Washington (special) -- As Congress and U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White of New York investigate whether the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich on President Bill Clinton's last day in office resulted from bribery or illegal influence peddling, the American Jewish community and Israel need to do some serious soul-searching of their own. Do large financial contributors too
easily manipulate our institutions to do their bidding?

In other words, in their hunger for big contributions to our various
charities, are our Jewish leaders turning a morally blind eye to actions of
people whom they would otherwise condemn? Rich--an ironic a surname
as any--is a billionaire commodities trader who fled the United States
just before his indictment in 1983 on a variety of charges including tax
evasion, racketeering and violating America's sanctions against trade
with Iran.

In the 18 years since fleeing the United States to Switzerland, Rich and
his associate Pincus Green, who also received a presidential pardon,
have busily given away millions of dollars to Israeli and Jewish causes,
winning friends who could apparently influence people.

Among beneficiaries of Rich's largesse through the Rich Foundation of Tel
Aviv and other charitable conduits have been such Israeli institutions as
Ben-Gurion University, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem Foundation, and
Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Additionally, he has helped to fund such
Jewish programs as the Operation Birthright program created to give
every young Diaspora Jew an opportunity to visit Israel, a seminary for
Diaspora Jews on the West Bank, a home for autistic children in Northern
Israel, and a health program for Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip.

Before Clinton pardoned Rich and Green, he received a barrage of letters
and e-mails from a variety of leaders in the Israeli and American Jewish
world. Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak lobbied for Rich's pardon; so
apparently did former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, former Mossad
chief Shabtai Shavit, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and Knesset
Speaker Avraham Burg.

Among leaders of American Jewish organizations contacting Clinton in
Rich's behalf were Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-
Defamation League, and Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, chairman of the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council. 

Not everyone joined the campaign. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel said he
was approached for a letter in Rich's behalf, but declined. Some advocates
in the Jewish community who wanted Clinton to grant clemency to
Jonathan Pollard, now serving a sentence for passing secrets to Israel,
also demurred, fearing perhaps correctly a Rich pardon would take
pressure off Clinton to resolve the Pollard matter.

In the wake of the pardon controversy, the executive vice chairman of the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations,
Malcolm Hoenlein, and the president of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, both strongly criticized the campaign
in Rich's behalf.

Hoenlein expressed fears that people in Washington will come to believe
that representatives of Israel and the American Jewish community care
more about getting pardons for individuals like Rich and Pollard, then in
dealing with issues of community-wide importance such as support for
Israel, restoration of property to Holocaust victims, and the fight against
anti-Semitism.

Yoffie contended that in advocating for Rich, leaders of Jewish
organizations "undermined our community's moral fabric, jeopardized our
political standing, disillusioned our youth and compromised the sacred
values of our tradition."

Jews serving in the United States Senate have denounced the Rich pardon
by Clinton, whose non-profit presidential library, political party and wife
Hillary's senatorial campaign all received large contributions from Rich's
ex-wife, songwriter Denise Rich. 

During one committee hearing into the controversy, Sen. Arlen Specter
(R-Pa.) said the situation may warrant impeaching Clinton all over again,
even though he is now out of office. Specter did not explain how such an
action could occur.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said because Rich was a fugitive from
justice, his pardon by Clinton "stands our criminal justice system on its
head."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca) voiced "concerns not only about the Rich
pardon" but also about a number of the other 140 pardons which Clinton
issued on his last day in office.

Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis), who is a principal co-author with Sen.
John McCain (R-Az) of a pending campaign finance reform bill, took
critical notice of Mrs. Rich's contributions to the Democratic party.

Clinton, meanwhile, has issued a statement that: "I made the decision to
pardon Marc Rich based on what I thought was the right thing to do. Any
suggestion that improper factors including fund raising for the
(Democratic National Committee) or my library, had anything to do with
the decision are absolutely false."