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Political dissident and human rights activist Natan Sharansky visited the campus Wednesday to present a somewhat controversial argument: You can't have true political freedom unless you're willing to die for it.
Some 200 spectators gathered in the Grand Ballroom at Stamp Student Union to listen to Sharansky's life story, from his captivity in Soviet prison to his career in the Israeli government, and now to the writing of his latest book on democracy and identity, Defending Identity.
Sharansky became famous in the 1970s as a figure among "refuseniks," or Jews who were refused emigration from the Soviet Union.
After applying for a visa to Israel, he was convicted of treason as a spy for the United States and spent almost a decade in Russian captivity, becoming an international symbol for human rights.
"My real alma mater was Soviet prison," he said, "which gave me many lessons."
It was in his isolated cell that he realized people must rise from fearing for their lives to defending their identities.
He criticized the post-World War II mentality that all differences between people should be erased and that nationality is politically incorrect, a mindset he said has left Western countries vulnerable to terrorists.
"When we learned over the last two generations to love freedom," Sharansky said, "we forgot how to fight for freedom."
Sharansky was freed and became a citizen of Israel in 1986, and he has forged a long career in politics. He founded the Yisrael b'Aliyah party in the Israeli parliament to help with the absorption of Soviet Jews into Israel and held several government offices, including that of deputy prime minister and minister for Jerusalem and for Diaspora affairs. He resigned from the government in 2005 in protest of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull Israeli settlers and soldiers out of Egypt's occupied Gaza Strip.
Using the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians as an example, he suggested that the only way to end conflict between countries is for people to find strength in nationality and respect it in others.
"The best allies that you have are people who, like you, believe in freedom, but also have identity," he said, "something they are willing to die for."
Sharansky visited as a speaker for Caravan for Democracy, an initiative to create dialogue between college students and prominent speakers from Israel. The event was sponsored by the Pro-Israel Terrapin Alliance, Maryland Hillel and the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. Sharansky's views have been occasionally controversial. At a speech at Rutgers University in 2003, a spectator threw a pie at him, and his security was a concern at Wednesday's event, said Shoshana Hill, senior campus programs coordinator for the Jewish National Fund.
However, the assembly remained calm throughout the lecture and question-and-answer session, and even a heated debate between Jewish and Muslim students afterward was respectful.
"I think he's controversial for his role in the Israeli government," said Andrea Waghelstein, a senior operations management major and Sharansky supporter. "But I think what he does now to get Russian Jews into Israel is a good thing."
But some students questioned whether Sharansky's visit was meant to include everyone or just to reinforce the stance of pro-Israel attendees.
"I feel like these events are overwhelmingly in favor of Israel," said Sana Javed, a senior government and politics and Spanish major, who stood to question Sharansky's status as a human rights activist while he defends a nation accused of abusing the rights of Palestinians.
"Any voice that you hear saying Israel is not that great gets come down on hard," said Javed, who is an Indian Muslim. "I never feel like the dialogue here is really dialogue. It's advocacy."
Sharansky has received numerous awards for human rights activism, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2006. He is currently chairman of the Shalem Center's Institute for Strategic Studies, an organization that explores issues of stability in the Middle East.
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