On Wednesday Jonathan Pollard, whose wife of 30 years Esther passed away from Covid-related complications in January following several years of breast cancer treatment, announced his plans to marry Rivka Abrahams-Donin later this year.
Abrahams-Donin, a Chabad Lubavitcher mother of seven was widowed in 2015 after her late husband Yosef Eliyahu Donin passed away aged 55.
She made Aliyah in 1996 and had since lived in Jerusalem.
Pollard’s late wife spearheaded a campaign for her husband’s release from his 30-year espionage sentence in the US.
His imprisonment sparked controversial but long-running public campaigns in Israel and across the world for his release.
His then-wife Anne, who also actively campaigned on behalf of Pollard's innocence, had her five-year sentence paroled to just three and a half for health reasons. She was served divorce papers by Pollard upon her release.
While Pollard claims to have wed Esther Zeitz upon the finalisation of his divorce from Anne, there are questions over whether the couple was legally married.
The couple immigrated to Israel in December 2020, almost 35 years after his 1984 arrest, following the expiration of his parole restrictions in the wake of his 2015 release.
In a statement reported by COLlive News, the couple expressed their “gratitude to you, our friends and family members, and our dear children for your love and hugs.”
In the brief post, the pair also offered thanks “first and foremost” to Pollard’s late wife Esther “of blessed memory, who in her infinite love even led to our acquaintance and allowed this miracle to happen. Her memory will always be with us.”
“With praise and thanks to Hashem, we are excited to announce our engagement. The wedding will take place, Hashem, willing, in two months, following the holidays of Tishrei.”
The statement also cited Psalm 116:12, “How can I repay the Lord for all of his bountiful deals towards me?”
Abrahams-Donin is the granddaughter of British military intelligence officer Karl Louis Abrahams who played a key role in the capture of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss who oversaw the deaths of 2.5 million prisoners, most of whom were Jewish.
In a 2020 interview with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Abrahams-Donin said her grandfather did not discuss his role in Höss’ arrest for many decades but kept documents that evidenced his role in the famed mission.
In his will, the Liverpool-born sergeant said that he wished the documents to be donated to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.
The papers include Höss' personal effects including his Nazi party membership card, along with the visitor log to his Auschwitz adjacent villa.
The commandant was captured by British Military Police on 11 March 11, 1946, in the North German village of Gottrupel, where he had been masquerading as a gardener. He was then interrogated by Abrahams and his colleagues.
In a letter penned to his wife, Abrahams explained: "The interrogation lasted three days, during which I did not sleep. The atmosphere was strange and unrealistic when we heard him admit that he was personally responsible and overseeing the death of over 2.5 million people by gas and the cremation of their bodies, most of whom were Jewish”.
Höss was transferred to Polish authorities on May 25 1946 and was sentenced to death by hanging the following year and was executed beside the Auschwitz crematorium on 16 April 1947.
