Group to Urge Better Care for Wife of Spy

The Rev. Frank Eiklor of Orange, president of Shalom International, will lead a delegation of ecumenical leaders from several states to Washington on Tuesday to protest the federal prison system’s treatment of Anne Pollard, wife of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

Fifteen Orange County residents will join the protest at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Eiklor said.

Anne Pollard is serving five years in federal prison for possession of secret documents. Her husband, Jonathan Pollard, is serving a life sentence in federal prison for espionage.

Eiklor said the delegation is not protesting the conviction of Jonathan Pollard on spy charges, but is “greatly concerned about basic justice, mercy and humanitarianism, pillars of the American system of justice that have appeared to crumble under the Anne Pollard case.”

Anne Pollard, 28, suffers from biliar dyskinesia, a painful disorder that can be treated only by a handful of specialists, Eiklor said.

“She has in the past been denied specialized medical help, though it had been offered without expense,” Eiklor said. “Domperidone, a drug that can control this terrible digestive disorder has also been denied Anne Pollard. . . .” “We’re unwilling to allow her to slowly waste away and possibly die,” he said.

Shalom International is a Christian ministry based in Orange that combats anti-Semitism.

Among those in the delegation from Orange County will be sculptor Don Winton of Newport Beach and interior decorator Irene Opdyke of Yorba Linda. Opdyke has been honored as a “righteous Gentile” by the Israeli government as one who risked her life to save Jews during the Holocaust, Eiklor said.