A final report just released by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense backs the claim of an Army engineer accused over ten years ago of spying for Israel that he was unjustly targeted because of his religion.
The Army engineer, David Tenenbaum, was given a polygraph test in 1997 during which he said anti-Jewish epithets were shouted at him. The next day, he says, he found his computer gone and his name erased from the e-mail system at TACOM (the Tank Automotive and Armaments Command), the military facility in Warren, Michigan where he worked. He claims he was urged to confess to the crime of espionage but did not do so and was not arrested. Two days later, he says, on Shabbos, investigators ransacked his home.
After a year-long FBI criminal investigation, the U.S. Justice Department determined that there was no basis to prosecute Mr. Tenenbaum. Indeed, Mr. Tenenbaum maintained his innocence throughout and charged that he had been targeted for investigation because of his religion.
In March, 2006, Michigan Senator Carl Levin, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked the Inspector General of the Defense Department to conduct an independent review of the case, which he did and whose final conclusions are represented in the newly released report.
The report acknowledges that Mr. Tenenbaum was “the subject of inappropriate treatment by Department of the Army and Defense Investigative officials” by their use of a personnel security investigation “as a ruse for a counterintelligence investigation”; and that “Mr. Tenenbaum’s religion was a factor in the decision that resulted in the inappropriate continuation” of the investigation. “We believe,” it states starkly, “that Mr. Tenenbaum was subjected to unusual and unwelcome scrutiny because of his faith and ethnic background, a practice that would undoubtedly fit a definition of discrimination…”
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, who represented Agudath Israel of America in pressing the Defense Department on the case, said that the report represented “a happy if belated resolution to Mr. Tenenbaum’s ordeal.” And, he added, “it is, further, a historic disavowal by the Defense Department of the notion that religious Jews are somehow to be regarded, by virtue of their religion, as untrustworthy employees of the government.”
That notion was in fact evident in a footnote to a 1996 briefing presented to Mr. Tanenbaum’s supervisor and other Defense Department officials, whose authors asserted that Israel “is known to try to exploit nationalistic and religious tendencies” of Jewish citizens of other countries.
At the beginning of 2000, Agudath Israel raised the issue with then-CIA Director George Tenet and, later thatyear, then-U. S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen. The national Orthodox Jewish group expressed concerns about the allegations of anti-Jewish bias in the Defense Department and pressed for clarification of the government’s position on Jewish employees in general and on the case of Mr. Tenenbaum specifically.
The content of the final report, says Rabbi Zwiebel, “may at long last mark a turning point in the Defense Department’s attitude toward its Jewish employees.
“This is a welcome development – indeed a historic one.”
(YWN Desk – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
15 Responses
Knowing David and Madalyn Tennenbaum as the most ehrlich, moral and ethical people I know, I would like to know if they are going to be reimbursed for the thousands and thousands of dollars that it cost them for attorney fees and any other expenses that they incurred because of the unjustified charges and harrassment that they endured.
P.S. What about the individuals who instigated these trumped up charges? Are they going to have to answer for their actions?
Such blatant sinas yisroel is alive and well here in the USA in our day and age!
#2: Such blatant sinas Yisroel will indeed stay alive and well both in the USA and the rest of the world in our day and age till Bias Moshiach Tzidkeinu Bimheiro, since halocho beyodua: Eisav soneh es Yaakov
This is an outrage. Is the Aguda, YI, et al, just going to sit by and let these שונאים get away with this dastardly act of discrimination? If I were Mr Tennenbaum, I’d retain an attorney and sue the DOD for $100 million.
Why is everyone surprised that there’s anti-semitism? We need to be poireish from every other nation! Hein am levadod yishkoin!!!! R”L
thousands in legal fees?! how about over a million and I know what i am talking about
Wen Ho Lee, accused of being a spy for China, settled his suit against the US gov’t and 5 media groups for $1.6 million.
Let this and similar examples serve to remind us how fickle our standing is here, in the good USA. We think that we are guaranteed forever our freedom in the USA, so did our brothers and sisters think in Spain, Portugal and Germany.
In Boro Park, they used to build buildings, now, they are building castles.
While we should cherish our freedom here in the USA, and say prayers for the ‘current’ democratic government, at the same time, we need to keep this incident and similar ones in the back of our minds, not to get too comfortable here in the good and blessed USA.
When the Torah spoke of the Galuth (Diaspora) and said “You will NOT find peace comfort and harmony amongst the nations”, the USA was included.
Remember, and remind your grand children of the same.
Yes, build in Boro Park, and other neighborhoods; houses, but not mansions and castles.
rebshalom — I think (leaving a small portion of the house unfurnished or unwallpapered) is from Shulchan Orach. I may be mistaken.
