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Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People
A classic account of courage, integrity, and most of all, belonging
In 1977, Natan Sharansky, a leading activist in the democratic dissident movement in the Soviet Union and the movement for free Jewish emigration, was arrested by the KGB. He spent nine years as a political prisoner, convicted of treason against the state. Every day, Sharansky fought for individual freedom in the face of overt tyranny, a struggle that would come to define the rest of his life.
Never Alone reveals how Sharansky's years in prison, many spent in harsh solitary confinement, prepared him for a very public life after his release. As an Israeli politician and the head of the Jewish Agency, Sharansky brought extraordinary moral clarity and uncompromising, often uncomfortable, honesty. His story is suffused with reflections from his time as a political prisoner, from his seat at the table as history unfolded in Israel and the Middle East, and from his passionate efforts to unite the Jewish people.
Written with frankness, affection, and humor, the book offers us profound insights from a man who embraced the essential human to find his own voice, his own faith, and the people to whom he could belong.
In 1977, Natan Sharansky, a leading activist in the democratic dissident movement in the Soviet Union and the movement for free Jewish emigration, was arrested by the KGB. He spent nine years as a political prisoner, convicted of treason against the state. Every day, Sharansky fought for individual freedom in the face of overt tyranny, a struggle that would come to define the rest of his life.
Never Alone reveals how Sharansky's years in prison, many spent in harsh solitary confinement, prepared him for a very public life after his release. As an Israeli politician and the head of the Jewish Agency, Sharansky brought extraordinary moral clarity and uncompromising, often uncomfortable, honesty. His story is suffused with reflections from his time as a political prisoner, from his seat at the table as history unfolded in Israel and the Middle East, and from his passionate efforts to unite the Jewish people.
Written with frankness, affection, and humor, the book offers us profound insights from a man who embraced the essential human to find his own voice, his own faith, and the people to whom he could belong.
416 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2020
63 people are currently reading
270 people want to read
About the author
Natan Sharansky
17 books45 followersAnatoly Borisovich Shcharansky (later Natan Sharanky) was born in Stalino, Soviet Union on January 20, 1948 to a Jewish family. He graduated with a degree in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As a child, he was a chess prodigy. He performed in simultaneous and blindfold displays, usually against adults. At the age of 15, he won the championship in his native Donetsk. When incarcerated in solitary confinement, he claims to have played chess against himself in his mind. Sharansky beat the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a simultaneous exhibition in Israel in 1996.
Natan Sharansky is married to Avital Sharansky, with whom he has two daughters, Rachel and Hannah. In the Soviet Union, his marriage application to Avital was denied by the authorities.[citation needed] They were married in a Moscow synagogue in a ceremony not recognized by the government. Sharansky lives in Jerusalem. (from Wikipedia)
Natan Sharansky is married to Avital Sharansky, with whom he has two daughters, Rachel and Hannah. In the Soviet Union, his marriage application to Avital was denied by the authorities.[citation needed] They were married in a Moscow synagogue in a ceremony not recognized by the government. Sharansky lives in Jerusalem. (from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 25, 2023
"Never Alone" is Natan Sharansky's autobiographical story, co-written with noted historian Gil Troy. It is an immensely powerful, moving book, lengthy, but well worth reading. Sharanksy was best-known as a "refusenik" or dissenter in Soviet Russia, once an up and coming scientist who was sent to Soviet gulags, like Andrei Sakharov, for the thought-crime of speaking out and daring to ask permission to emigrate to Israel. It is divided into three major parts, the first part being Sharansky's years in Soviet doublethink and the prison camps, including solitary, for nine years. The second part is about his life after the fall of the Soviet Empire as the first political prisoner Gorbachev released and his political life as a representative of the new Russian Jewish immigrants, over a million strong, finally after centuries of persecution released by Pharaoh. The final section is the story after Sharansky's decision to leave politics and to run the Jewish Agency, which assisted in immigration and resettlement and, in particular, his story about the airlifts to the tribe of Beta Israel, the Ethiopian Jews, who dwelled in the highlands of Ethiopia for nearly two millennia, nearly unknown to the outside world.
