NJ Congressman Pallone challenges Justice over rejection of Sephardi Jews

by Marilyn Silverstein
NJJN Political Correspondent

Of the more than 90 Arabic-speaking Sephardi Jews from Brooklyn who have applied for positions as translators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the past two years, not one has been hired — and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) wants to know why.

Pallone, whose District 6 comprises most of Middlesex County and parts of Monmouth County, including Deal, which has a large community of Sephardi Jews, expressed his “great concern” over the matter in an Oct. 20 letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft.

“I find it outrageous that, despite a shortage of Arabic-speaking translators, none of the 90-plus Jewish applicants met FBI qualifications,” Pallone wrote. “While I have not personally reviewed the applications of the 90 Jewish candidates, I find it hard to believe that none of them met the necessary qualifications to be offered a position.

“It is my worry that the FBI denied their employment solely because of their religion,” the congressman wrote. “If this is the fact, I find it most disturbing. Given the critical nature of this type of work and the high demand for this specific and rare skill, this kind of discrimination cannot be tolerated.”

He wrote the letter after a constituent from Deal who works closely with the World Jewish Congress brought the matter to his attention about a week ago, Pallone said in a telephone interview from his Washington office.

“I’m asking the Justice Department to reconsider and explain why so many were denied,” he said. “I’m concerned that these people are being discriminated against because they’re Jewish.”

The fact that the FBI denied the applications of so many apparently qualified translators is vexing, according to Pallone, especially in light of recent reports that the bureau, awash in a sea of untranslated Arabic documents and recorded conversations, is suffering from a serious shortage of Arabic translators. Pallone pointed in particular to an article in the current issue of Newsweek, “Lost in Translation: A Crisis in Terror Fighting,” which suggests that dozens of the Arabic-speaking Sephardi Jews from Brooklyn failed to qualify as translators because they declined to renounce their Israeli citizenship.

“That’s nonsense,” Pallone said, noting that most American Jews are eligible to be citizens of Israel.

The matter originally took shape in the shadow of the 9/11 terror attacks, according to sources in Pallone’s Washington office. In October of that year, representatives of the FBI’s New York office reportedly contacted the Sephardic Bikur Holim, a Brooklyn-based social-services agency that works with Jews from Arab lands, seeking applications from Arabic linguists.

Although some of the Sephardi Jews who subsequently applied to the FBI are native speakers of Arabic and many have extensive translation experience working with Israeli radio and television news outlets and with the Israeli Defense Forces, Pallone noted in his letter, none was found to be qualified.

“I respectfully request that you ask the FBI to immediately reconsider the applications submitted by Sephardic Bikur Holim,” Pallone told Ashcroft in his letter. “The need for vigilance and heightened security in the face of the terrorist attacks our nation has experienced is a necessity. However, we must remain equally concerned that these applicants receive equal consideration for employment, without discrimination based solely on their religion.”

Ed Cogswell, a spokesman for the FBI, said that the bureau would have no comment on the matter. “I don’t know the circumstances behind each application,” Cogswell said in a telephone interview, “and we don’t discuss why an individual may not have succeeded in their application.” NJJN’s calls asking for comment from Douglas Balin, executive director of the Sephardic Bikur Holim, were not returned.

Pallone said he intends to follow up his Oct. 20 letter with calls to the Department of Justice. “I just want them to reconsider the applications, for the sake of avoiding possible discriminatory action,” the congressman said. “They should reconsider these denials. That’s what I’m hoping for. We’re going to call over there and insist we have a response. We’re not going to take no for an answer.”

Marilyn Silverstein can be reached at msilverstein@njjewishnews.com.