NEW YORK – On behalf of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international umbrella organization for Conservative rabbis, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the Rabbinical Assembly’s executive vice president, said the following today:
“Jonathan Pollard has served 27 years in prison – an extensive length of time for the crime of spying for a friendly nation. Since 1992, the Rabbinical Assembly has issued four resolutions supporting clemency for Pollard. Together with fellow American Jewish organizations, we signed a letter by Congressmen Eliot Engel and Christopher Smith asking President Obama to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served. As a community of 1,600 Conservative rabbis, we have asked our American rabbis to ask their Congressmen to follow Engel and Smith’s lead and co-sign the letter to the President.”