Sharansky

In many recent conversations with my friends in the Jewish community I can’t help but have sensed an alarming degree of apathy towards Natan Sharansky visit. Most of the people are just indifferent, while others are upset with his political inclinations. The spectrum of disappointment is rather wide: while some of my friends are unhappy with the fact (according to their perception) that “Sharansky is not as strong a Zionist as he was before and is now willing to compromise too much” others, at the very same time, claim that he is “too unyielding, is not willing to make compromises in the name of peace, and has betrayed human rights issues”. Many of his former supporters in the Conservative and Reform movements are very unhappy with his Knesset vote against the full recognition of the Conservative and Reform movements in Israel. Others are unhappy that he “has introduced an ethnic division into Israel’s political life by creating a party for Russian immigrants, or that he has brought into a democratic society a political team that is too contaminated by the Communist totalitarian mentality and cares only about Russian olim”. (Which is not true: Yisrael B'Aliya was a party for all new immigrants, not only Russian ones.) At the very same time some Russian immigrants are unhappy that Sharansky is not doing enough to protect their interests. All this is not surprising. Natan Sharansky is too prominent of a phenomenon to fit into a narrow framework of any individual’s expectations. It is next to impossible to keep happy all the people that were active in the Soviet Jewry movement.
Instead, it is more helpful to recap who Natan Sharansky is and why he has touched so may lives.
As we all know, Natan Sharansky is a Soviet Jew who together with other Soviet human rights activists like Yuri Orlov and Andrei Sakharov epitomized the struggle against one of the most oppressive regimes of the 20th century. For more than a year Natan Sharansky had a very real danger of being executed under a fabricated charge of high treason after a Soviet kangaroo-style court trial. Under pressure from the West the charges of high treason were later reduced to the lesser charges. In his book, Sharansky describes how his faith and believes sustained him during his years of horrific incarceration. Doubtfully, many of us would be capable of standing up to a similar challenge. Sharansky is thus an embodiment of uncompromising integrity and courage. We need to understand that Sharansky’s life experiences gives him the right to vote the way he thinks, not the way we expect him to vote from the heights of our suburban experience. His views, and votes as an MK, may not always be obvious and easy to understand to somebody who lives and lived all his life in relative safety and unquestionable comfort of Suburbia. When it comes to certain decisions, Sharansky’s judgment simply needs to be trusted, the way we trust Alan Dershowitz on issues of law and human rights.
A lot of people in this country, Jews and non-Jews alike, worked hard to initially prevent Sharansky’s murder and later ensure his freedom. Sharansky’s, Sakharov’s and Orlov’s struggle against tyranny helped unhinge the foundations of a totalitarian superpower and ultimately make life safer for all of us -- Jews, non-Jews, liberals, conservatives, Americans, Canadians, etc.
We have a chance here to pay due respect to Minister Sharansky by attending the meeting at Adath Jeshurun. Let’s set aside our minor differences and show our overwhelming gratitude to a person who in my opinion exemplifies Jewish history and pride.