Jonathan Pollard reports that he is receiving a significantly increased volume of mail from people all over the world since President Bush left office on January 20th without acting on Jonathan’s petition for clemency. [Bush did not deny clemency; he simply failed to act, leaving the Pollard petition for response by President Barak Obama, sometime within the next 4 to 8 years…]
The letters that Jonathan is receiving, are his lifeline, his reassurance that people on the outside care very deeply. Jonathan told his wife, Esther, how very much he is enjoying the letters and how varied they are. They run the gamut, he said, from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of stories, anecdotes, prayers, and personal life experiences. Some people write of how they much are praying for Jonathan, others recount personal problems so severe that Jonathan is now praying for them (along with all of his prayers for Am Yisrael).
Most people express the hope that Jonathan will write back, but he simply is not able to. Why not? Because all of his out-going mail is routed via NSA in Washington where it is supposedly “vetted” to ensure that it does not contain classified information. In the process of being “vetted” somehow all of his out-going mail gets lost or destroyed. It does not reach its destination.
Fortunately, Jonathan does receive all of his incoming mail. Incoming mail goes directly to the prison mailroom where it is checked to ensure that the letter is in English and does not contain any contraband. (No bubble gum, stamps, glitter, stickers, money etc permitted). Only letters and photos are permitted (Photos in modest quantity: up to 5). Letters in Hebrew are shown to Jonathan very briefly and then discarded.
As soon as the mailroom staff checks the mail, it is distributed and Jonathan receives all of his letters, without exception.
Please keep writing! Please know that all of your letters reach Jonathan as long as they are correctly addressed and contain no forbidden enclosures. Please know as well, how very much these letters mean to him.
Here is Jonathan’s address:
Jonathan Pollard #09185-016
c/o FCI Butner
P.O. Box 1000
Butner, NC
U.S.A 27509-1000
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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4 Responses
Most people express the hope that Jonathan will write back, but he simply is not able to. Why not? Because all of his out-going mail is routed via NSA in Washington where it is supposedly “vetted” to ensure that it does not contain classified information. In the process of being “vetted” somehow all of his out-going mail gets lost or destroyed. It does not reach its destination.
this is very surprising , since not letting a person get mail addressed to them is a federal offence.
if you want to go down memory lane , let me tell you a storey. during world war two there was a frum boy stationed in the pacific theater. being a good boy he wrote his mother a letter , however his mother could not read English , so he wrote her the letter in yiddish. since it was war time , army censors read all the outgoing mail to make sure that nothing should get out as to location and whatever else the army deemed forbidden to write about. however this Jewish boys letter was written in yiddish using the alef bais as the letters and when the army censors opened this letter they completely could not understand what was written here.
being war time the army censors were very unhappy about this letter , because they did not understand what was written. the Jewish boy was called in to explain to them what was written , however they did not believe him , and they forbade him to continue writing letters in yiddish until the army could ascertain for themselves what was written was OK and not for some spy. the solder told me that this letter took the slow boat to china as they say and the letter finally found its way to a Jewish rabbi Chaplin stationed in Alaska who read the letter to the army censors in Alaska who deemed the letter that the Jewish boy wrote his mother should be allowed to go through and then it was sent us mail to this Jewish boys mother.
the moral to this storey is that evan in war time mail might have been held up , because it was not understood what was written , but once it was understood it was sent on its merry way.
some Jewish lawyers should look in to this , because a persons mail is not allowed to be held back. incoming or outgoing.
I do not know what the rights that are given to convicted felons are exactly, however, many rights are removed from convicted felons. Additionally, Pollard is being held for national security violations and is probably still held because of those concerns (not as everyone believes it is anti-semitism by the government) and with the USAPatroit act many civil liberties can be suspended in the name of national security.
I hope that all the letters I sent to President Bush, from Old people in Brooklyn, and children in Lakewood were somehow left over for Obama to read. I deliberately sent them the last week before the In-Awe-Garation.
Is there any reason why his wife should not have her husband home after all this time?
Ad Mosai?