An Open Letter To First Lady Hillary Clinton

The Jewish Press (NY) September 17, 1999

Drafted by Beth Gilinsky, President Jewish Action Alliance

The following letter to first lady, Hillary Clinton, is being circulated by the Jewish Action Alliance to top-level Jewish WOMEN leaders. If you or someone you know would like to sign the details follow the letter below.

We write to you about a matter of profound concern: the continuing imprisonment of Jonathan Pollard.

We, the undersigned, are women prompted by a devotion to our country, the United States, and to the ideals and values of our Jewish heritage.

To be silent in the face of injustice is contrary to the fundamental principles of America and the Judeo-Christian tradition. We therefore raise our voices in protest against the unnecessarily cruel punishment meted out to Jonathan Pollard, a life sentence of which he has already served fourteen years.

What Jonathan Pollard did was an infraction of the law. Yet his intent and motivation were to help a beleaguered friend and fellow democracy, Israel, America's only reliable ally in the Middle East. Mr. Pollard is deeply remorseful for his actions and was never charged with intent to harm the United States.

Rudolf Giuliani, Mayor of New York City and a former federal prosecutor, recently said that "given comparative sentences, [Jonathan Pollard's] sentence -- this I happen to know because I have seen the documents -- his sentence is way beyond the sentence served by other people that have been convicted of the same offense."

Moreover, in an open letter to President Clinton, 1,000 rabbis appealed to President Clinton to "demonstrate [his] commitment to justice by commuting Jonathan Pollard's sentence" Dozens of mainstream national and international Jewish organizations, as well as the European Parliament, have also called for commutation of Mr. Pollard's sentence to time served.

Mrs. Clinton, in a sense, this case is a litmus test of your own stand on the issues of judicial equity, fair play and due process. We can only hope that our faith in your commitment to these principles will be borne out by your call for Jonathan Pollard's immediate release.

Further "review," and promises unfulfilled will not help Mr. Pollard now. We are calling for commutation of the sentence by the President without delay -- not words, but action: freedom for Jonathan Pollard now.

Signed: _____________________________________________

Please Print Name Clearly: __________________________________________

Position and Affiliation: _________________________________________________________

Date: ______________________________

Please return this letter to:

Jewish Action Alliance
61 East 8th Street, #176
New York, NY 10003
Tel (212) 465-0570
Fax (212) 982-1657
E-mail jwalliance@aol.com

Beth's phone (917) 881-0550