Natan Brand Natan Brand Natan Brand (1944–1990) was an Israeli classical pianist. Brand was the son of a doctor, Aron Brand, and his wife, Mala, Polish Jews who immigrated to Mandate Palestine days before the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. The family settled in Jerusalem. Brand began his studies as a child prodigy at the age of seven, with Haim Alexander at the Rubin Academy, where he later received an Artist's and Teacher's diploma. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 11, playing with the Israel Broadcasting Authority Symphony Orchestra. Brand married Lori Hillman, with whom he had two
Natan Sharansky becoming a refusenik, Sharansky became a human rights activist, working as a translator for dissident and nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov, and spokesman for the Moscow Helsinki Group and a leader for the rights of refuseniks. On 15 March 1977 Sharansky was arrested on multiple charges including high treason and spying for Americans. The accusation stipulated that he passed to the West lists of over 1,300 "refuseniks", many of whom were denied exit visas because of their knowledge of state secrets, which resulted in a publication by Robert C. Toth, "Russ Indirectly Reveal 'State Secrets': Clues in Denials of Jewish Visas".