Avital Sharansky after Nathan's sentence, Avital met with government leaders in the United States and around the world. In 1979, Avital published a book on the couple's struggle: "Next Year in Jerusalem". The struggle of the Sharanskys was picked up particularly in New York. During Nathan Sharansky's trial, a sign reading "Free Shcharansky" was lit up on Times Square. Avital's activism on behalf of her husband was aided by many, including Rabbi Avi Weiss, Rabbi Ronald Greenwald, and others. Nathan Sharansky was released on February 11, 1986, after which Avital stepped away from public life. The Sharanskys live in Israel, where they
Yelena Bonner Although Bonner had joined the Soviet Communist Party in 1964 while she was working as a physician, only a few years later she was becoming active in the Soviet human rights movement. Her resolve towards dissidence was strengthened in August 1968 after Soviet bloc tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia in order to crush the Prague Spring movement. That event strengthened her belief that the system could not be reformed from within. At the Kaluga trial in 1970, Bonner and Sakharov met Natan Sharansky and began working together to defend Jews sentenced to death for attempting an escape from the USSR in