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Natan Sharansky to Haaretz: Assimilation is 'eating' the Jews
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Tags: Israel news 

Since taking the helm of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky has made stopping assimilation of Diaspora Jews a focus of his office, sometimes breaking with the line set by his predecessor Zeev Bielski.

In an interview with Haaretz, Sharansky, a former Likud minister, described assimilation as "eating us" as a people, and said he wants to strengthen the connection of Diaspora Jews to Israel.

In September, one of the Jewish Agency's partner projects, MASA, came under fire following a 10-day advertising campaign which urged Israelis to report "lost" North American Jews in danger of intermarrying.
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Sharansky had the ad pulled, saying it could be found offensive, and now says the best way of fighting assimilation is to bring people on "Israel experience" programs. Sharansky said he plans to use the United Jewish Communities' General Assembly meeting in Washington next week to hold a special reception for professionals to discuss increasing the level of cooperation between the two main Israel experience programs: the Birthright Israel 10-day trip for young Jews who had never visited Israel, and MASA - which subsidizes participation in Jewish programs here.

"Sharansky will try to make these two independent organizations, in which the Jewish Agency is a major partner, unite their forces," said one source who works closely with Sharansky. He added MASA could be better modeled as a follow-up for Birthright, sharing databases and exchanging ideas.

"It's part of a concentrated effort by Sharansky to eliminate overlapping bodies," the source added.

In terms of Israeli-Diaspora relations, Sharansky spoke of a need to transcend a mutual patronization.

"Israelis need to understand the Diaspora is not a passing phase and that immigration to Israel is now a matter of choice," he said.

"At the same time, the Diaspora communities need to drop their patronizing attitude to Israel, which some donors believe is a poor relation kept alive thanks to their generosity. Israel is a strong society which in many respects is much stronger than the societies of the Diaspora."

Sharansky's hardline attitude has been seen by some as a stark contrast to Bielski, a skillful smooth-talker and guarded politician who is now a Kadima MK.

For instance, Sharansky mentions in passing that he thinks that Stuart Eizenstat - a dovish former senior American diplomat who now heads the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute - is "naive."

He also said he would not have accepted an invitation to speak with the new, left-leaning lobby J Street.

"I have no problem with people with a different view," Sharansky said. "My problem is with people saying they represent the 'real interests' of Israel, while at the same time taking position which have with nothing to do with Israel's interests."

One plan bearing Sharansky's distinct fingerprint is to directly involve the Jewish Agency in advocating Israel's position on college campuses abroad, by sending 19 young, salaried activists to combat anti-Zionism - which Sharansky views as a form of anti-Semitism - to the United States and Europe.

"The Jewish Agency is not an arm of the Israeli government and by no means is it supposed to be a defender of its policies, but the Agency does aim to strengthen the connection of Jewish communities to Israel, and the increased attacks and delegitimization of Israel is weakening that connection," he said. "It is causing Jewish people to distance themselves from Israel."

Sharansky called the move "a dramatic increase in the Jewish Agency's involvement" in this field.

Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident who finally moved to Israel in 1986, also plans to prepare and overhaul easily-executable action plans for the extraction of Jewish populations from "trouble spots" around the world, which he calls a main priority.

Sharansky said he would not elaborate on the subject so as not to jeopardize Jewish people or covert efforts to help them.

Other plans include an intiative to combat cuts in Jewish philanthropy in the former Soviet Union and the opening of Hebrew programs there.

While in Washington, he also plans on going over a program for opening a summer camp in Israel for the children of Russian-speaking Jews living in North America and Germany.

Just before Sharansky took office, the Jewish Agency split off from the World Zionist Organization, which represents Israel's political parties. Sharansky is the first chairman who is not also the chairman of the WZO, which is currently without leadership.

When the two bodies separated, a Jewish Agency source told Haaretz that the idea was to "allow the Jewish Agency to focus on practical action while setting the WZO free to pursue its ideology."

But Sharansky says that "there is no clear cut line, [of where] the Zionism of the Jewish Agency finishes and the Zionism of the WZO begins.

"I don't want to go into the discussion of where [the two bodies start and finish] because I think no one knows. Nobody can separate the issues," he said.
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  1.   Just as offensive Natan. 15:01  |  Tim 08/11/09
  2.   Maybe he should look at home first 15:10  |  Jon 08/11/09
  3.   Is considering marrying a Jew 15:16  |  Ursula Errington 08/11/09
  4.   What a racist statement 15:24  |  Chris Linthwaite 08/11/09
  5.   Israeli Baloney 15:58  |  Steven 08/11/09
  6.   Natan is right" Avoiding placing all our EGGS in one BASKET. 15:59  |  Benny Harrison 08/11/09
  7.   Just which Israel is he talking about? 16:02  |  Ussishkin 08/11/09
  8.   Jewish Agency and WZO are at the heart of Zionist apartheid 16:04  |  Ben Alofs 08/11/09
  9.   He`s Right!!!! 16:36  |  David P. 08/11/09
  10.   Cronies? 16:41  |  msh 08/11/09
  11.   Intermarriage is not the problem 16:51  |  Lasting peace 08/11/09
  12.   This 60 yo Christian Doesn`t Get It? 17:08  |  Stephen 08/11/09
  13.   Sharanski and Libermann- the KGB plan to isolate Israel 18:21  |  durak 08/11/09
  14.   Natan Sharansky seems not be be a fan of Mathematics 18:40  |  khaleb 08/11/09
  15.   sixty years later 18:53  |  frenchreader 08/11/09
  16.   Natan Sharansky is right , Jews are being lost 18:54  |  TOMY 08/11/09
  17.   Why not accept converts? 18:56  |  Basil 08/11/09
  18.   Change the religious laws, recognize the fathers 19:01  |  Basil 08/11/09
  19.   # 4, CHRIS, I AM WITH YOU. 19:13  |  EL 08/11/09
  20.   Sharansky is right 20:20  |  Susan 08/11/09
  21.   benei anousim can make up for loses 01:26  |  Enrique Valle 09/11/09
  22.   Pathetic. We U.S. Jews simply prefer our way of life. Period. 01:37  |  Hanna 09/11/09
  23.   Natan Sharansky to Haaretz: Assimilation is `eating` the Jews 02:06  |  ruben shiffman 09/11/09
  24.   durak #13 Russian sphere of influence? 03:07  |  Solovey Razboynik 09/11/09
  25.   crazy talk 04:22  |  Christopher 10/11/09
  26.   Nationalism is a threat to the Human Race 07:25  |  david 10/11/09
  27.   Natan, start working with Chabad 08:07  |  Stacy 10/11/09
  28.   Dear Nat 11:54  |  Ben 10/11/09
  29.   #23 01:43  |  ARTH 11/11/09
  30.   #22 01:46  |  ARTH 11/11/09
  31.   J Street Does Not Represent Israel`s 01:56  |  ARTH 11/11/09
  32.   I like gentiles 13:54  |  Susan 11/11/09
  33.   RE: Intermarriage not the problem 19:54  |  Boris 12/11/09
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