During the mid-1980s, both before and after the Jonathan Pollard affair, I had a very high security clearance with the Department of the Navy. Throughout that time, and still, I was fully shomer mitzvos and this was known by all. One Marine I worked with sometimes joked about wanting to borrow my “yamaha” (sic). I consistently earned Outstanding evaluations each year and won some other substantial awards. Only once, shortly after Pollard’s arrest, was I asked by a supervisor whether I was a “Zionist.” My answer was short and sweet: “Although I have concern and admiration for Israel, if I were a real Zionist, I’d be living in Israel….And the same is true of Pollard.” That answered my superior who had met Pollard and was convinced that he was somewhat delusional and motivated to spy mostly by ego. By and large, the Defense Department works very well with civilian employees who are Orthodox Jew. This has not just been my experience, but also the experience by many members of my synagogue. In fact, when I attended a six-week-long Army course, special arrangements were made for me to complete special exercises before Shabbos fell. I cannot say that supervisors in the non-Defense agency I now work for have consistently been as good as DOD was to me.
RebShalom,
To save you time, I am quoting below the original sources in Hebrew. (However, see the last sentence of the “Kitzur Shulchan Oruch)
תלמוד בבלי מסכת בבא בתרא דף ס עמוד ב
אלא כך אמרו חכמים: סד אדם את ביתו בסיד, ומשייר בו דבר מועט. וכמה? אמר רב יוסף: אמה על אמה. אמר רב חסדא: כנגד הפתח
טור אורח חיים סימן תקס
משחרב הבית תקנו שבכל דבר שמחה שיהיה בה זכר לחורבן הבית וע”כ אמרו סד אדם את ביתו בסיד ומניח בו אמה על אמה בלא סיד זכר לחורבן הבית והרמב”ם ז”ל כתב אין בונין בניין מסיד כבנין המלכים אלא טח ביתו בטיט וסד בסיד (ס”א בסיד ובטרכסיד) ומשייר בו אמה על אמה
קיצור שולחן ערוך סימן קכו
סעיף א
משחרב בית המקדש תקנו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה שבכל שמחה יהא בה זכר לחורבן כמו שנאמר אם אשכחך ירושלים וגו’ אם לא אעלה את ירושלים על ראש שמחתי, וגזרו שלא יבנה לו ישראל בנין מסוייד ומצוייר כבנין המלכים. ולא יסיד את כל ביתו בסיד אלא טח ביתו בטיט וסד בסיד ומניח בו אמה על אמה כנגד הפתח בלא סיד כדי לזכור החורבן, ומה שלא נהגו כן עתה לא ידענו טעם ברור.
baruchgershom,
Did you visit Israel, or request permission to visit Israel, during this time? If not, do you think that this would have made a difference in how you were treated or perceived? Do you think that your positive experience is typical of frum employees in other branches of the military or in other parts of the DOD?
Please understand, I’m not trying to be accusatory or nosy, I’m just trying to understand the situation better.
14. At the time, I was a lowly GS-9, and later a GS-11 with a wife and young daughter, and I didn’t have enough money to consider going to Israel. However, I had close friends who had equal if not higher security clearances who did visit Israel. In DOD there is a process for any employee planning to go to any foreign country. I don’t think that at that time it would have affected my standing, but frankly, it wasn’t an option.
Under the current administration, however, I understand that trips to Israel are more difficult especially for those with family in Israel (e.g. children and grandchildren). Those people usually want to take multiple trips in one year, and anyone who wants to take multiple trips overseas makes the security folk nervous.
In fairness to the security folk, it should be noted that Israeli private interests (and perhaps governmental organizations) have been known for attempts to illegally obtain high-tech information not available for export. When my daughter was learning at Michlalah in 2003, Johns Hopkins University sent her an application by FedEx. The package was opened by Customs before it reached Israel. No doubt, they feared that someone in JHU’s Engineering Department was illegally exporting technology.
One other point. There are a good number of members of my synagogue who have high clearances in some DOD organization or another, including a few in the intelligence world. A few have personal knowledge of the Pollard case well beyond what has been published and whenever anyone suggests that he has been unfairly discriminated against, those in the know say “absolutely not” or worst. I have heard them say that Pollard had no way of knowing what intelligence info Israel was legally receiving and, in fact, Israel was one of the four most favored countries in intelligence exchanges. However, because it was well known that Soviet spies had infiltrated Mosad and the IDF with the huge pool of new immigrants, it was dangerous to give Israel any information that might identify (or lead to identification) of intelligence sources. That is precisely the info that Pollard’s handler demanded. It has been published that one numbered classified document traced to Pollard, was recovered from the new Russian government after the fall of the Soviet Union. Also, a few years after Pollard’s arrest, two Soviet spies were caught in Israel and prosecuted. So my shul almost never hears pleas from the pulpit for Pollard’s release (I can’t recall any, but then with multiple minyans to choose from, I don’t hear every sermon); the Rabbi knows such a speech wouldn’t be received favorably by those in the klal with clearances.
baruchgershom,
Thanks for that information. Thanks also for the insight about the Jonathon Pollard case.
What is your opinion of David Tenenbaum’s situation? Do you think that his persecution has made the situation of other Orthodox Jews in the military/other DOD more difficult? If you’d rather not share, I understand.
AFAIK there has been no impact on other Orthodox Jews, at least not in Washington. I don’t have any personal knowledge of Mr. Tenenbaum’s situation on which to base an opinion one way or another. I’m sure that the facts will come out at his trial, assuming his case goes to trial and is not plea bargained.