La Paz, Bolivia – Two-time Oscar winning actor and social activist Sean Penn is continuing his crusade to see fellow American Jacob Ostreicher released from Bolivia where he has been held in prison for 19 months on suspicion of money-laundering without being charged.
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At a press conference today in Santa Cruz, Penn said, “There is a cancer that is attacking the heart of Bolivia,” and denounced the “mafia extortion and corruption” that pervades the country and creates “an existential crisis,” according to a report in eju.tv (http://bit.ly/XTqp3n). Penn also called for Ostreicher’s freedom and for his safe return to his family of five children and 11 grandchildren.
Penn personally attended Ostreicher’s appeals hearing yesterday in Santa Cruz where the judges denied the motion to immediately release Ostreicher.
Good news, since he can greater attention to this grave matter
It’s sooo heartwarming and emotional to see how yiddin should act when another yid is in trouble. We should all learn from Rabbi Penn how we should feel for another human being!
And in general when tradgedy befalls any yid, no matter if he sinned or not (not referring to Rabbi Jacob) we should all be heartbroken about it, not gloat about it!
I’m confused at this point in time. I thought that nobody could be remanded in custody after 18 months without charges in Bolivia. It’s now 19 month in custody, still with no charges. Shouldn’t Bolivian officials now be charged with international crimes against humanity for not following their own laws at this point? I realize, too, that there are forces and things going on behind the scenes, but what about Bolivian officials follow their own law and either release him immediately or charge him with something? It’s after 18 months now!
Is there a way to get Mr. Penn’s email address so we can express our appreciation and Suspport?
Penn is on a mission to FREE jacob,is he doing this for FREE too?????
I just don’t know what to make of this guy. First he travels the world praising Hugo Chavez as a hero, then he shows up in Bolivia just to try and help free on Jewish man…. I don’t know whether to punch in the nose or kiss him on the cheek…. maybe both?
Mr. Penn must have some yiddishe hartz to advocate for Ostreicher the way he does. I hope he is succesful and Ostreicher returns to his family very soon.
Thank You Sean Penn, we will forever be indebted to you. (Still won’t watch milk though 😉
The whole thing is quite ridiculous. If their government believes he did something wrong, fine, charge him and have a trial. To make someone sit in prison for more than a year and a half without even charging him with anything is outrageous.
And of course Morales is one of the top critics of America along with his personal friend Chavez.
So now we see the “Justice” in Bolivia. Corrupt politicians and judges who have effectively kidnapped a man and kept him from his family for no legitimate reason.
Unbelievable wats take pshat
In my humble opinion this amazing kind heart’ed man US actor Sean Penn should also have a road named for him somewhere in a big Jewish community to show the world that “when you help a fellow Jew we Jewish people really Appreciate it”!!
What does it say about us as a community that a Hollywood cares more about a chassid in jail than we do? If we spent as much time lobbying for him as we did for a rapist he’d have been out 18 months ago
Sean Penn has a Jewish father but a non-Jewish mother. How does that fit in with all your bigoted notions that Yiddin are inherently good and goyim, well, you know…. Halachically Penn is not a Jew, and as far as I know has never identified as one. For the commentor above who said Penn must have a Yiddishe heart to do this, what about all the millions and millions of non-Jews who day in and day out do great acts of chesed and charity? I guess one really doesn’t need a Yiddishe heart, whatever that is, to do great things. The bigotry among frum Jews is just appalling. Get it through your insular, ignorant heads: There are more good people in the world than bad, and non-Jews are not the soulless beheimas some of your melamdim told you they are.
I really hate to say this (and I hope you do print this), but all of these accolades for Sean Penn are completely ludicrous and hypocritical. He is a personal friend of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a dictator who is aligned with Ahamadinijad and Kim Jong Sun of North Korea. In case you didn’t know, Chavez is also vehemently anti-Israel. Are you all now praising this man because he has come to the assistance of a Jewish man, while simultaneously befriending vehement anti-Semites? Is that all one needs to do to gain the acceptance of Jews?
I grew up with sean, pre-BT. he was always a good guy, but also a really complicated guy. Thank him for the good he did and isolate all your other thoughts about him. His ideas are frequently compartmentalized, if you look at his actions that way it makes sense.
Weird as it is, hakoras hatov is in order. Apparently the actor is personally disturbed by this case and perversion of justice. If he was moved to do something about it, why do we need to understand or rationalize it? Let Hashem sort it all out and use whatever means at His disposal to bring the poor man home.
i enjoyed sean as an actor many times…it’s nice to see him trying to help us Jews. thanx “sam”