Elena Bonner Still A Hero
B
ack when Helen
watch for six years in the closed
Thomas was a tou
city of Gorky. He died in 1989.
female journalist with
In a recent interview about the
a front-row seat at White House
2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Elena
press conferences, the diaspora
Bonner discussed her life with
and Israeli Jewish communi-
Andrei and their years of work-
ties were working every angle
ing for human rights in the
to free Jews from the grasp of
former Soviet Union.
Communist anti-Semites in the
When she was asked about
former Soviet Union.
the Peace Prize, Elena respond-
Jea nnie
Familiar names back then
ed that the Nobel Peace Prize
Wei ner
included refusenik heroes
is not the same prize as it was
Comm unity
Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky
when her husband received
Vi ew
and Yuli Kosharovslcy, two men
it — not because the prize is
who are prominent players in
not as worthy, but because the
current Israeli politics. Another person
Peace Prize lost its ethical value when it
of enormous fame was Andrei Sakharov,
was awarded to Palestinian leader Yasser
the nuclear physicist who, in 1975, was
Arafat. She decried some of today's dip-
awarded, not the Nobel Prize for Science,
lomats for their lack of courage, strength
but for Peace.
and the conviction necessary to support
A full member of the Soviet Academy
a prizewinner living in isolation and fear.
of Sciences and the Soviet Union's most
She remembered the love and hope she felt
important physicist, Mr. Sakharov even-
in Norway in 1975.
tually grew concerned about the moral
Elena Bonner, a feisty woman, continues
implications of nuclear proliferation and
to be respectful and courteous, as well as
began to push for a test ban treaty. His
fearless. Her words caused me to recall the
courage as a dissident and human rights
tenacity and moral courage of Soviet dis-
activist eventually surpassed his many
sidents and refuseniks. Thankfully, those
advances in the field of physics. He was a
Soviet Jews who wish to are out of the
friend to many Jewish refuseniks, speak-
former Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain no
ing out about human rights abuses when
longer exists; and Israel has benefited from
the Soviets did not allow the refuseniks to
mass numbers of Jews now participating
work or to leave the country to go to Israel. in every aspect of Israeli life.
In the early '70s, Sakharov married his
But Elena Bonner cautions us to con-
second wife, Elena Bonner, a Jew and fel-
tinue to make "moral" choices. She and
low dissident. Sakharov and Bonner were
Andrei Sakharov did just that in spite
in the news recently when the Chinese
of the challenges and threats. Too bad it
Nobel Peace Prize winner was not allowed
was not Elena Bonner, a spokesperson
to collect his prize. Commentators referred
for human decency, who was the woman
to Sakharov as a previous prizewinner who quoted over and over in the news these last
had not been allowed to leave his country
several weeks instead of Helen Thomas.
to receive the Peace Prize. Elena Bonner,
Feistiness, in itself, is not the character-
recovering from eye surgery in Italy at that
istic we seek in a role model. It is moral
time, picked up Sakharov's prize.
consistency that makes an older woman
Ironically, a few years later, Sakharov was newsworthy.
arrested for protesting the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan and was kept under close
Jeannie Weiner is a West Bloomfield resident.
❑
Challenges from page 30
as the king of Saudi Arabia and the crown
prince of Bahrain focusing on the Iranian
threat and understanding the common
interest that Israel and the moderate
Arabs have in containing Iran.
And now comes the Carmel Forest
fire.
The fact that both Turkey and the
Palestinian Authority provided assistance to
Israel at the forest fire is not insignificant. It
obviously does not negate the problematic
aspects of Turkish and Palestinian policies
toward Israel. But it should alert Israeli
leaders to openings, to shades of gray, to
possibilities that things don't always have to
t
212 ° 171/47 c_91/:
114)
t_ !-;it}
❑
Abraham Foxman is national director
of the Anti-Defamation League.
eiZAta
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December 30 • 2010
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