Natan Sharansky (Hebrew: נתןשרנסקי; Russian: Ната́н Щара́нский;Ukrainian: Натан Щаранський), born Anatoly BorisovichShcharansky, is an Israeli politician, human rights activist, andauthor who, as a refusenik in the Soviet Union during the 1970s and1980s, spent nine years in Soviet prisons. He served as Chairman ofthe Executive for the Jewish Agency from June 2009 to August 2018. Sharansky currently serves as chairman for the Institute for theStudy of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), an Americannon-partisan organization.
Biography
Sharansky was born into a Jewish familyon 20 January 1948 in the city of Stalino (now Donetsk) in theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union.
His father, Boris Shcharansky, ajournalist from a Zionist background who worked for an industrialjournal, died in 1980, before Natan was freed.
His mother, Ida Milgrom, visited him inprison and stubbornly waged a nine-year battle for her son's releasefrom Soviet prison and labor camps. She was permitted to follow herson to Israel six months after he left the Soviet Union.
He was attending physics andmathematics high school No.17 in Donetsk. As a child, he was a chessprodigy. He performed in simultaneous and blindfold exhibitions,usually against adults. At the age of 15, he won the championship inhis native Donetsk. Sharansky graduated with a degree in appliedmathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Whenincarcerated in solitary confinement, he claims to have maintainedhis sanity by playing chess against himself in his mind. Sharanskybeat the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a simultaneousexhibition in Israel in 1996.
After Sharansky graduated fromuniversity, he began working for a secret state research laboratory.Sharansky lived near Sokolniki Park, on Kolodezniy Pereulok(Water-well Lane). In his spare time, Sharansky would coach youngchess players at the famous chess club in the park.
He took his current Hebrew name in 1986when he was freed from Soviet incarceration as part of a prisonerexchange and received an Israeli passport with his new name.
Natan Sharansky is married to AvitalSharansky and has two daughters, Rachel and Hannah. In the SovietUnion, his application to marry Avital was denied by the authorities.They were married in a friend's apartment, in a ceremony notrecognized by the government, as the USSR only recognized civilmarriage and not religious marriage.
Activism
Sharansky was denied an exit visa toIsrael in 1973. The reason given for denial of the visa was that hehad been given access, at some point in his career, to informationvital to Soviet national security and could not now be allowed toleave. After becoming a refusenik, Sharansky became a human rightsactivist, working as a translator for dissident and nuclear physicistAndrei Sakharov, and spokesman for the Moscow Helsinki Group and aleader for the rights of refuseniks.
Arrest and imprisonment
On 15 March 1977 Sharansky was arrestedby the KGB, then headed by Yuri Andropov, on multiple charges,including high treason and spying for several Americans. Theaccusation stated that he passed to the West lists of over 1,300refuseniks, many of whom were denied exit visas because of theirknowledge of state secrets, which resulted in a publication by RobertC. Toth, "Russ Indirectly Reveal 'State Secrets': Clues inDenials of Jewish Visas". High treason carried the deathpenalty. The following year, in 1978, he was sentenced to 13 years offorced labor.
Sharansky spent time in Moscow'sLefortovo Prison, followed by Vladimir and Chistopol prisons, wherefor part of the time he was placed in solitary confinement. Hishealth deteriorated, to the point of endangering his life. Later hewas detained in Perm 35, a post-Stalin-Gulag-type so-called "strictregimen colony" in Perm Oblast.
During his imprisonment, he embarked onhunger strikes to protest confiscation of his mail, and he wasforce-fed at least 35 times, which he describes as "a sort oftorture". Sharansky later opposed force-feeding ofPalestinian detainees.
Sharansky appeared in a March 1990edition of National Geographic magazine. The article, "LastDays of the Gulag" by Mike Edwards, profiles throughphotographs and text one of the few remaining Soviet prison laborcamps. The article featured a photo of Natan Sharansky and his wifeAvital in their home in Israel viewing photos of the same Gulag wherehe had been imprisoned, but as it appeared in 1990. Sharanskyremarked in the article that after viewing images of the prisoner'sfaces, he could discern that the protocol of oppression was still atwork. The author also showed Sharansky a photo of the cold isolationcell where he had himself been confined. Sharansky commented withirony that conditions had improved slightly: the stark cell nowfeatured a thin bench bolted to the middle of the floor. He said thatif that bench had existed when he was there, he could have slept onit, albeit uncomfortably.
Release from detention
As a result of an internationalcampaign led by his wife, Avital Sharansky (including assistance fromEast German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel, New York Congressman BenjaminGilman, and Rabbi Ronald Greenwald), Sharansky was released on 11February 1986 as part of a larger exchange of detainees. He was thefirst political prisoner released by Mikhail Gorbachev.
Sharansky and three low-level Westernspies (Czech citizen Jaroslav Javorský and West German citizensWolf-Georg Frohn, and Dietrich Nistroy) were exchanged for Czechspies Karl Koecher and Hana Koecher held in the United States, Sovietspy Yevgeni Zemlyakov, Polish spy Marian Zacharski, and East Germanspy Detlef Scharfenorth (the latter three held in West Germany). Themen were released in two stages, with Sharansky freed first thenwhisked away, accompanied by the United States Ambassador to WestGermany, Richard R. Burt. The exchange took place on the GlienickeBridge between West Berlin and East Germany, which had been usedbefore for this purpose.
Aftermath
Sharansky immediately emigrated toIsrael, adopting the Hebrew name Natan and eventually simplifying hissurname to Sharansky. While his wife had become religiously observantduring his detention, he did not follow her example.
Due to his age and poor health, he wasexempted from the standard compulsory three years' IDF service, buthad to undergo three weeks of military training and do a stint in theCivil Guard.
In 1988, he wrote Fear No Evil, amemoir of his time as a prisoner. He founded the Zionist Forum, anorganization of Soviet immigrant Jewish activists dedicated tohelping new Israelis and educating the public about integrationissues, known in Israel as klita (lit. "absorption").Sharansky also served as a contributing editor to The JerusalemReport and as a Board member of Peace Watch.
Freedom fighter awards
In 1986, the United States Congressgranted him the Congressional Gold Medal.
In 1987, the Hadassah Women'sZionist Organization of America granted Sharansky the Henrietta SzoldAward, given by Ruth Popkin.
In 2006, US President George W.Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
On 17 September 2008, the RonaldReagan Presidential Foundation awarded Sharansky its 2008 RonaldReagan Freedom Award.
Israeli political career
In 1995, Sharansky and Yoel Edelsteinfounded the Yisrael BaAliyah party (a play of words, since "aliya"means both Jewish emigration to Israel and "rise",thus the party name means "(People of) Israel immigrating (tothe State of Israel)", as well as "Israel on therise"), promoting the absorption of the Soviet Jews intoIsraeli society. The party won seven Knesset seats in 1996. It won 6seats in the 1999 Israeli legislative election, gaining twoministerial posts, but left the government on 11 July 2000 inresponse to suggestions that Prime Minister Ehud Barak's negotiationswith the Palestinians would result in a division of Jerusalem. AfterAriel Sharon won a special election for Prime Minister in 2001, theparty joined his new government and was again given two ministerialposts.
In the January 2003 elections, theparty was reduced to just two seats. Sharansky resigned from theKnesset and was replaced by Edelstein. However, he remained partychairman and decided to merge it into Likud (which had won theelection with 38 seats). The merger went through on 10 March 2003, and Sharansky was appointed Minister of Jerusalem Affairs.
From March 2003 – May 2005, he wasIsrael's Minister without Portfolio, responsible for Jerusalem'ssocial and Jewish diaspora affairs. Under this position, Sharanskychaired a secret committee that approved the confiscation of EastJerusalem property of West Bank Palestinians. This decision wasreversed after an outcry from the Israeli left and the internationalcommunity.