The first section talks about a life without freedom and without identity. In the Soviet Union, there was no freedom and the Communists were constantly rewriting history, not just pulling down statutes that had fallen out of vogue, but rewriting textbooks and encyclopedias in scenes right out of Orwell's vivid imagination. "Although the restrictions on physical movement varied, the restrictions on traveling through time - by learning history - were imposed uniformly. The Soviets collectivized the past, treating it as state property." Not only was there no freedom of movement, but the Communist dictatorship existed on a network of informers and one never knew which neighbor would inform on you. And Communism "came wrapped in a package of violence directly from Marx."
Not only was freedom of thought squelched, but identity was as well. Religion was mocked and churches, mosques, and synagogues were destroyed. Ethnic identity was destroyed. There could be no individuality. Every day was a permanent loyalty test, every conversation. "Just say the wrong thing, discuss the wrong topic, make the wrong gesture, break the wrong rule, and you, too, could vanish, as people on our block had, as people in our family had."
One of the scary examples Sharansky cites about the Soviet historical revisions is that the Soviets decided the Holocaust was inconvenient and wiped it from books, discussion, thought. They paved over the cemeteries and buried any related documents. Sharansky and his young colleagues growing up post-war barely knew about the Holocaust even though many of the atrocities had taken place right there.
It was only after Israel proclaimed its independence that Sharansky understood his heritage and did the unthinkable act that could make him vanish forever in the Soviet world: he applied to emigrate to Israel. The Soviets did not like emigration because it made it look like citizens did not enjoy "the worker's paradise" of Communism. "Let My People Go," Moses said to Pharaoh in Egypt. And when Sharansky uttered these words, his fate was sealed. He was picked up by the KGB and interrogated in all matter of ways. He was offered freedom if only he would betray his people and confess his wrongdoing. But, like Nelson Mandela, who was in a prison at the same time and who followed Sharansky's story, he refused to give up, understanding, that despite hundreds of interrogations, his mission was to open the gates of the Soviet Union so that over a million Russian Jews could gain freedom from oppression and return to their homeland from which they had been exiled for two millennia. Interestingly, Sharansky was given hope by President Reagan's declaring the Soviet Union an evil empire because it proved the real world was catching on to what the Soviet Communist Empire was.
The second part of the story concerns what happened to Sharansky after he was finally released amidst the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Sharansky did what Moses never could and reached the Promised Land. But, he was just the vanguard of one of the great human rights stories of our generation, the rescue of over a million people from the Soviet oppression and return to their ancient homeland. Sharansky then took on the task of representing these people in the Knesset, the Israeli Congress. As fascinating as these years were, a lot of the stories are a sort of inside baseball that those unfamiliar with the events might not find as intriguing. But much of it concerns the lesson he learned in dealing with dictators and that you cannot make peace with them, lessons that should have been learned in dealing with Arafat's treachery and the fact that he was never anything more than a bloodthirsty terrorist, putting him as the face of the Palestinian Authority guaranteed that there would never be an end to conflict. Sharansky also talks about the shock of visiting American college campuses after 2000 and finding that they now resembled nothing less than the Soviet Union in the way in which free thought was squelched and Anti-Semitism flourished in the elite campuses.
The third part of the book concerns Sharansky's years working as a bridge to the world outside Israel. Particularly moving is his story of the airlift of the last of the Ethiopian Jews, the Beta Israel tribe, who journeyed barefoot for days by the thousands to get on the last planes out. In total, some 125,000 escaped Ethiopia. After thousands of years, this lost tribe got to make the exodus across the Red Sea. The third part of the book takes Sharansky's story up to the present day even to the mention of Coronavirus and the struggles, political, moral, and intellectual that are still playing out.
Overall, a fascinating book about an incredible life that has been lived with such meaning. Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.
