600 persons attended the event, which was sponsored by the Jewish Community Council.
Kristallnacht Vandalism
At Four Southfield Sites
ALAN HITSKY
-
Associate Editor
.
V
andals struck at two Jewish
institutions, a delicatessen
and a private home in
Southfield during the night of Nov.
9-10, the 50th anniversary of
Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany. A
swastika and graffiti were scrawled
on a Buddhist temple in Troy.
Richard Lobenthal, Michigan
regional director of the Anti-
Defamation League of B'nai B'rith,
suspects neo-Nazi "skinheads" are
responsible for the incidents.
Southfield police are still in-
vestigating and would not comment
on the incidents.
The Southfield vandalism
included:
• The smashing of a large glass
panel and a facing panel next to the
rear entrance door of the Jewish Voca-
tional Service building on Southfield
Road, north of 12 Mile.
• Rocks thrown through three
52-inch by 55-inch windows at the
rear of the United Hebrew Schools
building on 12 Mile near Lahser.
• A seven- to eight-foot red
swastika spray painted on the rear
wall of Star Delicatessen on 12 Mile,
just west of Telegraph.
• A swastika-emblazoned billiard
ball thrown through the rear window
of a parked car in the 10 Mile-Lahser
area.
Lobenthal described the incidents
as "a crude, amateurish attempt to
copycat what happened in Chicago a
Continued on Page 22
,ROUND UP
Israelis Are
Living Longer
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Israelis are
living longer.
According to figures in the
new statistical yearbook to be
published shortly, there has
been a two-year increase in
the life expectancy of Jews in
Israel during the past decade.
The rate for non-Jews rose
more sharply, though it still
lags slightly below Jewish life
expectancy.
In 1986, Jewish males in
Israel had a statistical life ex-
pectancy of 73.2 years and
Israeli Jewish women of 76.8
years.
In the non-Jewish popula-
tion, the life expectancy for
men was 72.2 years and 75
years for women.
16.6 Percent
Live In Poverty
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Poverty is
far more pervasive among the
non-Jewish than the Jewish
population in Israel, accor-
ding to figures cited in the an-
nual survey of the National
Insurance Institute for
1986-1987, published
Monday.
Labor Minister Moshe Kat-
zav said at a news conference
that 16.6 percent of the total
population lived below the
poverty line.
That represented 634,000
people in 134,500 families.
But only 8.1 percent of those
families were Jewish, corn-
pared with 46.1 percent who
are non-Jewish.
Nevertheless, according to
Katzav, non-Jewish families
are escaping the poverty level
at a faster rate than Jews.
Altogether the number of
poverty families was down in
1987 from 143,000 in the
1979-1980 period, when the
last survey was done.
The poverty line is defined
by a monthly income of $437
for a childless couple
Activists Leaflet
Moscow Circus
More than 24 Soviet Jewry
activists passed out leaflets
Tuesday at the Palace of
Auburn Hills for the opening
of the Moscow Circus.
The demonstration was
coordinated by the Soviet
Jewry Committee of the
Jewish Community Council
of Metropolitan Detroit in
conjunction with the Friends
of Soviet Jewry Information
Center and the Student
Struggle for Soviet Jewry in
Ann Arbor.
The Council's Soviet Jewry
Committee also placed an ad
in a local newspaper in
response to the circus's ap-
pearance here.
"We Welcome the Moscow
Circus;" the ad reads. "The
performers in the Moscow
Circus are fortunate to be
able to travel and perform
their craft.
"We look forward to a new
era when Soviet Jews also
have freedom of cultural ex-
pression and emigration."
David Gad-Harf, executive
director of the Council, said
members of the Soviet Jewry
Committee hope to meet with
officials of the Moscow Circus
to discuss the plight of Soviet
Jews.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5