Push to free Alan Gross,four year Cuban captive

It’s been four years since Alan Gross, an American subcontractor who was raised in New Hyde Park, was arrested and imprisoned in Cuba, and his life is in danger.

On Dec. 3, 2009, Gross was planning to return to the U.S. the next day and had just hung up the phone after speaking with his wife when Cuban officials entered his hotel room and arrested him. He was held in a Havana prison for 14 months without charge. After a summary trial in March 2011, a Cuban court stated that his work there was an attempt to undermine the Cuban government by distributing communications systems not under government control. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence held a rally in front of the Cuban Mission to the United Nations last year to call for Gross’s release.

“We stand together with the Gross family in full support of their efforts to bring home their dear relative,” said Rambam’s rosh mesivta, Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman. “Alan Gross is really a case of pidyon shvuyim (the mitzvah of freeing a prisoner) and an obligation upon all of us to do whatever we can to see him back in the United States. It is an outrage that the Cuban government is using him as a political pawn to attempt to extract concessions from the United States and it is the responsibility of the U.S. government to make sure all of its citizens are delivered back safely and should not spare any efforts to bring Alan home.”

Gross had traveled five times to Cuba to work on a project of the U.S. Agency for International Development to enable Internet access for the Cuban Jewish community to be able to interact with other Jewish communities. He was arrested on his fifth trip.

Judy Gross, Alan’s wife (who said she is permitted to visit Gross just a few times each year), and Ron Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, along with elected officials and other supporters, will hold a vigil across from the White House on the fourth anniversary of Gross’s incarceration, Tuesday, Dec. 3.

Gross suffers from chronic pain, has lost more than 100 pounds and his mental health is deteriorating, says Judy, who responded to questions from The Jewish Star by email.

“Alan spends 23 hours a day confined to a small cell with two fellow inmates. The lights are on 24/7. His single hour outside each day takes place in a small, enclosed courtyard. He is isolated from the outside world, with no Internet access and extremely limited visits and phone calls.

“Repeated requests for a release based on humanitarian grounds have been denied.

“The only way Alan will come home alive is if President Obama personally gets involved and does what is necessary to secure his immediate release. The Cuban government has stated both publicly and privately that they are willing to sit down with the U.S. government to discuss Alan’s case with no pre-conditions. Alan’s case rests on the shoulders of the U.S. and Cuban governments, and only they have the power to bring him home to his family. It has been four years and Alan still remains in prison. The purpose of the vigil is to bring attention to Alan’s plight and encourage the President to get personally involved in this case and to bring Alan home.”

Judy continued:

“Alan’s mother is 91 years old and is currently battling inoperable lung cancer. His mother cries to me every Saturday when we talk about the fear that she may never see her son again. It goes without saying that Alan’s imprisonment has been difficult for our family. Our daughter, Shira, battled breast cancer without her father. She also walked down the aisle without him last summer.

“Our other daughter, Nina, has put her life on hold — as we all have.”

Malcom Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told the Star that it is not currently feasible to meet the Cubans’ demands but that “a lot has been done here and there, we have been very involved, [and] we are continuing to use every avenue possible, public and private.”

The vigil will be in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., from 12 to 1 pm with the speeches to begin at 12:15 pm.

For more information contact jcrain@skdknick.com.