FROM SOVIET PRISONER TO ISRAELI POLITICIAN: NATAN SHARANSKY’S STORY

Dr. Jeffrey Herbst, the fourth president of American Jewish University (AJU), is an advocate for academic innovation. His leadership at AJU includes fostering growth in the Maas Center for Jewish Journeys, expanding the Maven digital platform, and improving the Brandeis-Bardin Campus. Formerly, he served as president and CEO of the Newseum and the Newseum Institute in Washington, DC. Notable achievements include successfully overseeing a half billion-dollar fundraising campaign, implementing a university-wide strategic plan, and enhancing educational programming at Colgate University, where he was president from 2010 to 2015. Dr. Herbst holds a summa cum laude bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, as well as a master’s and doctorate in political science from Yale University. He is the author of the award-winning “States and Power in Africa” and, with several co-authors, the just-published “Making Africa Work.” In addition to many books and articles, he has been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many other digital and print publications around the world.

Natan Sharansky is a former spokesman for the human rights movement, a Prisoner of Zion, and a leader in the struggle for Soviet Jews’ right to immigrate to Israel. After serving nine years in the Gulag on trumped-up charges of treason and espionage, he was released in 1986 and made aliya on the same day. In Israel, he established the Zionist Forum and the Yisrael B’Aliyah party to assist Soviet olim’s absorption and integration into Israeli society. Sharansky served in four successive Israeli governments, as Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and received the Israeli Prize in 2018. He also received the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom and authored four books. In 2019, he became the Chair of ISGAP.

Gil Troy is a Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University, an award-winning American presidential historian, and a leading Zionist activist currently living in Jerusalem. He authored nine books, including The Age of Clinton, and edited and updated the multi-volume History of American Presidential Campaigns. His latest book, The Zionist Ideas, was a finalist for the 2019 National Jewish Book Award. Troy is also a featured commentator on CNN’s documentaries and has been interviewed on major North American TV and radio networks. He writes monthly columns for The Daily Beast and weekly columns for The Jerusalem Post. His next book, co-authored with Natan Sharansky, Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People, will be published in September 2023.