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February 16, 2001/Shevet 23, 5761, Vol. 53, No.20
Rich pardon: Bad for the Jews and Pollard?
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Did Marc Rich's controversial pardon come at the expense of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard?
And did some prominent Israeli and American Jews compromise their moral integrity by pressing for Rich's pardon?
These are the latest questions swirling around the Jewish world amid indications of a well-choreographed campaign to persuade Israeli leaders and prominent American Jews to advocate on Rich's behalf.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, charged this week that Rich's support from the Jewish community was "bought" and that the Jewish community failed an "important moral test" by participating in Rich's campaign.
Documents released as part of testimony at a U.S. House of Representatives committee looking into the pardon last week show that a central part of the strategy devised by Rich's backers involved building support from Israeli and Jewish leaders.
The e-mails and letters show the detailed planning involved in amassing support for Rich's freedom.
Apparently not everyone mentioned in the documents ultimately got involved, but the public release of the documents has added to the list of prominent American Jews now embroiled in the controversial pardon - Elie Wiesel, Edgar Bronfman, Abraham Foxman and Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg.
A commodities trader, Rich was pardoned by President Clinton on Jan. 20 during his last hours in office. He had been indicted on 51 counts of tax evasion, racketeering and violating trade sanctions with Iran, but fled to Switzerland in 1983 before standing trial.
From his Swiss redoubt, Rich became a major benefactor of numerous Jewish and Israeli charitable organizations, including Birthright Israel, the project to send young Jewish adults to the Holy Land.
The pleas came as Israeli officials and American Jewish leaders across the political and religious spectrum were urging Clinton to pardon Pollard, the former U.S. Navy intelligence officer who has been serving a life sentence since 1987 for spying for Israel.
There is mixed opinion about whether the efforts on behalf of Rich undermined simultaneous efforts for Pollard.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said the Rich efforts may have had some effect on Pollard, because it gave Clinton a choice of who to pardon and still show support with the Jewish community.
But because the arguments for the two men were radically different and the politics of the situations were different, it was not a complete choice between two equals.
With Rich, Clinton was likely to anger the prosecutors who had charged Rich and watched him evade prosecution.
But in pardoning Pollard, Clinton would have gone against many in the national security community who have argued against pardoning Pollard.
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