Larissa Trimbobler, the wife of Yigal Amir, submitted her official papers today for her new party to run in the upcoming national elections. Their platform is simply that Yigal Amir should be given a new trial.

The new party is called Mishpat Tzedek. Larissa says secret things connected to the justice system and to the entire institution have become known.

Mishpat Tzedek is a one-issue party, but the one issue is not as narrow as their focus makes them seem. They are focused on Yigal Amir but they will support a retrial for anyone who deserves one - for anybody innocent sitting in jail.

Whatever that means.

All jails are full of innocent people. Just ask the people in jail and most of them will tell you they are innocent.

I am not quite sure how being involved in politics will get someone in jail a new trial after already having one, but I guess if she can convince about 140,000 or so people by March 2 that this is the most important issue of the day I guess we'll find out...

A movement has begun to encourage President Ruvi Rivlin to grant a pardon, or a commuted sentence, to Yoelish Krausz.

Krausz is sitting a 5 month jail term for fraud and tax evasion, for the crime of running an unlicensed slaughterhouse in Mea Shearim and not reporting earnings.

Krausz is the father of 16 children. The movement picked up steam, it seems to me, when Krausz's wife  (I am not sure how) said she is collapsing under the weight of taking care of everything alone. According to Behadrei, MK Betzalel Smotritch (Habayit Hayehudi) has joined the movement and put in a request with the Justice Ministry to put together a professional legal opinion on the matter. Smotritch says Krausz is the classic case of someone who did something wrong, is paying the price and deserves mercy. Smotritch says this man of chessed is the classic example of what the concept of giving a pardon was created for.

I have no opinion on the matter - if he deserves and gets it, fine, and if not not.

I am curious to see what he will do if pardon is granted, or if he has to submit a formal request. Considering he has always refused to accept anything from the State, and he was one of the leaders of the community that does so, I wonder if he would accept the granting of a pardon or if he would refuse it. If he gets it, I would hope he would take it, if just to relieve some of the burden from his wife. He would probably be able to justify it by saying he shouldn't have been in prison anyway and the State had no right to lock him up so he is not really taking anything.

I don't know if anything has changed or if this is how it always was, but the two high profile cases recently, Krausz and Olmert, both seemed to have a public mercy campaign going to generate sympathy and public calls for release. I don't know what will happen with Krausz, but the campaign to generate public sympathy seems to have worked and that public pressure is what I find interesting here.

According to reports, Satmar in NY will be supporting and encouraging the fights of the Peleg Yerushalmi in Israel and paying anybody forced to sit in jail for being  deserter from the IDF to the tune of $100 per day.

Two heroes have already been granted the first awards; Zvi Dov Friedman from Bet Shemesh was awarded $7400 for sitting 74 days in jail, and Yisrael Toledano was awarded $6300 for sitting 63 days in jail. Each was granted the money upon their recent release from jail.
source: Ynet, Srugim, INN, Walla News

This is significantly more money than what kollel brings in, so I think a significant percentage of people in the relevant groups might consider this a strong incentive.

BH there is a lot of money in the Jewish community, enough for everyone to support the causes dear to their hearts. At least the recipients of this award will be just a few less people they will be knocking on our doors to support. Unless you give your donations to Satmar who will need to fundraise to pay the awards...

It has taken about 6 months, but the law proposal dealing with sarvanei get in jail has finally come to vote.

A law proposal was submitted about 6 months ago that would take away the right to receive mehadrin food to anyone sitting in jail for refusing to give his wife a get. The law proposal also states that any such prisoner, for get refusal reasons, would not be allowed to be jailed in the "torah ward". It also recommends limiting their phone calls to only immediate family and be limited to a maximum of 10 minutes. The law proposal was written in coordination with the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Dovid Lau.

According to the law proposal, sarvanei get are willing to sit in jail for a long time, continuing to refuse to give the get and free their wives, and none of the existing tools have been effective. This will give the rabbinical courts an effective tool by which the sarvan might be convinced or influenced to free his wife.

The rationale behind this, to justify it, is that if a person is not listening to the decision of a Bet Din, to give a get to his wife, he is not living a religious lifestyle, and does not qualify for the conditions a religious prisoner qualifies for.

While such restrictions might harm the rights of a prisoner, the prisoner himself has the ability to give the get and get out of this, unlike other prisoners who need their rights more protected, as they cant help themselves.
source: NRG

I am not sure why just this is considered "not living a religious lifestyle".. while someone who stole is living a religious lifestyle and can get mehadrin food in jail? someone who defrauded the government lived a religious lifestyle? someone who murdered lived a religious lifestyle? While I am in favor of making life hard for sarvanei get, this reasoning bothers me, as it qualifies to far more prisoners than just sarvanei get, but is being selectively applied.

It is both a sad and a happy day when a prime minister (or president or mayor or city councilpeople  or other important dignitary) gets convicted for his crimes.

Sad: it is a shame we have corruption at such high levels. I think it reflects poorly on society.

