Political positions of Ted Kennedy called Kennedy, "a great friend of Israel", and he continued by saying that Kennedy would be missed. Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, who was a prisoner of Zion in the Soviet Union, told "The Jerusalem Post", "When we were in prison - when I was in prison - Senator Kennedy was one of the most important contacts for our wives and families. He helped bring down the iron curtain and he helped Soviet Jews immigrate to Israel." "Kennedy was clearly a friend of Israel all the way, and in every place that he could help us he did," said Israeli
Natan Sharansky Natan Sharansky Natan Sharansky (, , ; born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky (, ) on 20 January 1948) is an Israeli politician, human rights activist and author who, as a refusenik in the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s, spent nine years in Soviet prisons. He has served as Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency since June 2009, to be replaced in August 2018 by Isaac Herzog. Sharansky was born in Donetsk (then called Stalino), Soviet Union on 20 January 1948 to a Jewish family. He graduated with a degree in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics