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Natan Sharansky: Prison, Politics and The Jewish People

On the morning of February 11, 1986, Natan Sharansky woke up a prisoner of the Soviet Union, convicted of treason for advocating that Jews be permitted to emigrate to Israel. By nightfall, after nine years of confinement in prisons and forced labor camps, he was praying at the Western Wall. The sudden freedom left the man who’d spent his life under the heel of Soviet tyranny reeling. ”The main principle then was: No compromise,” he once said. ”In the morning, you said no to the K.G.B., and in the evening you said no. You could feel yourself a tzaddik…In the free world, it is a lot more complicated.’’

After his arrival in Israel, Natan Sharansky went into politics and served as Minister of Industry and Trade; Deputy Prime Minister; and Minister of Diaspora and Jerusalem before being elected chair of the Jewish Agency. The author of five books, he was awarded the 2020 Genesis Prize Foundation award for his “lifelong struggle for human rights.”

A month before the release of his new book, Never Alone, reflections on the journey he’s traveled from Soviet Gulags to the rough-and-tumble of Israeli politics and then to the leadership of the Jewish Agency, Mr. Sharansky will join us for a conversation moderated by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism.











When: Mon., Aug. 3, 2020 at 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Where: Temple Emanu-El
1 E. 65th St.
888-718-4253
Price: Free
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On the morning of February 11, 1986, Natan Sharansky woke up a prisoner of the Soviet Union, convicted of treason for advocating that Jews be permitted to emigrate to Israel. By nightfall, after nine years of confinement in prisons and forced labor camps, he was praying at the Western Wall. The sudden freedom left the man who’d spent his life under the heel of Soviet tyranny reeling. ”The main principle then was: No compromise,” he once said. ”In the morning, you said no to the K.G.B., and in the evening you said no. You could feel yourself a tzaddik…In the free world, it is a lot more complicated.’’

After his arrival in Israel, Natan Sharansky went into politics and served as Minister of Industry and Trade; Deputy Prime Minister; and Minister of Diaspora and Jerusalem before being elected chair of the Jewish Agency. The author of five books, he was awarded the 2020 Genesis Prize Foundation award for his “lifelong struggle for human rights.”

A month before the release of his new book, Never Alone, reflections on the journey he’s traveled from Soviet Gulags to the rough-and-tumble of Israeli politics and then to the leadership of the Jewish Agency, Mr. Sharansky will join us for a conversation moderated by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Buy tickets/get more info now