Happy: nobody is above the law. They might not always be easy to catch or bring proof against, but when it happens, nobody is above the law. We have a president in jail, and now we will have a prime minister in jail. Mayors and city-councilpeople and MKs are already regular features of the jail system...

The Boys In The Japanese Jail
Today, the appeal for Yaakov Yosef Greenwald was heard. Greenwald is one of the three boys arrested in Japan after being caught smuggling drugs.

The three were mules for someone else, their kindness and naivety used to take advantage of them. They were caught, they went to jail in Japan, and have spent a few years in jail in Japan. One of the three has since been moved to a jail in Israel, and was eventually pardoned.

The Appeal
The family, and Greenwald himself, along with the askanim helping him, were all very optimistic about the appeal and expected to be released.

The Verdict
Unfortunately, today the appeal was heard and decided upon. the judge in Tokyo ruled and rejected the appeal. Greenwald must remain another two years in jail in Japan. (source: Bechadrei)

It is unfortunate. Yosef Bondo was taken advantage of. he was a naive yeshiva bochur who trusted somebody who looked like nobody he ever suspected would lie or be involved in illegal and dangerous stuff like drug smuggling. He was caught, with his friends, he was tried, he sat in jail. It is unfortunate.

Now he is free. He has been pardoned and can now get on with his life.

Why does sitting in jail make a person into a celebrity? He was not martyred, he did not take the fall for someone else, he committed a crime, he paid his time, and now he should get on with his life.

Yet, now that he is out, communities are welcoming him and inviting him to visit as if he is some sort of a hero. The haredi media is following his every step as if he is a hero.

And I don't understand why this happens. I kind of get it when someone is perceived as having gone to jail protecting other people, so he is a selfless hero who went to jail to save someone else (if if this is only perceived rather than reality), but when he goes to jail for a crime he actually committed, what about that makes him deserving of being treated like a hero?

It is a sad day when gedolei olam act and suffer with the failings of regular simple people. Tomorrow, Tuesday December 16, the Spinka Rebbe will begin serving his 24 month sentence for his role in a large tax evasion and fraud scheme in which many people donated money fictitiously to a charitable organization as a way of getting tax deductions, then most of the money was passed back to them under the table.

I thought the way he did not pass blame around and incriminate underlings while getting himself off, rather he took the blame and bit the bullet and took the punishment, to be an honorable response. Lots of people commit crime, in many different ways. I have no problem with that. We each have our tests and our failings, and we don't always pass them all. Committing a crime involves the risk of getting caught. If you behave honorably when you get caught, that is ok in my book. Obviously I dont mean it is ok to commit crimes, but the honorable response is at least a small amount of making up for it. You commit the crime, you pay the time, as they say.

What is sadder though is when the crime and punishment is then turned into a holy act. The rebbe should have kept his honorable behavior, taken the punishment and moved on. Instead he has now compared himself to Yosef HaTzaddik, saying in a speech of divrei chizzuk to his followers and chassidim, that just like Yosef served time in prison and it all got turned around for the best, so too he will now be serving time in prison and it will be turned around for the best.

The rebbe is not going to jail on a trumped up charge based on hatred and anti-semitism. He is not going to jail as the fall guy in an intricate conspiracy. He is not Yosef HaTzaddik. he is going to jail for a crime he committed, and there is nothing Yosef Hatzaddik-esque in the punishment he is about to receive.

Yes, his jail time can be turned into a kiddush hashem of sorts. he can do great work in the prison, especially considering that he is being placed in a prison that holds many frum prisoners (isnt that fact sad on its own?), he can lead, he can help people rehabilitate themselves, he can rehabilitate himself (and from what I understand he began such a process even before beginning to serve prison time).

But to turn himself into a Yosef HaTzaddik, serving time in prison as a martyred victim?

I don't know what it is about prison that makes it so common for prisoners to suddenly find religion, but it happens, and it happens a lot. Maybe it is the upcoming parole board, and they think that making it look like they turned their life around will get the parole board to be forthcoming to them, or maybe it is sincere.

Former MK Shlomo Benizri who is sitting in jail for corruption and bribery is going through a crisis. Because of it, he has asked the President for a presidential pardon.

While I don't see how he "qualifies" for a pardon - doesn't everybody in jail have a hard time? - he definitely has the right to request it. I wish him luck in his request, and whether it is approved or denied, I hope he gets through the difficult period with his well-being intact. It can't be easy, though jail was not meant to be, and I wish him well.

I don't know who is "at fault", but some people are creating a lot of false hopes, and then shrying when they do not come to fruition.

Rav Shlomo Benizri, a former MK from Shas, is sitting in jail for corruption and taking bribes. Even if you say he was framed or his sentence was too harsh, as his most ardent supporters say, he is still in jail and is treated with the rules of all prisoners.

In the haredi media and forums, we are regularly being told that he is being abused by the Prison Services in this way or that. He is not being beaten by them, nor is he being overworked, and he has not been put in solitary confinement for no reason or anything like that. The abuse is in the form of him not getting special treatment.

