SOCIETY 1500 R S T LIKCOLH HE 6B508-1651
Serving Nebraska and Eastern Iowa for more than 75 years Vol. LXXV
No. 40
Omaha, NE
2 Tammuz, 5758 -
June 26,1998
Omahans Shirley and Buddy Goldstein participate in simcha
Safari Sharansky's nephew becomes a Bar Mitzvah in Des WSoines
him at that time was the Book of Psalms. It was a miracle that he managed to save this book) during those years). At the most difficult times, he found there an inspiration and support of the entire people of Israel." j In his Bar Mitzvah speech, Boris Scharansky stat1 ed, "My parents got married in an anti-Semitic envi' ronment; they were born in a Stalin-ruled Soviet j Union and never had the luxuries I take for granted r _ every single day. •••'.. ha ""For the nine years that my uncle was in prison^ my , parents fought (against) Russia, along with my aunt j Avital in Israel, trying to get him released," Boris con1 1* j tinued. T h e Soviet government thought they could i , « • . ' •» i "i win Natan's mind, but they werewrong." .. ' . f If E 1 "Thankyou, dyadyu Tolya (UncleiNatan)for taking 1 time out of your overwhelming schedule to come here I to Des Moines, not as a member of the Knesset and a Minister in the Israeli cabinet, but as my uncle." • Though this was not the Sharansky's first trip to Avital Sharansky, left, I d a Milgrom, a n d Member of the Knesset Natan Sharansky attended Des Moines, it was an important one...the celebration the B a r M i t z v a h of B o r i s S c h a r a n s k y i n D e s Moines recently, son of Leonid a n d R a y a of the coming of age of a new generation of Scharansky and grandson of Mrs. Milgrom. Scharanskys, a young man who has heard the stories other refuseniks* (Natan Sharansky was released in of his family's courage and who has as role models his by Carol Katzman 1986 and settled in Israel. Today, he is the leader of parents, his grandmother, his aunt and uncle, and his Little did Shirley Goldstein know when she car- t h e political party, Aliyah B'Aliyah, a Member of Omaha friends, the Goldsteins, to guide him on his ried a tape from Natan Sharansky out of the former Knesset and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin journey as an adult. May they all go from strength to strength. Soviet Union in 1975, that 23 years later Bhe would Netanyahu's cabinet) be celebrating his nephew's Bar Mitzvah with the "June and-Ron Daniels whole Sharansky family in Des Moines, IA had met Leonid and Raya When she visited Moscow in 1975 on one of her at the absorption center in many trips on behalf of the refuseniks, (Jews wait- Israel, shortly after they ing for visas to leave the former Soviet Union) got out of the USSR. Natan Goldstein was visited by Natan Sharansky one last had asked the Daniels to j time. In the hotel bathroom, with the water run- invite them to their home ning to keep the KGB from listening, Sharansky in Des Moines as a respite taped his last message to the world. Goldstein from the round of speaking smuggled the tape out of the FSU and a f e w engagements in Washingmonths later Sharansky was sent; to the guldg in ton, D.C., Chicago and Siberia for nine long years. , :> : ;.; Kansas City. During that struggle to free him, Goldstein Yet another meeting became close to the whole Sharansky family: his brought the Scharanskys mother, Ida Milgrom, and Natan's wife, Avital together with Elaine Sharansky, who both were leading activists in the Steinger, director of the Soviet Jewry movement.. Ironically, Natan's broth- Des Moines Jewish Federer, Leonid, and his wife, Raya, and their three- ation, and another former year-old son, Boris, moved to Des. Moines, IA, in Soviet Jew, Naum Star1988, after a short stay in Israel. oselsky, a mechanical engiT h a t connection "came about due to a pre- neer and founder of arranged vacation in Des Moines,' following a Compressor Controls fundraising dinner sponsored by the Long Island Corporation. His company Committee for. Soviet Jewry in New York in 1987. designs computers that con-"1'81''!'11 Hybakova, a lti-yeor-old grand-niece of Baya Scharansky, is a conLICSJ's chairman, Lynn Singer,'was one of many trol compressors and p r o - c e r t pianist in Moscow. She won a n international competition in London activists putting pressure on the USSR to release tect machines from damage ' a s t spring and attended the Bar Mitzvah with h e r mother, Leyna. while saving energy and increasing reliability. Staroselsky immediately offered Scharansky a job in the small but growing company (to finance its growth, he later sold a 50% interest to Norwest Venture Capital for an undisclosed amount and then sold the company to Roper Industries of Commerce, GA). Within six months, the Scharanskys were living in Des Moines and Leonid was working full-time as head of the field engineering department. The entire Sharansky family came together in Des Moines earlier this month to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Boris Scharansky at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. Rabbi Neal Sandier and Cantor Alan Sokoloff conducted the services. In bis speech to his son, Leonid Scharansky said,'"If you will feel yourself as part of your people, you will Shirley Goldstein, front, hosted several Sharansky never feel lonely. relatives on their tour of the Great Plains, includJ Talk to your uncle, Natan," he continued, "Ask him ing the Bar Mitzvah, Boris Scharansky, left, Ksenya Hntriey uoidstein, left, renewed her friend- where he got all the strength to overcome all the Kisleva, a student at Iowa State, Raya Scharansky, ship with another former refiiaenik at the Bar hardship he experienced during the nine years of Lyena and Tanya' Rybokova of Moscow, and Buddy Mitzvah, Lev Blitschtein, a friend of both hardship in detention. Goldstein. The Goldsteins were honored with the • Natan Sharansky and his brother, Leonid. "I will tell you that the most important support for third aliyah at the Bar Mitzvah. t
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