IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Rafi Peretz is expected to visit with Jonathan Pollard during his upcoming visit to North America.

Peretz will become the highest ranking IDF officer to visit with Pollard, who has been imprisoned for over 26 years. Peretz is also scheduled to meet with Jewish community leaders in the United States. He will call on the latter to encourage American Jewish youth to come to Israel and serve in the IDF as ‘lone soldiers’.

Earlier this month, there was an unprecedented bipartisan effort in the US Senate calling upon the White House to pardon Pollard. The senators point out to the president that the median sentence for his crime is 2-4 years imprisonment.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)