[Alouette]

Years ago, when I was active in the "Free Soviet Jewry" movement, we went to one of the large Temples for support for our activities. The rabbi refused to help, saying that "Jews in the USSR are happy living under Communism, and it is only a handful of fanatics who are making trouble." This BTW was the standard line used by the Communists for years. This putz rabbi is one of the main reasons that I ran away screaming from reform Judaism.

Of course, when the Soviet Jewry movement became popular, lots of temples joined in because it was the "hip thing." But even then all their attention was given to the secular, non-Jewish celebrities like Bolsoi ballet dancers and literati, not to sticky religious people like Sharansky or (nuclear physicist) Herman Branover.

[Alouette]

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[SJackson]

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High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

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[kenavi]

Thanks for posting this. It reminds us that there is still this potential great leader for Israel and the Free World out there.

"In the Palestinian Authority, for example, Sharansky had urged the Bush administration to press for a three-year transitional period, "so people can start understanding their options, and only then you can have elections," he said.

The biggest achievement of President Bush was that "he brought the democratic agenda," Sharansky said. "But when you're alone, it's very difficult to succeed."

He recalled being asked during a trip to Washington once why Bush had so few allies in Europe.

"I responded, I have a much more difficult question for you: How come he has so few allies in Washington?"

Part of the problem in bringing freedom to Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority, he said was that "major players don't believe in it."

He singled out the CIA and the State Department as opposing the president's pro-freedom agenda. "It's great to have the president and the vice-president and some of their advisors believing in this great ideology. But the people who implement it also have to believe in it," Sharansky said.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/8/7/100904.shtml?s=lh

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The Soviets seem to have persecuted people of every religion except for atheism.

Many freepers kindly helped to get a FRhomepage organized on Internet Explorer. It should look organized, now.

[goldstategop]

The Caring Leftist David Forman overlooks the fact the Palestinians are sworn to destroy Israel and are willing to mass murder Jews to achieve this objective. They are ruled by the Islamofascist Hamas - backed by Iran and its modern Haman - Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. And they are as much of a totalitarian menace to the safety and happiness of the Jewish people as the Soviet State was. Nathan Sharansky spent his entire life fighting it. He knows more about true evil than the blind dolt Forman ever will. Its stooping low to attack one of the true Jewish heroes of the past century.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus