In the News

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, wrote: “Jonathan Pollard was a model prisoner and has been a model parolee. Given his wife’s health and need for assistance reaching treatment locations, pharmacies and even basic needs, the current extreme limitations on Mr. Pollard’s movements are not merely an unjustified part of a disproportionate sentence, but are also causing him and his family unnecessary hardship during a very trying time.”

Rabbi Lerner, who has tirelessly advocated on behalf of the Pollards for decades, said that his organization calls “upon all relevant officials, including the President himself, to find an appropriate legal mechanism to immediately grant Mr. Pollard his freedom after 30 years behind bars and nearly four years of parole with harsh conditions.”

“We call upon all relevant officials, including the President himself, to find an appropriate legal mechanism to immediately grant Mr. Pollard his freedom after 30 years behind bars and nearly four years of parole with harsh conditions.”

Coalition for Jewish Values calls for release of Jonathan Pollard on humanitarian grounds as Esther Pollard undergoes cancer treatment.

AIPAC celebrates Israel as a first-world democracy and beacon of freedom in the Middle East. J Street, by contrast, is about everything Israel is supposedly doing wrong.

“The Founding Fathers were not atheists, but represented a variety of religious views,” [Rabbi Pesach] Lerner wrote in an email to the Forward…. “The claim that this runs contrary to the Establishment Clause is to misuse a key protection of our religious freedom to instead to squelch and disenfranchise any religious viewpoint.”

Yaakov Menken of the Coalition of Jewish Values told JNS, “I think it remains to be seen. Certainly, the initial reaction is very negative—wanting to avoid endless wars is not a reason to abandon friends and allies to a hateful adversary. But as far as Israel, some argue that the Turks will prevent Iranian weapons from reaching Hezbollah via Syria, which is a good thing.”

Rabbi Pruzansky charged that the event “maligns the targeted company and its employees, defames ICE agents, displays woeful ignorance of history, trivializes and distorts the Holocaust, and is a vulgar insult to six million murdered Jews and the survivors of that horror.”

“When they spoke about the suppression of religion around the world, Vice President Pence, President Trump and UN Secretary-General Guterres all began with anti-Semitism and the oppression of Jews.” — Rabbi Yaakov Menken [p. 38]

Orthodox groups like the Orthodox Union, Chabad-Lubavitch, the Coalition for Jewish Values and the National Council of Young Israel will also be participating, JNS reported.