Standing Together: The Story of Natan Sharansky
An excerpt from a powerful and important middle grade biography
Editor’s note:
At a time when we need Jewish heroes, Leah Sokol’s book is a must read. This biography of Natan Sharansky is as much about Natan as it is about his wife Avital. It’s the story about them standing together and the Jewish world standing together behind them. Sokol wrote a compelling biography that is also filled with information about the Soviet era and the struggle of Soviet Jewry. It’s a story about inner strength, faith, and Jewish pride.
Excerpt from Standing Together: The Story of Natan Sharansky
Natan was placed in a cold, narrow cell. He was allowed one hour outside for exercise, and the rest of his time was spent in the cell or being questioned by the KGB.
The KGB agents were excellent at getting prisoners to confess to things they were not guilty of. They used many tactics to make prisoners feel completely alone. They talked to Natan for hours. They yelled questions at him, threatened him, and told him that all his friends had already said he was guilty.
But Natan did not feel alone. He felt that he was part of the Jewish people. He believed that his friends would stand by him. And he knew he would always be connected to Avital.
He treated his sessions with the KGB like a chess game. He wrote out his moves in advance on the toilet paper the prisoners were given. He memorized the moves, then flushed the toilet paper. While the KGB agents were asking him questions, he was trying to get them to reveal what was happening in the world outside his prison. He gathered clues from what they said and then pretended he knew more than he really did. He made confident statements about what he guessed was happening, then watched their reactions.
He confused the agents by joking with them.
“Your case is very serious,” a KGB agent thundered. “We have eleven agents handling it.”
“Oh, good!” Natan said. “I’m glad to hear there’s no danger of unemployment in this country.”
Another time, he asked the agents, “Did you hear what happened? Brezhnev [the Soviet leader] was really upset that the Americans landed a man on the moon. So he called in his scientists and said, ‘We are going to beat the Americans! We’re going to land men on the sun!’
“‘But that’s impossible,’ the scientists said. ‘They’ll be burned to a crisp!’
“‘Don’t worry,’ Brezhnev assured them, ‘I’ve thought of everything. We’ll send them at night.’”
Natan could see that the agents wanted to laugh. But of course, they didn’t dare. Instead they yelled at him, pounding on the table: “How dare you insult our glorious leader?”
Natan smiled. “Look,” he said. “You can’t even laugh at a joke you think is funny. Are you so sure that I’m the one who’s in prison, and you’re the ones who are free?”
He made up a short prayer using the Hebrew words he knew, asking God to give him the strength to leave prison and reach the land of Israel without betraying himself. Every time he was led to talk to the KGB he recited the prayer twice. It was the only part of his daily routine he could control.
Sometimes the KGB put him in a “punishment cell.” This was a small, damp, freezing cold cell where prisoners were given barely any food. It was impossible to get warm and impossible to sleep. They put Natan in the punishment cell for days, taking him out only to ask him questions.
But every day, Natan reminded himself: My goal is to live as a free person, and that goal depends only on me.
Excerpt printed with permission of the author. Standing Together: The Story of Natan Sharansky, by Leah Sokol, Green Bean Books (December 19, 2024).
Leah Sokol is the author of several Jewish children’s books. She is also the author of middle grade and young adult fantasy novels under the name “Leah Cypess.” She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her family.
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Five Tiny Delights
Brookside Gardens, a gorgeous public garden that is a mere five-minute bike ride from my home.
The pictures I took of my children’s faces during the total eclipse. (The pictures of the eclipse itself don’t come close to capturing the experience. But their expressions…)
Hot cocoa with whipped cream on a winter morning. Or a fall morning. Or, okay, a summer morning. Just any morning.
Leaving laundry in the dryer overnight. (It's been over a decade since I last lived in a building with shared washers—I still enjoy this luxury!)
The new products section at Trader Joe's.
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Five Tiny Jewish Delights
The smell of fresh baked challah (not that I bake it, but I do love the smell).
The writings of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Jewish humor, especially the jokes that require a mini-history lesson for the uninitiated.
Korech at the Pesach seder (my absolute favorite food).
Being overcome by drowsiness and falling asleep while reading on Friday evening, hours before I would even consider going to bed any other night.
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