Grief and Gratitude for a Woman of Valor

The following is an op-ed that I wrote about Esther and Jonathan Pollard, which appeared in a number of media outlets, including The Jewish Link, Israel National News/Arutz Sheva, Queens Jewish Link, and The 5 Towns Jewish Times:

Grief and Gratitude for a Woman of Valor

I knew him well but had never met him in person. The first time I laid eyes on Jonathan Pollard was as I watched him slowly follow his wife’s body to the van that would transport her to the gravesite at the conclusion of her funeral at Har HaMenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem.

Thousands of people attended Esther Pollard’s funeral and the crowd stretched as far as the eye could see. An incredible array of people stood united in grief and gratitude for a woman of valor who never stopped fighting for what she believed in and what was right.

Jonathan Pollard’s saga is well known. He received an unprecedented life sentence for passing classified information to Israel, an ally of the United States. Jonathan spent 30 long years languishing in a federal prison before his release in 2015, after which time he was subject to onerous parole conditions. In November 2020, the U.S. Justice Department declined to extend his parole, thereby paving the way for Jonathan and Esther to finally return home to Israel in December 2020.

I was introduced to Esther Pollard in 2010 by Rabbi Pesach Lerner, a close confidant and adviser to the Pollards, and I quickly became involved in the effort to secure Jonathan’s release. Over the course of many years, I was privileged to play a pivotal role in the communications and public relations effort in the United States that was overseen by Esther.

I was intimately familiar with the facts of Jonathan’s case and well aware of the array of prominent government officials, high-ranking individuals in the national intelligence arena, legal professionals, and religious and communal leaders who called attention to Jonathan’s plight, underscored his grossly disproportionate sentence, and noted that he had publicly and privately expressed remorse.

The numerous calls for clemency came from individuals like former CIA Director James Woolsey, former Senator and Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dennis DeConcini, former U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Vice President Dan Quayle, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former Senator and Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Arlen Specter, Senator Chuck Schumer, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb, Senator John McCain, and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.

However, despite the extremely impressive chorus of individuals that voiced support for Jonathan’s release, the extremely impressive role that Esther Pollard played as the maestro of the entire operation was paramount.

Esther displayed a sense of dogged determination in her relentless quest for justice for her husband. She was deeply involved in the enduring efforts on Jonathan’s behalf, and her steadfast advocacy resonated around the globe. As far as my role on the communications front, Esther was always very particular about how she wanted things written and said, all because she had Jonathan’s best interests at heart.

I felt it was fortuitous that I was in Israel at the time of her passing, which enabled me to attend her funeral and pay a condolence call to Jonathan.

I walked into the Pollards’ apartment in Jerusalem the day after Esther’s funeral and took a seat among the many other people who were there to be menachem avel. For a while I just sat and listened to the discourse, which I found fascinating. I was immediately struck by the connection that people felt to Esther and Jonathan, even if they did not know them personally. One woman told Jonathan how she had hung up a photo of him in each of her children’s rooms as they were growing up and how they constantly prayed for his release. Another woman became emotional while speaking about what Jonathan’s saga and his eventual freedom meant to her. It was a room full of strangers who were united in their heartfelt connection to the Pollards.

When Jonathan spoke to the people in the room, it was captivating. People were peppering him with questions about various subjects, including Esther, Israel, antisemitism and the current state of the Jewish people. Jonathan took the time to answer each question and offered insightful thoughts on each topic—and all of us were hanging on his every word.

Yet it was his perspective on his beloved wife, Esther, and the invaluable role she played in his life that was most compelling. She always helped him put things in perspective, he said as he expressed the resolve to honor her memory by living life as a committed Jew in the State of Israel.

He recounted a story about how he and Esther once encountered a rabbi in New York City who approached them and asked for forgiveness, explaining that he could have helped Jonathan years earlier, but failed to do so. Jonathan told us how he was ready to give him a piece of his mind when Esther intervened and stopped him, explaining that there was no need to engage.

One of the visitors asked Jonathan what he will remember most about Esther. His response? “Everything.”

When the opportunity presented itself, I moved up to the chair directly in front of Jonathan and told him who I was. His face immediately broke out in a knowing smile, and he reached out to vigorously shake my hand. I told him how much it meant to me to have had the opportunity to work with Esther, who was a tireless and effective advocate for him, and I offered him words of comfort.

As I sat in the shiva house and reflected on my experiences with the Pollards over the years, I considered the indispensable role that Esther played in Jonathan’s life. She was his right hand, his biggest cheerleader, teacher and motivator. They shared an unbreakable and special bond, and even when they were physically apart, they remained together in their hearts and minds.

The world lost a great woman and Jonathan sadly lost his soulmate. It was an honor to have known and worked with such an intrepid and principled pursuer of justice. May her memory be a blessing.

My daughter is a new immigrant to Israel. The state has failed to support her during the pandemic.

The following is an op-ed that I wrote, which appeared in The Forward on January 6, 2022, about the importance of Israel being more cognizant of the unique needs of olim (immigrants to Israel), particularly when it comes to COVID-19 regulations:

My daughter is a new immigrant to Israel. The state has failed to support her during the pandemic.