The first section talks about a life without freedom and without identity. In the Soviet Union, there was no freedom and the Communists were constantly rewriting history, not just pulling down statutes that had fallen out of vogue, but rewriting textbooks and encyclopedias in scenes right out of Orwell's vivid imagination. "Although the restrictions on physical movement varied, the restrictions on traveling through time - by learning history - were imposed uniformly. The Soviets collectivized the past, treating it as state property." Not only was there no freedom of movement, but the Communist dictatorship existed on a network of informers and one never knew which neighbor would inform on you. And Communism "came wrapped in a package of violence directly from Marx."
Not only was freedom of thought squelched, but identity was as well. Religion was mocked and churches, mosques, and synagogues were destroyed. Ethnic identity was destroyed. There could be no individuality. Every day was a permanent loyalty test, every conversation. "Just say the wrong thing, discuss the wrong topic, make the wrong gesture, break the wrong rule, and you, too, could vanish, as people on our block had, as people in our family had."
One of the scary examples Sharansky cites about the Soviet historical revisions is that the Soviets decided the Holocaust was inconvenient and wiped it from books, discussion, thought. They paved over the cemeteries and buried any related documents. Sharansky and his young colleagues growing up post-war barely knew about the Holocaust even though many of the atrocities had taken place right there.
It was only after Israel proclaimed its independence that Sharansky understood his heritage and did the unthinkable act that could make him vanish forever in the Soviet world: he applied to emigrate to Israel. The Soviets did not like emigration because it made it look like citizens did not enjoy "the worker's paradise" of Communism. "Let My People Go," Moses said to Pharaoh in Egypt. And when Sharansky uttered these words, his fate was sealed. He was picked up by the KGB and interrogated in all matter of ways. He was offered freedom if only he would betray his people and confess his wrongdoing. But, like Nelson Mandela, who was in a prison at the same time and who followed Sharansky's story, he refused to give up, understanding, that despite hundreds of interrogations, his mission was to open the gates of the Soviet Union so that over a million Russian Jews could gain freedom from oppression and return to their homeland from which they had been exiled for two millennia. Interestingly, Sharansky was given hope by President Reagan's declaring the Soviet Union an evil empire because it proved the real world was catching on to what the Soviet Communist Empire was.
The second part of the story concerns what happened to Sharansky after he was finally released amidst the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Sharansky did what Moses never could and reached the Promised Land. But, he was just the vanguard of one of the great human rights stories of our generation, the rescue of over a million people from the Soviet oppression and return to their ancient homeland. Sharansky then took on the task of representing these people in the Knesset, the Israeli Congress. As fascinating as these years were, a lot of the stories are a sort of inside baseball that those unfamiliar with the events might not find as intriguing. But much of it concerns the lesson he learned in dealing with dictators and that you cannot make peace with them, lessons that should have been learned in dealing with Arafat's treachery and the fact that he was never anything more than a bloodthirsty terrorist, putting him as the face of the Palestinian Authority guaranteed that there would never be an end to conflict. Sharansky also talks about the shock of visiting American college campuses after 2000 and finding that they now resembled nothing less than the Soviet Union in the way in which free thought was squelched and Anti-Semitism flourished in the elite campuses.
The third part of the book concerns Sharansky's years working as a bridge to the world outside Israel. Particularly moving is his story of the airlift of the last of the Ethiopian Jews, the Beta Israel tribe, who journeyed barefoot for days by the thousands to get on the last planes out. In total, some 125,000 escaped Ethiopia. After thousands of years, this lost tribe got to make the exodus across the Red Sea. The third part of the book takes Sharansky's story up to the present day even to the mention of Coronavirus and the struggles, political, moral, and intellectual that are still playing out.
Overall, a fascinating book about an incredible life that has been lived with such meaning. Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.
December 2, 2020
Natan Sharansky, Never Alone, Prison, Politics and My People (2020)
Never Alone is Natan Sharansky’s fourth book, after Fear No Evil (1986), the story of his surviving nine years in the Soviet Gulag, The Case for Democracy (2005), his thesis that democracy should not be abandoned as a force in international relations, and Defending Identity (2008), countering the tendency to universalize values on the assumption that identity is the cause of conflict. He wanted to title Never Alone, “Nine, Nine, Nine” reflecting his nine years in the gulag, nine years in Israeli governments and nine years heading the Jewish Agency, but his co-author and publisher overroad him.
On one level, Never Alone is an ironic title. It refers to Sharansky’s strategy for surviving the horrors of the Soviet prison system. Cut off from the world, he convinced himself that others knew of his whereabouts and were working for his freedom. That belief enabled him to refuse to cooperate with his captors.
Sharansky was less alone when he arrived in Israel and helped launch a political party to represent the one million Russian immigrants as they struggled with the transition into Israeli society. A hero when he arrived in Israel, his heroic status declined over time as he was forced to function as a political animal––learning when to compromise and when to draw a line in the sand. He drew the line twice, resigning from two governments when the prime ministers advanced policies that Sharansky could not support.
And he was even less alone as head of the Jewish Agency, an organization that seeks to bring Jews worldwide together as one people. Despite the successes he instituted, Sharansky was less influential in Israel as head of the Jewish Agency than he had been as a politician.
The three-part structure of Never Alone, nevertheless, allows the reader to see how a principled individual can apply the lessons he learned as a prisoner, including standing up to those who believe giving into an enemy’s demands will work this time when it has never done so in the past.
The Realist School’s Drawbacks
Sharansky applied what he learned from the downfall of the Soviet Union to Israel’s situation with the Palestinians. To that end he opposes the “realist school” of diplomacy that claims it’s better to deal with the dictator you know than the one who will take over if you drive the present occupant out of office.
The classic case of the failure of this approach is Israel’s agreeing to install Yasser Arafat over the Palestinians via the 1993 Oslo Accords. Israel got nothing in return for entering into that agreement. Worse the deal convinced Arafat that the West was weak and he could get away with whatever he wanted. Sharansky writes of Oslo, “Supplying Arafat with twenty thousand guns and more so he could be strong, and paying him tens of millions of dollars monthly so he could be our dictator, with the hope that he would bring us peace, contradicted everything I had learned about the nature of dictatorships.” (193) The result? Arafat launched an intifada (uprising) that led to the deaths of over one thousand Israelis and three thousand Palestinians.
Oslo’s failures unfortunately didn’t deter other Israeli prime ministers from trying to win peace by giving away even more for the chimera of peace. Thus, Sharansky resigned from Ehud Barak’s cabinet because he would have given away too much land including the Temple Mount and he resigned from Ariel Sharon’s cabinet because Sharon wanted to give Gaza to the Palestinians. Sharansky foresaw the disaster that followed Sharon’s decision leaving a sore that remains on Israel’s flank.
The Kotel Controversy
Sharansky brings us to the doorstep of the present day in the third part of Never Alone, discussing the conflict between the liberal American Jewish community and Bibi Netanyahu over the kotel (western wall). To that end he expounds on how to understand the rise of anti-Semitism in the West and how to deal with it.
Netanyahu put aside a deal that had been negotiated with the ultra-Orthodox parties and the American reform community over providing space in the kotel area for women prayers––an act that enraged the Americans. Although Netanyahu didn’t publicly explain his move, Sharansky offers a likely theory. The liberal American Jewish community had sided with Barack Obama on his deal with Iran, which Netanyahu considered an act of betrayal of Israel. Netanyahu had campaigned for strict oversight of Iran for at least a decade and came to the U.S. to express his view to Congress that the deal represented an existential threat to the state of Israel. Among other defects, monies Obama released to Iran went to upgrade Hezbollah’s military capacity, the result of which threatened Jewish communities in northern Israel.
Sharansky quotes Netanyahu as having told him, “You understand, liberal American Jews really don’t like Israel . . . They love an Israel that exists in their imaginations.”
If implemented, the kotel agreement would have cost Netanyahu support of many in the Orthodox community. Therefore, when the liberal Jewish community sided with Obama rather than with Israel, Netanyahu felt relieved of the obligation to allow the kotel deal to be consummated.
