Natan Sharansky: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Natan Sharansky (born January 20, 1948 Anatoly Sharansky, Russian language: Натан Щаранский, Анатолий Щаранский) is a notable Soviet dissident, Israeli politician and an author.

Since March 2003, he is the Minister without portfolio, responsible for Jerusalem, social and diaspora affairs. Previously he served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Minister of Housing and Construction since March 2001, Interior Minister of Israel (July 1999 - resigned in July 2000), Minister of Industry and Trade (1996-1999).

Biography

Sharansky was born in Donetsk, Ukraine to a Jewish family. He graduated with the degree in Applied mathematics from Moscow Technical Institute.

After being denied an exit visa to Israel for "security" reasons in 1973, he worked as an English interpreter for prominent physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, and also became a human rights activist. Sharansky was one of the founders and the spokesman of Jewish and the Refusenik movement in Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, also known as Yuri Orlov's group.

In March 1977 he was arrested and in July 1978 convicted on charges (later proven false) of treason and spying for the United States and sentenced to thirteen years. After 16 months in Lefortovo prison he was incarcerated in the Siberian Gulag for nine years. He was exchanged for a Soviet spy in 1986 and emigrated to Israel, adopting the Hebrew given name Natan.

In 1988 Sharansky was elected the President of the Zionist Forum, an umbrella organization of former Soviet dissidents, was a contributing Editor to Jerusalem Report and a Board member of the Peace Watch.

In 1989 the US President Ronald Reagan awarded him with the Medal of Freedom.

Chairman and founder (1995) of the political party Yisrael B'Aliyah ("Israel on the rise" or "Israel for aliyah") promoting the absorption of the Soviet Jews. The party won seven Knesset seats in 1996.

• ISBN 1891620029 Fear No Evil. The Classic Memoir of One Man's Triumph over a Police State.