(Canadian Jewish News) Rita Poliakov - Natan Sharansky fought against the Communist regime in his native Soviet Union in the 1970s. Now, as the new chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, he's fighting to connect Jewish youth with Israel. During a recent visit to Toronto, Sharansky recounted speaking at York University a few years ago. "The first question was, 'Why do I need Israel?'" Sharansky explained. "You're giving [students] the opportunity to belong," he said. "We're talking about their desire to be proud to belong to this path of history." Sharansky paraphrased a lyric from the song "Imagine" by John Lennon: "There is nothing to die for," he said. "It is very important to prove that this is a false idea. In a world where there is nothing to die for, there is nothing to live for." "If you believe that it's better to live in a world where people have no identity...we're powerless to defend ourselves against our enemies," he said.
2009-11-27 08:45:07Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive