At Kadish's N.J. community, 'espionage affairs scare people'

Not a soul could be seen at midday yesterday in the Ponds retirement community in Monroe Township, New Jersey, where Ben-Ami Kadish and his wife Doris live.

Kadish, a former U.S. Army engineer, was indicted in Manhattan on Tuesday on charges of conspiring to give U.S. military secrets to Israel in the 1980s. He is suspected of photographing and passing on to Israel classified information including restricted data about nuclear weapons, plans for upgrading the F-15 combat aircraft and the U.S. Patriot missile system.

The entire area, an hour-and-a-half drive from Manhattan, is surrounded by lawns and undisturbed silence.

In contrast to the scenery, the uniformed security guard at the entrance to the compound responds with hostility to this reporter's questions.

"Yes, I can imagine who you're looking for," he says. "I've been working here for five years and know every family." But he refuses to answer my questions and asks me to leave immediately.

Moments later, when my companion photographs the entrance to the compound, another guard appears.

"You can't take photographs here and I'm calling the police and giving them your license plate number," he says.

Attempts at obtaining information from people at a small shopping center not far from Ponds raise suspicious looks. Fragmented answers leave the impression that some of them know the Kadish family and are aware of the espionage allegations against him.

"I'm not prepared to talk about it," says a woman entering her car in the shopping center's parking lot.

"People don't mind talking about suspects in sexual or financial scandals," says a local journalist. "But espionage affairs scare and alarm people."

Telephone calls to the Kadish family go unanswered. A man who serves as a cantor in a local synagogue and knows the family would not answer repeated telephone calls to the synagogue's secretary.

Gerrie Bamira, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, was cooperative. "Ben-Ami Kadish and his wife supported the Jewish Federation in Middlesex and helped us in our community work," she said.

"The authorities are still gathering information on the case and we expect justice to take its course. We believe that that every individual is innocent until proven guilty."

A September 2006 article in New Jersey Jewish News portrays the Kadishes as a warm, involved Jewish family that is very active in the community. The writer, who visited the Kadishes on the eve of Sukkot, wrote about the "open sukkah" that the Kadishes have been building in their yard every holiday for the past 12 years, hosting dozens of friends and neighbors for the feast.

"Our house is always open," Kadish says in the article.

The article says the Kadishes are also involved in charity work and contribute to Jewish organizations. A certificate from the American Friends of Magen David Adom for their activity hangs in their house.

The paper reported that Kadish, a World War II army veteran, was raised in Palestine before the establishment of Israel and served in the British and U.S. militaries. After the war he served in the Haganah before the British Mandate ended.