What Motivates David Luchins?

(Sequel to "David Luchins, The CIA, and Jonathan Pollard")

December 26, 1999 - Esther Pollard

People have been asking us to explain why, for the last 15 years, David Luchins has been outdoing the CIA in the character assassination of Jonathan Pollard. Here is our response:

We have absolutely no idea what would motivate any sane or honest person - much less anyone who presents themselves as an orthodox Jew - to blame Jonathan Pollard for the massive injustice in his case and to insist that he is still in prison by his own choice.

Over the years, in the numerous audiences that Luchins has poisoned with his evil words about Jonathan Pollard, no one that we know of has ever publicly challenged him. All of Luchins' credentials, (assistant to Senator Moynihan, VP of the OU, Professor at Touro College) lend weight to his words, making it difficult to question his "facts". But his "facts" about Pollard are not facts. They are lies, and they are not even reasonable lies. It is not hard to figure out that

no one,

absolutely no one

chooses

to remain in prison

After 15 years of doing hard time in harsh circumstances, including 7 years in
solitary confinement, Jonathan Pollard just wants to go home. He and his attorneys have

always been open to every possible solution to resolve his case.

We must point out as well, that we are in no way dealing with what one of our readers termed "different points of view". Facts are facts, and lies are lies. For example, it is not a "point of view" to claim that Jonathan Pollard is still in prison because according to Luchins, on at least three occasions the American government wanted to free him and Pollard refused to sign a letter that would make it possible.

• It is a

  fact

  that

  no such offer

  was ever made to Jonathan Pollard.
• It is a

  fact

  that there were

  no letters

  that Pollard was asked to sign.
• It is a

  fact

  that there was

  no offer of freedom

  to Jonathan Pollard by the American government, at any time, in any way, and for any reason, in the last 15 years.

Over the years, many private attempts have been made to quietly reason with Luchins - including attempts by Jonathan's attorneys, and his family. When challenged, Luchins consistently denies the lies that he has spoken about Jonathan in front of hundreds of witnesses! The whole exercise of trying to hold Luchins to account and/or trying to stop him from telling lies about Jonathan became a huge drain of time and energy and it simply was not working. So for the most part, we kept taking the blows from Luchins, responding when we could, and praying for some way to stop him.

Recently the time arrived when Luchins' lies became intolerable and the public seemed ready to finally hear about it. As Jonathan pointed out, never before were we in a position to publicly protest against Luchins' slander. It is only now that the Jewish Press has laid the groundwork for us, finally exposing the kind of wanton slander that Luchins is known for, that people may begin to see and understand the harm this man is doing, not only to Jonathan but to the Jewish community as well.

For those who are unaware of what we are talking about: Luchins brazenly slandered the Jewish Press (NY). He recently accused the paper of promoting, and applauding the murder of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - and nothing could be further from the truth. The Jewish Press responded in a calm, dignified, and professional manner.Their detailed response, which was written over several weeks, not only completely cleared the paper of this false accusation, it also revealed a lot about David Luchins in the process. This helped to familiarize the reading public enough so that they might understand what we have been going through for years because of this man.

Now you know the truth, and we have fleshed out a little more of the story. But the fact remains: we simply do not know David Luchins' motives in slandering Jonathan Pollard. The only one who knows why Luchins is doing what he is doing is Luchins himself. We do know that no motive exists that could justify the damage that he is doing to Jonathan's fight for freedom - in complete contradiction of the mitzvah of pidyan shvuyim.

The bottom line is: Luchins' motives are now of secondary importance. What is more important to us is simply to stop his lies about Jonathan Pollard. Please help us.

Again, our thanks and our blessings,
Esther and Jonathan Pollard

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