Jerusalem Report, 12/20/90:
Editors should think twice before they cross their reporters. A case in point: Martin Pomerance, editor of the Washington Jewish Week, who was forced to resign recently, after only 16 months on the job.
Staff reporters, alienated by Pomerance's unpredictable and erratic style, did some extracurricular investigative reporting based on rumors about his past. One discovery: Pomerance was apparently involved in a number of art swindles in Israel eight years ago.
A lawyer by profession, Pomerance came to in Israel from the United States in 1978 and opened the "Hillel" art gallery in Jerusalem. "When he arrived in Israel," says an art collector who had dealings with Pomerance, "he presented himself as a millionaire. He was charming, articulate, and had an extravagant lifestyle."
In 1982, Pomerance allegedly was involved in the sale of works from a number of Israeli artists, at prices well below their true value. Facing a police investigation and two court orders prohibiting him from leaving the country, Pomerance boarded a tourist boat in Eilat, dove into the water and swam to Egypt, according to newspaper accounts. Israeli sources assume he used false papers to enter Egypt, from where he returned to the United States.
"Pomerance was not a professional journalist, but was masquerading as one," says former Washington Jewish Week employee Jon Greene, laid off by Pomerance in September for "budgetary reasons."
What most upset reporters was Pomerance's habit of firing people without warning. According to Greene: "People were producing, yet they would be fired. This left us with the feeling that we had no security."
At last report, Pomerance was hunkering down "someplace in Washington," presumably searching for some security of his own.
Peter Hirschberg