The past two years have been utterly exhausting. Between working from home, supervising children doing Zoom school, sitting through quarantines and more, COVID-19 has unquestionably upended our daily routines. And as the parent of a daughter who immigrated to Israel while the rest of her family remained in the United States, I had to contend with an additional level of pandemic-related stress.

When our daughter made aliyah several years ago, she plunged into the complexities of becoming a citizen and moving to a foreign country with exuberance. As she began her life in Israel, she successfully navigated the bureaucracy on her own, despite being a teenager at the time and facing endless red tape. As parents, knowing that we could visit her regularly — and that she was able to periodically come back to the United States — helped make her move to Israel more bearable.

And then suddenly the rules changed. As an olah (female immigrant to Israel) in her early twenties living by herself nearly 6,000 miles away from her family, our daughter was particularly susceptible to the trauma created by the COVID-19 lockdowns, with zero institutional support from the Israeli government.

The seclusion, without the benefit of having any family nearby, was awful. She had to endure a horrific experience in a government-mandated “quarantine hotel,” where she was confined to a tiny room for two long weeks by herself upon returning to Israel in April 2020 after spending Passover with us in the United States. During intermittent lockdowns, she was completely alone, forced to observe Shabbat and Jewish holidays in total seclusion because she was unable to travel to other people’s homes, nor was she able to host friends as she ordinarily would during those celebratory times.

We entrusted our daughter to the State of Israel. While our beloved Jewish homeland welcomed her with open arms, she was ultimately left alone in her time of need. I certainly understand that Israel’s need to mitigate the virus is imperative, but I believe the unique needs of olim, those who immigrate to Israel, cannot be summarily ignored in the process.

Having to contend with the challenges posed by COVID-19, which included periods of isolation and the ever-changing regulations, on her own, without the benefit of having family nearby and without a support system in place was a trying experience for our daughter. While the rest of our family leaned on one another to get through the pandemic, our daughter in Israel had no one nearby to turn to. She was alone, far away from her family, without the benefit of a social safety net to help her during the pandemic.

When our daughter needed us most, we felt virtually helpless. In 2020, it took several stressful weeks, jumping through multiple hoops and enlisting the help of former Knesset member Dov Lipman for me to obtain permission to visit her. I was eagerly looking forward to a visit with my daughter at the end of Dec. 2021 and was devastated when the borders were closed yet again on Nov. 28, which precluded me from seeing her. But the Israeli Health Ministry reversed course yet again, announcing on Jan. 6 that all travel restrictions on all countries will be lifted at midnight. While I am delighted to hear this news, I believe the whiplash decision-making and the logistical and emotional challenges that come with it could have been avoided for the families of olim.

The extraordinary efforts of Dov Lipman and his organization, Yad L’Olim, which helps olim navigate Israel’s bureaucracy, and other organizations like Amudim, which assists individuals in crisis, helped countless people who felt helpless and hopeless. However, it should not have had to come to that. The voices of olim must be heard amid the COVID-19 regulations, and Jews in the Diaspora who have family members in Israel should not be shut out.

The global Jewish community’s support is paramount to Israel’s survival as a Jewish state. But Israel has work to do to repair its relationship with American Jewry after essentially telling it that it is not welcome in Israel for the time being. Although Israel encourages people to make aliyah and celebrates their arrival with great fanfare, the travel restrictions send a troubling message to olim that addressing their unique needs are not a primary concern for the Israeli government.

Michal Cotler-Wunsh, a former member of Knesset and candidate for Chairperson of the Jewish Agency, has been outspoken about the need for olim to be taken more seriously by the government as a critical constituency group that must be heard on important matters.

“I believe that in a 73-years young country of olim, that values and celebrates aliyah — a realization of its vision, mission and values — this must be prioritized and reflected in considerations, factored in as part of decision-making processes, in advance, not in retrospect and in general, not in individual, reactive ‘exceptional’ cases,” Cotler-Wunsh told me when I spoke to her for this piece, noting that a paradigm shift is required. “Nearly two years of COVID-19 challenges underscore the need for the creation of a separate category, with clear and transparent policies and consistent implementation. Families of olim are not just ‘tourists’ or ‘exceptions,’ they are the rule.”

We recently learned that aliyah to Israel increased by 30% in 2021, which includes 4,000 new American olim. While I hope those numbers continue to rise in future years, I believe that now is the time for Israel to reassess its overall approach to how it addresses the needs of olim and their families.

My letter in The New York Times about the “Covid blame games”

The following is a letter to the editor that I wrote, which appeared in The New York Times, about casting blame amid the Covid crisis:

December 9, 2021

Re “Let’s End the Covid Blame Games,” by Bret Stephens (column, Dec. 1):

Bret Stephens’s assessment of the “Covid blame games” is both accurate and timely. With over 5.2 million deaths worldwide due to Covid, including more than 790,000 deaths in the United States, this virus has proved that it does not differentiate between Democrats and Republicans, blue states and red states. It is an equal opportunity virus. People are losing their lives and families are tragically losing loved ones, regardless of their political ideologies.