Anti-Semitism
Sharansky used his position as head of the Jewish Agency to launch programs designed to support American Jewish linkage to Israel, through Birthright, emissaries (shlichim) and similar programs. Part of his motivation was to create a community of people who could work together to combat the rising volume of anti-Semitism.
Sharansky argues the Jews of America and of Israel need to work together to win that fight. While some blame those on the right and others blame those on the left, Sharansky argues those differences and similar disagreements should not prevent people from working together.
To that end he calls for the creation of a Global Jewish Council as a framework for constructive dialogue. The goal of such an organization Sharansky argues would be to maintain Jewish continuity in each Diaspora community while keeping the state of Israel “secure, stable and democratic.”
Would that Jews world-wide take Never Alone to heart. Sharansky offers a principled platform for the Jews of Israel and those of the Diaspora to work together against the latest outbreak of anti-Semitism which seeks to isolate Israel. While the recent treaties negotiated by Donald Trump mark a step in the right direction in terms of its Arab neighbors, the treaties can’t appease the anti-Semite forces in the U.S. and Europe. A unified Jewish community is the necessary condition to engage in a constructive fight on that front.
Time will tell whether Sharansky is alone in advocating this solution, and whether the two sides will remain hostile, each hoping the other will change its views.
April 6, 2025
This is an excellent read which brings out a neuanced approach to bringing peace to the Middle East through the spreading of democracy.
Natan was a very key figure among the many Jewish dissidents in the final decades of the Soviet Union. He was also heavily involved in Israeli politics under several key Prime Ministers who made pivital decisions in Israel’s recent history. It was during this time and afterward that Natan helped revitalize the Jewish Agency in its great task of bringing the Jewish people back to the land of Israel.
I especially enjoyed the insightful history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the chapter on anti-semitism which gave a very thorough background and explanation to this issue. The struggles between the Diaspora and Israeli Jews over the past couple of decades have been chiefly due to the differences of focus on national security versus the desire for global equality, peace and universalism. This major difference between modern-day conservatism and liberalism has fueled the challenge for unity among the Jewish people.
Never Alone focuses, however on the commonality of all Jews because they are one people and the optomistic future in the work of bridge building between the Diaspora and Israel.
Natan was a very key figure among the many Jewish dissidents in the final decades of the Soviet Union. He was also heavily involved in Israeli politics under several key Prime Ministers who made pivital decisions in Israel’s recent history. It was during this time and afterward that Natan helped revitalize the Jewish Agency in its great task of bringing the Jewish people back to the land of Israel.
I especially enjoyed the insightful history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the chapter on anti-semitism which gave a very thorough background and explanation to this issue. The struggles between the Diaspora and Israeli Jews over the past couple of decades have been chiefly due to the differences of focus on national security versus the desire for global equality, peace and universalism. This major difference between modern-day conservatism and liberalism has fueled the challenge for unity among the Jewish people.
Never Alone focuses, however on the commonality of all Jews because they are one people and the optomistic future in the work of bridge building between the Diaspora and Israel.
January 22, 2021
After hearing Mr Sharansky on a Moment mag zoominar, after reading others of his books and articles, it was time to search for my own understanding. Of what I didn’t know. I’ve never been to Israel tho I have family there. I’ve never identified with Israel as my homeland. Am I a secular Jew? I don’t know. A Zionist? Tho my aunt Rose was as are my cousins, after the book I’m less sure than ever who I am and with what tribe I identify. More I wanted to continue to understand Mr Sharansky’s journey. I’ve “tested” myself with questions all my life: could I survive imprisonments? Would I have survived the Holocaust had I been there? Could I do what the late Congress member John Lewis did and fight with my body and words? I never stop questioning. There are “self help tips” and questions so contemporary that all - as I finished on the night of the US Inauguration - I could do was cry myself to sleep hoping by today I’d know who I was. TBD. Because all his experiences are weighed. I’ll share with a beloved aunt so that we can talk. Maybe I’ll know more. One day. Please read this. As is said about Levy Rye: you don’t have to be Jewish. You just need to want to learn and think.
