(JNS.org) The U.S. State Department on Friday called on the Cuban government to release Jewish-American prisoner Alan Gross, who spent his 65th birthday in prison. “Today is Alan Gross’s 65th birthday. Instead of celebrating it with his family where he belongs, Mr. Gross remains in a Cuban prison – where he has been held for more than four years,” State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said, adding, “We remain deeply concerned about Mr. Gross’s well-being and again call on the government of Cuba to release him and allow him to be reunited with his family.” Gross, a subcontractor for the United States Agency for International Development who went to Cuba to help the Jewish community there access the Internet, is serving a 15-year prison term for what Cuba called “crimes against the state.”