As the pandemic continues wreaking havoc on a global scale, it behooves us to work collaboratively to combat this dangerous virus. Impugning others for its rapid proliferation is misguided and does a tremendous disservice to the countless individuals who have been adversely affected. We are all in this together.

N. Aaron Troodler

Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

My letter in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers

The following is a letter to the editor that I wrote, which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, regarding the current situation concerning Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers:

Time to move on from Ben Simmons

October 24, 2021

To the Editor:

Responding to “Sixers suspend Simmons for a game” (Oct. 20), instead of the excitement that inherently comes with the start of the NBA season, the Sixers are dealing with a degree of drama that detracts from the team’s dogged pursuit of a championship. Ben Simmons has morphed into a disgruntled superstar whose troubling insubordination has become a major distraction for his teammates and the Sixers organization. With a $33 million annual salary, Simmons’ holdout and refusal to participate in team activities will certainly not engender sympathy among Sixers fans and must be addressed accordingly by team officials. His conduct is antithetical to the concept of a team and the disruption to the Sixers’ chemistry is likely beyond repair. The Sixers cannot coddle Simmons and must put the overall needs of the team ahead of the personal needs of one of its star players, who has explicitly expressed his desire to leave Philadelphia.

N. Aaron Troodler

Bala Cynwyd

My letter in The New York Times about the U.S. Supreme Court

The following is a letter to the editor that I wrote, which appeared in The New York Times, about the U.S. Supreme Court in response to a recent article regarding “a court increasingly associated with partisanship” that “is suffering a distinct drop in public support.”

October 5, 2021

To the Editor:

Re “Abortion Leads Charged Docket in Court Return” (front page, Oct. 4):

As an institution whose independence is paramount to its very existence and whose objectivity is critical to its ability to carry out its judicial duties, the Supreme Court cannot afford to become mired in partisan politics.

The integrity of the court becomes compromised when the public perception is that personal political ideologies are impeding the justices’ ability to adjudicate cases without a degree of bias.

When the justices feel compelled to publicly defend their rulings as being devoid of politics, it is time to reassess this once hallowed body and focus on returning it to its original constitutional mandate. The Supreme Court is about public trust, not public polling, and the justices should focus on impartiality, not popularity.

With a docket replete with matters of great consequence that will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our nation, the justices must take great care to purge partisanship from the court.

N. Aaron Troodler

Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

My letter in The New York Times about Spain’s betrayal of Sephardic Jews

The following is a letter to the editor that I wrote, which appeared in The New York Times, regarding Spain’s betrayal of Sephardic Jews after the country’s reversal on the issue of granting them citizenship.

August 5, 2021

To the Editor:

Re “Spain’s Reparations for Jews Become Elusive” (news article, July 25):

While Spain’s 2015 pronouncement that it would confer citizenship on Sephardic Jews was commendable, its about-face is reprehensible.

When King Ferdinand callously ordered the expulsion of Spain’s Jews in 1492, it was a cataclysmic event and a truly dark moment in the annals of Jewish history. Tens of thousands of Jews were banished from Spain, leading to numerous deaths along their arduous journey and forcible conversions that robbed countless Jews of their heritage and faith.

After extending a proverbial olive branch and pledging to do the right thing for people of Sephardic Jewish descent, Spain sadly seems to have reneged.

The fact that Jews with legitimate claims to Spanish citizenship and duly completed applications would be treated so cavalierly, either being completely ignored or summarily rejected on fallacious grounds, is utterly shameful and an affront to their ancestors, whose lives were shattered when they were forcibly removed from the country they called home.

N. Aaron Troodler

Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

My letter in The New York Times about the paper’s coverage of Israel

The following is a letter to the editor that I wrote, which appeared in The New York Times, regarding the paper’s coverage of Israel in response to a recent front-page article entitled “The Misery of Life Under Occupation,” which I found to be entirely one-sided and deeply disturbing.

May 25, 2021

To the Editor:
 
Re “The Misery of Life Under Occupation” (front page, May 23):
 
While there are certainly Palestinians who yearn for a better life that is devoid of strife, your decision to impugn Israel for the present state of affairs is disingenuous and unjustified.
 
Israel’s enduring struggle for its very survival stems from an array of existential threats, including rocket attacks aimed at civilian centers and heinous acts of terror carried out by militant extremists intent on obliterating Israel. It is due to the actions of the terrorists, whose wanton disregard for human life extends to both Israelis and rank-and-file Palestinians. Israel has no choice but to carry out security measures intended to safeguard its people.
 
Painting a picture that portrays Israel as the aggressor while failing to hold Hamas and other terrorist organizations accountable for fomenting violence that adversely affects the daily lives of Palestinians is irresponsible. At a time of rising anti-Semitism and increasing anti-Israel animus, I encourage you to put a greater emphasis on impartiality in your reporting.
 
N. Aaron Troodler
 Bala Cynwyd, Pa.