Natan Sharansky Jewish Agency for Israel by the Jewish Agency Board of Governors. In September 2009 Sharansky secured $6 million from the Genesis Philanthropy Group for educational activities in the former Soviet Union. He is a Founding Member of One Jerusalem. In 1997, Sharansky was the focus of a 2.5-hour-long episode of "Chaim SheKa'ele" ("What A Life"), the Israeli version of "This Is Your Life". The episode focused mainly on his experiences as a Soviet dissident, and featured many of his family and acquaintances. In 2005, Sharansky participated in "They Chose Freedom", a four-part television documentary on the history of the Soviet
Natan Sharansky High treason carried the death penalty. The following year, in 1978, he was sentenced to 13 years of forced labor. Sharansky spent time in the Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, followed by Vladimir and Chistopol prisons, where for part of the time he was placed in solitary confinement. His health deteriorated, to the point of endangering his life. Later he was detained in Perm 35, a post-Stalin-Gulag-type so-called "strict regimen colony" in Perm Oblast. He kept himself sane during solitary confinement by playing chess with himself, in his head. Sharansky appeared in a March 1990 edition of "National Geographic" magazine. The