Previously he served as the DeputyPrime Minister of Israel, Minister of Housing and Construction sinceMarch 2001, Interior Minister of Israel (July 1999 – resigned inJuly 2000), Minister of Industry and Trade (1996–1999).
He resigned from the cabinet in April2005 to protest plans to withdraw Israeli settlements from the GazaStrip and northern West Bank.
He was re-elected to the Knesset inMarch 2006 as a member of the Likud Party. On 20 November 2006, heresigned from the Knesset.
NGO work and other activities
In 2019 Natan Sharansky became theChairman for the Institute for the study of Global Antisemitism andPolicy (ISGAP). ISGAP is an international interdisciplinary researchcenter with entities in Canada, the United States, the UK, Europe,and Israel. ISGAP carries out high caliber research on contemporaryantisemitism and policy, including at Oxford University, La SapienzaUniversity in Rome, Stanford University, the University of Miami, andmore. More information available at www.isgap.org
His resignation was meant to allow himto form the right-leaning Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies.The funding came from American billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
Since 2007, Sharansky has been chairmanof the board of Beit Hatefutsot, the Jewish diaspora museum.
In June 2009, Sharansky was elected tothe Chair of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel by theJewish Agency Board of Governors. In September 2009 Sharansky secured$6 million from the Genesis Philanthropy Group for educationalactivities in the former Soviet Union.
He is a founding member of OneJerusalem.
Media recognition and awards
In 1997, Sharansky was the focus of a2.5-hour-long episode of Chaim SheKa'ele ("What A Life"),the Israeli version of This Is Your Life. The episode focused mainlyon his experiences as a Soviet dissident, and featured many of hisfamily and acquaintances. In 2005, Sharansky participated in TheyChose Freedom, a four-part television documentary on the history ofthe Soviet dissident movement, and in 2008 he was featured in LauraBialis' documentary Refusenik. In 2014, he took part in NatellaBoltyanskaya's documentary Parallels, Events, People. He was numbereleven on the list of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of2005 in the "Scientists and thinkers" category. He won the2018 Israel Prize for his lifetime achievements and specialcontributions to the State of Israel in the fields of Immigration andAbsorption. He was awarded the 2020 Genesis Prize Foundation awardfor his "lifelong struggle for human rights." Hedonated the $1 million prize money to organizations combating thecoronavirus.
Published works
Sharansky is the author of three books.The first is the autobiographical Fear No Evil, which dealt with histrial and imprisonment. The book was awarded the 1989 National JewishBook Award for Biography.
His second book, The Case forDemocracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror wasco-written with Ron Dermer. George W. Bush offered praise for thebook:
If you want a glimpse of how I thinkabout foreign policy, read Natan Sharansky's book, The Case forDemocracy. ... For government, particularly – for opinion makers, Iwould put it on your recommended reading list. It's short and it'sgood. This guy is a heroic figure, as you know. It's a great book.
His book Defending Identity: ItsIndispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, is a defense of the valueof national and religious identity in building democracy.
Still another book Never Alone: Prison,Politics, and My People tells about his political activity and howhis personal experience influenced it.
Political views
Sharansky has argued that there cannever be peace between Israel and the Palestinians until there is"the building of real democratic institutions in thefledgling Palestinian society, no matter how tempting a 'solution'without them may be." In a Haaretz interview, he maintainedthe following:
Jews came here 3,000 years ago andthis is the cradle of Jewish civilization. Jews are the only peoplein history who kept their loyalty to their identity and their landthroughout the 2,000 years of exile, and no doubt that they have theright to have their place among nations—not only historically butalso geographically. As to the Palestinians, who are the descendantsof those Arabs who migrated in the last 200 years, they have theright, if they want, to have their own state ... but not at theexpense of the state of Israel.
In the wake of the Arab uprisings of2011, he told Moment Magazine, "To sign an agreement you musthave a partner who is dependent on the well-being of his people,which is what democracy means."