September 19, 2021
I struggled with this probably because it drags a bit starting in the middle with the detailed minutia of Israeli politics. I did put it down a few times thinking that I'd had enough, but ultimately finished it because he writes in an honest, self-critical way. He challenges many of my views. In fact the book is in some ways an open letter to liberal American Jews such as myself, and I do appreciate his respect for opposing views. In a time when so many of us live in our own information and news bubble, Sharansky was a friendly visitor to my own.
March 20, 2021
Rarely has a book moved me so profoundly. The only justice I can do to this book is to tell everyone I know that they must read this book!
April 14, 2021
Golda Meir once famously quipped that pessimism is not a luxury a Jew can have. If we are to judge Jewishness by Meir’s statement, then Natan Sharansky is the ultimate Jew. In trial after trial, Sharansky kept his belief that the Jewish people would come out ahead. By believing in the Jewish people, Sharansky strengthened not only himself but those around him as well.
Sometimes people mistakenly believe that those who are optimistic are not practical. Sharansky dispels this myth; he has both practically and positivity in abundance. “Never Alone” is such a compelling book because it doesn’t spell out a certain impending doom; rather, it confronts the greatest dangers confronting Israel and World Jewry at large from an optimistic view.
Although Sharansky is able to distill problems in a really concise and clear way, his solutions to those problems often seem ambiguous and short-sided. To give one such example: Sharansky often states that democracy will save the Middle East from impending doom. While building a great case against Yasir Arafat and the rest of the Palestinian gangsters, who have destroyed countless Palestinian and Israeli lives, Sharansky fails to account for the fact that a Democratic regime may be even worse than the current one. He calls for a 21st century Marshall plan, while omitting the various countries that didn’t follow through with America’s plan for freedom.
The problems of the 21st century are often too complex to be solved with a broad brush. Every day we realize that the solutions of the past left us with the same issues. Consider this: did the fall of the Soviet Union really create more freedom for those living in Eastern Europe and Russia?
“Never Alone” is a fascinating read for those who want to gain a better understanding of Russian, Jewish dissent and Israeli politics. Nevertheless, for solutions to the problems of the 21st century, I feel that it may be time to go back to the drawing board.
Sometimes people mistakenly believe that those who are optimistic are not practical. Sharansky dispels this myth; he has both practically and positivity in abundance. “Never Alone” is such a compelling book because it doesn’t spell out a certain impending doom; rather, it confronts the greatest dangers confronting Israel and World Jewry at large from an optimistic view.
Although Sharansky is able to distill problems in a really concise and clear way, his solutions to those problems often seem ambiguous and short-sided. To give one such example: Sharansky often states that democracy will save the Middle East from impending doom. While building a great case against Yasir Arafat and the rest of the Palestinian gangsters, who have destroyed countless Palestinian and Israeli lives, Sharansky fails to account for the fact that a Democratic regime may be even worse than the current one. He calls for a 21st century Marshall plan, while omitting the various countries that didn’t follow through with America’s plan for freedom.
The problems of the 21st century are often too complex to be solved with a broad brush. Every day we realize that the solutions of the past left us with the same issues. Consider this: did the fall of the Soviet Union really create more freedom for those living in Eastern Europe and Russia?
“Never Alone” is a fascinating read for those who want to gain a better understanding of Russian, Jewish dissent and Israeli politics. Nevertheless, for solutions to the problems of the 21st century, I feel that it may be time to go back to the drawing board.
June 1, 2021
His personal courage is undeniable and his analysis of Israeli and American Jewish politics seems persuasive, however Natan Sharansky’s discussion of American politics and the Trump administration unfortunately seems to be based upon either New York Times reporting or the prejudices of Republican Never-Trumpers, instead of firsthand investigation, sadly undermining his credibility on other issues. Perhaps he relied upon his co-author, but if so that reflected poor judgement, as the account of President Trump’s record is unfair and unjust. Nobody in my lifetime was better for Israel, Jews or the United States of America than President Trump—and considering events since Inauguration Day, I’d recommend a second edition to revise unfounded criticism of the 45th President and his supporters as anti-Semitic and racist...modern-day blood libels, needing serious correction, IMHO.
