Today I met Natan Sharansky. A legend. An icon. A man, who had the audacity to stand up to the entire Soviet machine and insist that Jews, even Russian Jews, even Soviet Jews, had a right to explore their Jewish identity by learning Hebrew and being Zionists and – shock and horror – move to Israel if they felt so moved. A man whose stubborn refusal to give up that dream made him a pariah at home – and a hero worldwide, the very symbol of defiance of free human spirit against the totalitarian system.
I never heard about Sharansky as a child. It is easy to forget that the Iron Curtain was not just protecting the Soviet citizens from outside influences – it was also a heavy cloud that prevented news of such heroic defiance ever making it onto the front pages of the newspapers – unless it was of course to condemn the traitor and an agent of foreign intelligence agencies… At the time of Sharansky’s trials I was 3 years old and by the time I was a teenager, the Soviet Union was slowly but surely unraveling – and together with the rest of the country I was thoroughly immersed in learning about the dark pages of Soviet history, the lies and the myths… I was also busy exploring my own Jewish identity, a gift unimaginable even to my brother who is 9 years older than I am, let alone to my parents… And so, even though I may have heard Sharansky’s name, I had no idea who he was – or what he stood for. When I visited England in the early 90’s, Sharansky’s name would come up in every conversation – a name of a hero, a symbol, a legend, whose personal story – full of tragedy and suffering, yet ultimately a story with a happy ending – had defined the plight of the Soviet Jews for the world at large…
I read the books and the stories, I learnt of the struggle and the bravery. In a way, I learnt my own history that I never had a chance to know – even though I lived through it! I met dozens, perhaps hundreds of Jews from all over the world who told me stories of travelling to the Soviet Union, meeting refuseniks, meeting Sharansky and his friends, demonstrating and demanding his release. Wonderful people who were inspired by Natan’s struggle – and inspired others to follow in their footsteps.
Hollywood movies often have a happy ending – the hero gets the girl and saves the world. Natan Sharansky was reunited with his wife and went on to help inspire thousands of American Jews to come and march in Washington DC, demanding ‘Let my People Go’. Everybody loves a happy ending. But we know that happy endings are never the end – instead they are just the beginning. Even a hero, whose act of defiance turned him into an icon, needs to figure out what to do next. Natan Sharansky entered Israeli politics and created a party that united the ‘Russian street’, over a million of recent immigrants from the Former Soviet Union. His politics were very conservative and for many years I felt disappointment – a man who, to some degree, owed his freedom to liberal Jews all over the world who fought tirelessly for his release, was now towing a political line that was very far indeed from the agenda of liberal Jews…
In 2009 Natan Sharansky became the Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel – a role that, according to many, is a perfect fit for this man, whose very name is synonymous with Jewish identity and freedom. A few months ago Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Natan Sharansky as a one-man commission to determine the way to solve the controversy around the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem – a Holy site for Jews worldwide, a spiritual center of the Jewish universe. The site is controlled by ultra-orthodox Jews and women are prohibited from wearing a tallit, a prayer shawl, when praying at the wall. The public reading of Torah from the scroll is also out of reach for these Reform, Conservative and modern Orthodox women, yet every month they come for Rosh Chodesh, New Moon, a traditional monthly Jewish ‘women’s’ day, to have this extremely powerful spiritual experience. Many of them get harassed by orthodox men and women around them, some get arrested by police. Yet they refuse to give up their right to pray at the Wall – and the rest of the Jewish world, inspired by their defiance, refuses to give up that right together with these brave women.
Together with Sydney Perry and a small group of people from New Haven I had a chance to meet with Natan Sharansky and to tell him that the Jewish world really needed this issue solved once and for all. He listened to us and offered some insights and some promises. In fact, the very next day, at the end of a long process of world-wide consultation, Sharansky announced his proposed plan which would ensure a creation of an egalitarian section at the expanded Wall Plaza that would allow Jewish women to pray the way they feel moved – and non-Orthodox Jews to pray together, as families, just as we do in our synagogues. The solution has its challenges – but it is a compromise that Women of the Wall, as well as our worldwide movement, have gladly accepted as a huge step forward for the benefit of the entire Jewish people. But even before I knew the results of this enquiry, I left the meeting feeling inspired. I met a man who was able to use all of his life experience, all of his political savvy and knowledge, all of his gravitas for one simple goal: looking after the needs of the Jewish People, all of the Jewish People…
A real hero is someone who can figure out a way to survive the ‘happily ever after’ moment. The man I met today is not just a hero of the past – he is a Jewish hero who continues to use his energy and his strength for the good of the Jewish people and his beloved State of Israel. It was an honor – and a privilege – to meet a real hero…
