By COLlive reporter
Vice President Joe Biden held a Rosh Hashanah reception Wednesday, October 5, for a group of American Jewish leaders at his US Naval Observatory residence in Washington, DC.
The annual reception made headlines after it was reported that several attendees pressed Biden to meet with them to discuss the case of Jonathan Pollard, a former civilian intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying for Israel.
The New York Times earlier reported that during a meeting in Florida, Biden told a group of rabbis that “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, ‘Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time.'”
Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and many others have called on successive American presidents to grant clemency to Pollard, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1987.
In recent months, Obama received a flood of clemency appeals on behalf of Pollard from members of Congress, former U.S. government officials and Israeli officials, according to JTA.
Pollard recently underwent kidney-related surgery that was deemed successful.
Hoenlein said the vice president apparently agreed to hold a small meeting in order to have an “open and frank discussion” about the issue, JTA reported.
Present at the reception were Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Director of American Friends of Lubavitch in Washington, DC, and his wife Nechama.
Biden warmly greeted Rabbi and Mrs. Shemtov and after chatting briefly, asked him to convey to Rabbi Avraham Shemtov his wish for a “happy new year.”
The senior Rabbi Shemtov, Chairman of the international umbrella organization, Agudas Chassidei Chabad and Head Shliach in Philadelphia, has a long standing friendship with Biden going back to when when he was a US Senator from the neighboring state of Delaware, which was obvious at the Living Legacy Conference in Washington in honor of Gimmel Tammuz 5770 attended by hundreds of shluchim and supporters, whom the Vice President hosted at the White House as part of the tribute to the Rebbe.
enough is enough – murderers get less – why so long
think he represents the insider’s view of the situation.Obama pretends to play the “good cop” role in this farce,but they are just going after the liberal Jewish and otherwise uninformed Jewish vote.
BARUCH HASHEM!
FInally justice.
How do you know there isnt?
I am very close to the matter, and if you had any idea how much he has done on this issue, you wouldn’t comment like that.
One day peple like you will eat their words, when they see how much he has done that he cant or wont talk about including on this. Whose lawyers do you think got SMR out of custody the first time? maybe you should find out.
Some people just dont get it…
I applaud Rabbi and Mrs Shemtov for their incredible work and the huge kiddush Hashem they make with their very presence, but it would be great if there could be some movement on the black eye of the American Justice system, the travesty of justice of the Sholom Rubashkin case.
There’s been talk about clemency for Pollard for many years, but nothing ever comes of it. So what did they accomplish that is new?
GO THE SHEMTOVS!!!!!!!!!!!
NICEEEEE 🙂 as always Nechama exudes royalty in 2011
Is not gonna be on the 2012 ticket. No question about it.
Keep up the good work L and N, you guys rock!!!
There is now a petition for pollard on the white house website:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/free-jonathan-pollard/nwqjLbGX