From Russia came the first pioneers of the Jewish state in modern Israel, including Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Golda Meir, all of whom were born as subjects of the czar. Yet the fall of Imperial Russia in 1917 barred the gates to the millions of Jews who remained behind in the Soviet Union for another seven crucial decades.
One of those who found himself trapped behind the Iron Curtain was Natan Sharansky, whose life story and life’s work are told, compellingly and endearingly, in the newly published memoir “Never Alone,” co-authored by Sharansky and historian Gil Troy (PublicAffairs). It’s a book whose time has come precisely because Sharansky reminds us that what was at stake for the earliest pioneers of the Jewish state — a safe haven for Jewish democracy — is at risk today.
