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sharansky Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 07, 2018 4 Comments
Natan Sharansky is winding down his leadership of The Jewish Agency for Israel, a post he has held since 2009.  The Jewish Agency serves to strengthen ties of Jews around the world with Israel. You can read their most recent annual report on their activities here (pdf.) To honor Sharansky's service and life, the Jewish Agency is encouraging people to share memories about Sharansky, including using the hashtag #CelebrateWithNatan. So I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to recollect Legal Insurrection's prior coverage of Sharansky, plus a new story I just learned about him.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 28, 2016 3 Comments
We have covered the antics of Students for Justice in Palestine, and similar anti-Israel groups, many times, including pervasive efforts to shut down opposing pro-Israel viewpoints. The latest example is at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where SJP is objecting to and planning to protest the joint appearance of actor Michael Douglas and Nathan Sharansky. Douglas and Sharansky are appearing as part of a tour about 'Jewish Journeys,' as the Providence Journal reports, Michael Douglas, Natan Sharansky to discuss 'Jewish Journeys' at Brown:
Movie star Michael Douglas and onetime refusenik Natan Sharansky will discuss "Judaism, Israel and current-day anti-Semitism" at Brown University on Thursday.
The event is the kickoff of a three-university "Jewish Journeys" tour that will also take them to Stanford on Feb. 2 and the University of California Santa Barbara the next day. The 7:30 p.m. event at Brown's Salomon Center for Teaching is free, but registration is required.
Michael Douglas Natan Sharansky Jewish Journeys tour The topic of anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of Israel on campuses is a focus of the tour:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2015 23 Comments
One of my early posts at Legal Insurrection, on November 11, 2008, was Is It Time For Conservatives To Sit Down In The Snow?. The post analogized what conservatives were about to experience in the aftermath of Obama's first victory to the experience of Soviet Jewish Refusenik Anatoly (Nathan) Sharansky. I related the story of Sharansky's release from the Soviet gulag, and how he resisted to the very last moment of his release:
Sharansky spend almost a decade in Soviet prison because of his activities on behalf of Jews who wanted to emigrate to Israel. Sharansky was subjected to torture and other indignities, but never lost his spirit.Sharansky notoriously refused to obey even the most mundane orders from his captors. Sharansky understood that to compromise even a little would lead to compromising a lot. Throughout his ordeal, Sharansky kept his spirits alive by reading a small book of psalms. As Sharansky was being led to the airplane that would take him from the Soviet Union to East Germany for the exchange, the Soviets confiscated his book of psalms.It would have been easy for Sharansky simply to keep walking towards the plane and freedom. But Sharansky understood that the Soviets confiscated his book of psalms not because they wanted the book, but because they wanted to show that even in this last moment, they were in control.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 24, 2013 15 Comments

I realize I have re-posted this a number of times. The original post was November 11, 2008, a week after Obama's first election.  Because I knew we had elected Door No. 2. Watching Ted Cruz and others on the floor of the Senate tonight, I have to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2009 0 Comments

The website DebkaFile is reporting that Bibi Netanyahu's choice for Israeli Foreign Minister is Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky, a hero of the Soviet refusenik movement. For those of you who are not familiar with Sharansky, his story is inspiring. In the weeks just before and after...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 11, 2008 0 Comments

Conservatives face a choice. Yield to "progressive" policies which, once implemented will take a generation to undo, or stand on principles of free enterprise, individual liberty, and capitalism? Giving in is much easier, but in the long run more costly. We can learn a lot...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 13, 2008 0 Comments

I was a student of Russian and Soviet history in college, and spent a considerable amount of time in the Soviet Union. While a student in Moscow, I became close friends with the Yakir family (more on them in a later post), a family steeped...

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