Benizri's son just had a baby. Some people were expecting him to be allowed out of jail to go to the bris. The Prison Services said they will not allow it, as he only just started serving his term and they never let a prisoner out so early in his term.

Yet the haredi media is calling it "the abuse continues" and other similar descriptions.

Benizri deserves no special treatment just because he is a)from Shas b) haredi c) a popular teacher in the sfardi haredi world. He is in jail, and even if his sentence was too harsh as some are wont to say, that is no reason to give him special treatment. We heard complaints that he was not allowed to dress in regular clothes when he was visited first by his family and then by Rav Ovadia Yosef. We heard complaints when he was not allowed out for an earlier simcha in the family, etc.

Some people need to get it through their heads that Benizri is sitting in jail and is no longer in the Knesset. You don't automatically get special privileges in jail, just because of who you used to be on the outside pre-jail. And denying such a request is not really abuse and does not indicate anyone is anti-haredi or anti-Benizri.

Bernie Madoff requested to be incarcerated in Otisville Correctional Institute, which is known as the "Jewish jail" because of the high number of Jews incarcerated there.

Madoff's request was denied, because of the length of his sentence, that facility is not deemed high enough security for him.

I am simply embarrassed by the fact that there is a jail known as the "Jewish jail". Aren't you?

The story on the left was an advertisement run in the Yated Neeman by the Kupat Ha'Ir of Bnei Brak. It describes an elderly woman who donated 19,260NIS for the fund for the 3 boys in jail in Japan.

How'd she come up with that number? She explained that this is the number that the Nazis tatooed on her arm. She was imprisoned in the concentration camps. Everything that was written abotu what the boys in Japan are going through, is exactly what she experienced in the concentration camp, and how the Japanese are treating these three boys, that is how the Germans treated them.

She continued with tears that she now feels she has exacted her revenge on the Nazis, by giving this amount to help save Jews from those who were partners with the Nazis, the Japanese. What these boys are going through reminded me of the troubles I went through under the Nazis, and maybe now this money will help free them.

The ad concludes by saying, "This is the check. 19260NIS of revenge. For these forlorn boys, captured by the Japanese, the nation who were partners with the the most horrific of tragedies. Whomever was not there, in the concentration camps, will never understand. Will these boys merit ever returning from there? The answer to that depends, as well, with you."

So now they are playing the Nazi and Holocaust cards to get us to donate. I think it might be exaggerating a bit, no matter how bad the Japanese jail is, for them to have described the Japanese jails in terms that made this woman think that they are going through exactly what she went through in the Holocaust...

Do they have no busha?

When Jonathan Pollard was first arrested and for a number of years after, the opinions on him in the Jewish community were very divisive. Many were coming out in support of Pollard, rallying for him and signing petitions.

Many were against petitioning the US government to release Pollard. After all, they would say, he took the risk when he committed the crime, honorable as it may have been in our eyes, and was caught. The risk entails a certain price, which he now has to pay. We cannot ruffle any feathers by asking for him to be released. The government is so against releasing him, he must have done something very bad, even worse than what they are saying, etc.

Originally I was a member of the second group. I admit it. I did not want to hear about Pollard. he did the crime, he should pay the time (because he was caught). I remember someone from YU very involved in organizing groups to petition for Pollard came to our shul in Chicago and spoke on his behalf to gain support (and I guess funds). I do not know how well he was received by other people, but I know that I felt he was unconvincing and I did not want to hear any more about it.

Many years went by and I got older. Jonathan Pollard has still been in jail all this time. Over time I have changed my opinion on the Pollard affair.

The way I look at it now is that Pollard has served more than the fair amount of time.

I have read a lot of the info on it - from his side how he got shafted by the judicial system and government after making an agreement, and by the government opinion about how what he did was so reprehensible and definitely the most damaging spy situation in American history. It is clear that we do not know everything about the case and much of it is still kept under wraps.

Aside from the details of the case, what information he stole, what he gave over, how sensitive it was, etc., which we cannot know, the fact is he has sat in jail longer than any other spy in American history who spied for a friendly country. By leaps and bounds. And he has sat much of that time under terrible conditions, such as solitary confinement. The most amount of time any other spy spying for a friendly country sat was something like 7 years, according to a chart I recently saw. I am looking for a list of spies in general to see how long spies for hostile countries sat in jail and see where Pollard is in that list, but have not yet found it.

The point is, he has more than served his fair amount of time. It is time to release Pollard.

Rabbis Elyashiv and Steinman, the heads of the Haredi camp in Israel and of the gedolim, in an unusual move for them (as they generally do not get involved in political issues that have international ramifications) sent a letter this week to US President George Bush honorably requesting he pardon Pollard, after having served already more than 20 years in jail.

This comes on the heals of unusual support from the camps of Agudas Yisrael of America who also recently came out in support of releasing Jonathan Pollard.

Kol Hakavod to them all for coming forward and speaking on behalf of a Jew in trouble who has paid his dues.

May the increasing unity in the Jewish comunity on this issue be pleasantly received in the eyes of Hashem and be a catalyst to gain the release of Jonathan Pollard, Yehonatan ben Malka.