February 9, 2010              Tuesday, 7:30 pm

Zionism and Human Rights - Two Sides of the Same Coin

By Author Philip Spiegel

Based on His Book-Triumph Over Tyranny: The Heroic Campaigns that Saved 2,000,000 Soviet Jews

With examples from his recent book, author Philip Spiegel's talk will focus on Natan Sharansky as the quintessential refusenik and prisoner of Zion and will discuss such topics as:

·        Why an assimilated Soviet Jewish mathematician like Sharansky became an ardent Zionist

·        Why the KGB regarded Sharansky as "Public Enemy Number One"

·        Why the Israeli government tried to ignore Sharansky and disparage efforts in the West to save him

·        What actions by an "army of housewives and students" led to Sharansky's freedom

·        How Sharansky has been working since his aliyah to promote Zionism and Human Rights

Excerpts from the documentary film, REFUSENIK, will be shown.

This talk is scheduled for the 24th anniversary of Natan Sharansky's release after nine years in the Gulag - On February 9, 1986 Natan Sharansky was escorted out of his labor camp cell after nine years of incarceration and flown to East Berlin for his famous walk across the bridge to freedom and aliyah.

Books and DVDs will be available for sale and signing.

Philip Spiegel and his wife, Carolyn Kommel Spiegel, traveled to the Soviet Union in 1985 and 1987 as participants in the Moscow Marathon. They also visited and befriended refuseniks in Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. When they returned to California the Spiegels gave numerous talks about their findings in the Soviet Union and organized letter writing campaigns supporting resfuseniks and prisoners of conscience