While I am no fan of Jonathan Pollard, I must take issue with Haviland Smith's commentary in the January 13 edition of The Sun ("Freeing Pollard would be a terrible mistake".

Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to a charge of passing on classified information to an ally, a crime which on average has yielded a seven-year sentence and about four years of actual prison time served. Mr. Pollard has been incarcerated now for more than 25 years. He has served longer than most murderers, rapists and, yes, war criminals.

So, stripped away from Mr. Smith's gratuitous comments about spies, diplomacy and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the bottom line is that Mr. Pollard is worthy of release simply because he has put in over six times the amount of time others have served for being convicted of a similar crime.

Rabbi Jerry Seidler, Baltimore