The meeting will discuss, in part, efforts to ease Pollard’s parole conditions. Pollard was released from federal prison in November after serving 30 years of a life sentence for spying for Israel.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANUpdated: JANUARY 22, 2016 03:44Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard leaves a federal courthouse in New York(photo credit: AFP PHOTO)
Recently paroled American naval analyst Jonathan Pollard will hold a historic meeting at a New York synagogue on Monday with US Jewish leaders, many of whom worked tirelessly for his release for 30 years.Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish organizations, confirmed the meeting, which was originally revealed by The Forward.“Jonathan Pollard requested to meet with Jewish leaders, and we are simply the facilitators,” Hoenlein said. “They can come and hear what he has to say.”Pollard will be accompanied at the meeting by New York Congressmen Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, who have been active in efforts to improve his parole conditions.Hoenlein, who has spoken to Pollard, said his umbrella organization of Jewish groups and many of its member organizations have interceded many times on Pollard’s behalf.National Council of Young Israel president Farley Weiss, who has spoken to Pollard on the phone, said, “He is extraordinarily lucid and clear thinking, especially considering he was in prison for 30 years.”Pollard was released from prison on parole on November 20, after serving 30 years of his life sentence for passing classified information to Israel.Lawyers for Pollard have challenged three restrictive probation conditions imposed on Pollard after his release from the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina: the monitoring of both his home and work computers; the monitoring of his whereabouts via an electronic GPS anklet; and his 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. curfew.The Forward reported that Pollard had already won a fight to get a more Shabbat-friendly electronic monitoring bracelet.