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Jewish World Review Oct. 10, 2000 / 11 Tishrei, 5761
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
WITH THE 2000 elections just weeks away, and the candidates, according to most polls, running
in a virtual dead heat, a new blight is emerging on the Jewish community's Democratic score
card.
His name is David Tenenbaum.
An Orthodox Jew living in suburban Detroit, today he will be in federal court testifying in a
deposition in an effort to get his reputation -- and his ability to earn an income -- back.
Tenenbaum's story is being made an issue by the country's largest grassroots Orthodox Jewish
organization, Agudath Israel of America, which serves one of New York's most-courted
constituencies. Orthodox Jews are also active swing voters in other key battleground states.
With many Jews of various levels of religiosity already troubled by the Clinton administration's
refusal to defend Israel over the weekend during a United Nations vote that condemned the
Jewish state, and many Jews and Jewish leadership shocked over recent utterances by the
Dems' vice presidential candidate, this latest revelation could help send many of the
community's "Reagan Democrats" back to the GOP.
At issue, are charges that the defense establishment, under the Clinton administration, is actively
profiling minorities; that what happened to Wen Ho Lee was hardly an accident, as some within
the Democratic party are trying to portray it.
For Tenenbaum, his career as a military man working for TACOM (The U.S. Army Tank
Automotive and Armaments Command) essentially ended as he stood at the
head of his dining room table surrounded by his wife and children, reciting the sacrament
(Kiddish) one Sabbath afternoon in the late '90s. As he sang the Hebrew words in a
sing-song melody, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, knowing he was there, broke into
his home, seizing his children's coloring books and destroying his house while searching for
evidence that he was a spy.
Though Tenenbaum was eventually cleared of any and all wrong-doing, that
did not stop titillating -- but misleading -- information that under ordinary procedure would have
not been made public, from being leaked to media, who in turn camped out in the shadow of his home
for weeks, creating a feeling for the Tenenbaum family of being "under seige," as one community member describes it. Tenenbaum was also tailed by intelligence officials whenever he left his home.
Among some of the "suspicious" behavior Tenenbaum engaged in, according to individuals
close to the case, was the fact he never ate lunch with his colleagues (Tenenbaum keeps
kosher.).
In his pre-trial deposition, TACOM's director of research testified that the investigation had
been prompted by Mr. Tenenbaum's speaking of Hebrew and wearing of a yarmulke, which
raised suspicions that "he was doing something improper with the Israelis." (He was hired
specifically because he spoke Hebrew.)
And, in a 1997 memo to the director of the FBI, an FBI special agent recounted the opinion of
the person who administered a polygraph test to Mr. Tenenbaum "that because of his
[Tenenbaum's] devout religious beliefs and his strong affinity to Israel, Tenenbaum would have
provided restricted information to the Israelis… [Tenenbaum] makes his life's decisions based
on his deep rooted beliefs in his Jewish faith."
In his deposition testimony, the director further testified that "none of this would have happened"
had Tenenbaum not been Jewish.
While the Tenenbaum case for some conjures up images of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard,
Tenenbaum, unlike Pollard, was never charged with ever breaching any security. And unlike
Lee, he never even so much as downloaded any secret materials.
But despite being completely cleared of all wrongdoing, today Tenenbaum still does not have
his security clearance back and because of that, his career has been ruined. He's, essentially,
been black listed.
In a letter outlining the details of the Tenenbaum case to Defense Secretary William S. Cohen,
Agudath Israel's executive vice president for government and public affairs, David Zwiebel,
makes the point that Tenenbaum's case is only the latest wrinkle in a disturbing pattern.
"In 1996," he recounts, "a Defense Department memorandum warned American defense
contractors about those with 'strong ties to Israel'." Though that memo was subsequently
repudiated, its effects, says Zwiebel, "seem to have lived on."
"We are troubled by the notion that loyal and dedicated American Jews within the defense
community may be subject to suspicion because of their religious beliefs and observances,"
Zweibel added. "We are particularly alarmed that there may exist a 'counter-intelligence profile'
that specifically singles out religiously observant Jews for investigation by the Defense Security
Service, the FBI, and other intelligence agencies."
Other examples of apparent bias against Jews in the intelligence community include a "60
Minutes" report this past February that featured an anonymous Central Intelligence Agency
official who contended that religious Jews with intelligence clearance within the CIA are suspect
as Israeli spies. That program came in
the wake of the investigation of a CIA employee, Adam Ciralsky.
Like Tenenbaum, Ciralsky, in the end, was not charged with any criminal
Will Jews continue where Wen Ho Lee's supporters left off?
By Binyamin L. Jolkovsky
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky is JewishWorldReview.com's editor in chief. To comment, please click here.
