Last night, Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy analyst who spent three decades in prison for spying for Israel, married Rivka Abrahams-Donin at a chasunah at the Heichal Ya’akov Shul in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood in Yerushalayim.
After being released, Pollard and his second wife Esther Pollard (Elaine Zeitz) immigrated to Israel on December 30, 2020. Esther, who married Jonathan during his prison sentence, contracted Covid-19 and tragically passed away on January 31, 2022.
Pollard, 68, has been living in Yerushalayim.
Donin, 45, is a Lubavitcher resident of Yerushalayim. She is the granddaughter of the British Jewish Sergeant Karl Abrahams who helped capture Rudolf Hoess, the Nazi who oversaw the deaths of 2.5 million people as commander of the Auschwitz extermination camp. Her husband was Ize Yosef Eliyahu Donin, a chossid known for manning Chabad’s tefillin stand at the Kosel. He passed away at the age of 55 in 2015, leaving her with 7 children.
In their public statement, Pollard and Donin wrote that it was through Esther Pollard that the two became acquainted.
The mesader kiddushin was Yerushalayim Chief Rabbi Rav Shlomo Moshe Amar.
Rav Amar remarked at the wedding, “Even though I perform many chppahs, I don’t remember a time when I was as moved as I am at this occasion. All of us, the people of Israel, owe dear Jonathan so much, and maybe one day we will know the extent of his dedication that did not last just a single moment, but was decades of severe torment in prison from which not only did you not fall, but you came out a better and more elevated person, because you worked and labored for it. I bless the dear kallah and you that your home will be full of love, full of joy.”
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{Matzav.com Israel}