Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Pollard brings Torah scroll he commissioned while in jail to Joseph’s Tomb

“I feel a very personal connection to this place and to Joseph who is buried here, and everything he went through,” says Jonathan Pollard, while dedicating the scroll at the biblical burial site.

Jews pray in the compound in Nablus of Joseph's Tomb, believed to be the final resting place of the biblical patriarch, Dec. 28, 2010. Photo by Kobi Gideon/Flash90.
Jews pray in the compound in Nablus of Joseph’s Tomb, believed to be the final resting place of the biblical patriarch, Dec. 28, 2010. Photo by Kobi Gideon/Flash90.

Convicted spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard on Monday night dedicated a Torah scroll that he brought to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.

He commissioned the writing of the Torah scroll 12 years ago, while he was in a U.S. federal prison, serving a 35-year sentence.

Pollard traveled to Samaria with his wife, Esther, and the Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan.

“I feel a very personal connection to this place and to Joseph who is buried here, and everything he went through,” said Pollard, who claimed that he had planned to bring the scroll to the site when he was released and came to Israel.

“When I was in jail, the guards enjoyed humiliating me when they would ask me if I thought I would ever get home. And I always answered in the same way: I would ask, ‘Do you believe in God?’ And most of them would say, ‘yes,’ and then I would ask, ‘Do you think God can work miracles?’ And they would say, ‘clearly.’ Well, now we are here.”

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Israel’s top diplomat said that it is “outrageous” to draw a moral equivalence between Hamas leaders and Israeli citizens.
The U.S. administration expects “conversation to continue” on Chinese revenue and dual-use exports benefiting Tehran, a senior U.S. official said before meetings in China.
“It’s a glaring double standard,” the New Jersey Democratic congressman, who is Jewish, wrote in the “New York Times.”
“The targeting of U.S. service members and partners will not go unanswered,” the U.S. State Department said.
One of six detectives to be awarded by the ADL told JNS of New York City’s recent changes to hate crime reports that “you can’t have, ‘Ok, this is a robbery and this is a ‘reported’ robbery.”
The Rafael chair says the system intercepted about 99% of 40,000 rockets, as he defends Israel’s war stance and says the Iran conflict set back Tehran’s nuclear program.