August 3, 2021
This book is excellently written and provide excellent insight into the world views of countries use of "doublethink" to control its population, its ideologies and its value system. The novel is mostly dealing with Sharansky's life prior to his imprisonment and then his life as an Israeli politician until his retirement.
i.e. Sharansky does not dwell on his time in prison and how he was treated to a great degree. Seems like that was covered in other books that he has written.
This is really a book that analyses the relationship between Diaspora Jews and Israel and how both sides (which in the end do have the same goals) can work together to ve common understanding as laws of return (who is a Jews?) and marriage laws in Israel has ramifications to the diaspora and discussions prior to passing the laws reaching the Knesset to avoid alienating one side over another.
i.e. Sharansky does not dwell on his time in prison and how he was treated to a great degree. Seems like that was covered in other books that he has written.
This is really a book that analyses the relationship between Diaspora Jews and Israel and how both sides (which in the end do have the same goals) can work together to ve common understanding as laws of return (who is a Jews?) and marriage laws in Israel has ramifications to the diaspora and discussions prior to passing the laws reaching the Knesset to avoid alienating one side over another.
May 5, 2024
I would have loved if this book was written after an October 7 and the ensuing protests on American campuses. While telling Sharansky’s life story in Russia, much of the latter part of the book talks about his philosophies of dealing with undemocratic peoples (such as the Palestinians), the tension between Israeli Jews vs. Diaspora Jews, and also antisemitism on American campuses. It is quite prescient in that regard.
I enjoyed the book, though it was not a quick read as it made me think and I found myself re-reading several passages. It was perhaps a bit too long. While I admire Sharansky’s adherence to principles, and largely agree with them, I do question how his unyielding approach could actually play out in the real world if implemented. It’s the opposite of Kissinger’s realpolitik; there has to be an in between.
I enjoyed the book, though it was not a quick read as it made me think and I found myself re-reading several passages. It was perhaps a bit too long. While I admire Sharansky’s adherence to principles, and largely agree with them, I do question how his unyielding approach could actually play out in the real world if implemented. It’s the opposite of Kissinger’s realpolitik; there has to be an in between.
October 24, 2020
Great
It surprised me the information about Ysser Arafat and the comparison to Michael Gorbachov.
I got very inspirational about your life story. I also liked the way you explained the dictatorship in Soviet Union and other places in the world and how can people help them.
Thank you :)
It surprised me the information about Ysser Arafat and the comparison to Michael Gorbachov.
I got very inspirational about your life story. I also liked the way you explained the dictatorship in Soviet Union and other places in the world and how can people help them.
Thank you :)
February 26, 2024
"Asking the [Soviet] authorities to show humanity means acknowledging that they represent a legitimate force that administers justice."
The most inspiring voice for Soviet Jewry, democracy, and community-building of our time.
The most inspiring voice for Soviet Jewry, democracy, and community-building of our time.
July 9, 2021
Quote: it’s harder to overcome intentional indifference then imposed ignorance.
April 4, 2022
Absolutely loved every single page.
December 15, 2022
Triumphant! Motivating an excellent read.
January 16, 2024
Beautiful book🇮🇱
May 19, 2024
Wonderful book.
April 16, 2025
Unbelievable story and perspective of the Jewish People.
May 2, 2021
Incredible journey for an incredible person. The last chapters are hard. Hard to read, hard to contemplate - mostly since it is so recent. Hard to maintain a good perspective.
A dictator, by definition, is NOT a government by consent, and it does not allow for dissent. A government that does not allow for dissent must always squash and quell any dissent and must have an external scapegoat. By having an external scapegoat - real peace is impossible.
A dictator, by definition, is NOT a government by consent, and it does not allow for dissent. A government that does not allow for dissent must always squash and quell any dissent and must have an external scapegoat. By having an external scapegoat - real peace is impossible.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews