We are both deeply grateful for all the help we have received in writing this book—and are also grateful that each of us can blame the other for any remaining flaws.
Natan feels extremely guilty that there are so many people who helped shape each nine-year period of his life whom he could not single out for thanks in this volume—it would have doubled the book’s size, at least. That doesn’t mean they weren’t important to him or are not remembered. The many, many omissions confirm our claim that this book isn’t a comprehensive life and times, but a series of snapshots from one life to make the broader point about our people, the power of community, and the value of dialogue.
Over the course of this collaborative writing project, cherished friends and relatives read the manuscript and offered critical feedback. We thank them in alphabetical order: Linda Adams, David Cape, Rachel Sharansky Danziger, Yossi Klein Halevi, Roman Polonsky, Aviv Troy, Dina Troy, Tevi Troy, Hanna Sharansky Waller, and Noam Zion. Dina Kirshner assisted with fact-checking while Zemira Wolfe-Solomont, Vera Golovensky, and Larissa Ruthman helped in countless ways.
We salute the inimitable David Suissa, editor in chief of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, for brainstorming with Gil about a book title. Our working title was “999,” but titles shouldn’t be inside jokes. Gil was describing how year after year the KGB told Natan that he was forgotten and abandoned in the Gulag, but he knew he was never alone. “That’s it,” David exclaimed. “You’ve got your title. After seventy-five years of ‘never again,’ we must remember that when you belong to the Jewish people, you are ‘never alone.’” We also salute another legendary editor, Neal Kozodoy, of Mosaic, who edited our July 2018 essay, “Can American and Israeli Jews Stay Together as One People?” Neal’s characteristically thoughtful challenges and excellent stylistic suggestions sharpened our thinking at a critical point in our project, while helping us focus on the broader theme of dialogue, having made our pitch in Mosaic for a Global Jewish Council. We also thank the respondents to the piece.
Special thanks to Natan’s superb previous coauthors, whose intellectual fingerprints are all over this book, Ambassador Ron Dermer and Professor Shira Wolosky Weiss. Thanks to Steve Linde of the Jerusalem Report for permission to quote extensively from some of Natan’s earlier articles, especially describing the exodus of Ethiopian Jews.
While this book is the result of a three-year collaboration between Natan and Gil that began in Jerusalem, its publication culminates a four-decade criminal conspiracy between Natan and our publisher Peter Osnos that began in Soviet Russia. In the mid-1970s, Peter was the Washington Post’s correspondent in Moscow and an essential pipeline for Natan, along with many other Refuseniks and dissidents—to the annoyance of Russia’s secret police. Their friendship has produced one arrest, one near-arrest, stacks of KGB files, and now four books—once Peter was kind enough to shift from journalism to publishing so this criminal collaboration boosting the capitalist countries could continue.
As the founder of PublicAffairs and now a consultant to Hachette Book Group, Peter Osnos has mastered the editor’s art of giving his authors just enough room to develop their own voices, while always reassuring them that they, too, are never alone. The always insightful Clive Priddle, publisher of PublicAffairs, once again served as a masterful editor and visionary for one of Natan’s books. Beyond this dynamic duo, the crackerjack team that shepherded this book to publication included Clive’s editorial assistant Anupama Roy-Chaudhury, a publishing rookie who offered the kind of thoughtful, sophisticated feedback one would expect only from a grizzled industry veteran; the masterful copy editor Liz Dana; the publicity whiz Jaime Leifer; the skilled production editor Katie Carruthers-Busser; and the rest of the Hachette team. A freelancer, Malka Margolies, has expertly worn two hats: as an experienced editor, she read the book thoughtfully, critically, at least twice, and as a publicity guru. In the process, she has not only become a valued adviser but a cherished friend.
Ultimately, we are most grateful for the support and patience of our families—who kept congratulating us on finishing the book, only to discover there was more, and more, and more to be done. Each of us is blessed with a wonderful artist wife, who not only brings beauty to the world and our worlds but joy and meaning to our lives. Both of us deeply appreciate the support, love, and fortitude of both Linda and Avital, as they started fearing that this book might become another nine-year chapter in Natan’s life.
Gil also thanks his four children—Lia, Yoni, Aviv, and Dina—for serving as sounding boards as well as cheerleaders, and his two brothers, Dan and Tevi, who are always by his side, no matter how far away they might be physically. Weaved into the dedication are hopes for the good health of his father, Bernard Dov Troy, and deep regret that Gil’s mother, Elaine Gerson Troy, only lived long enough to see a printout of the proposed book cover, not the book itself.
Natan also thanks his two children, Rachel and Hanna, their husbands, Micha and Nachum, and his grandchildren—Eitan, Yehuda, David, Avigail, Uri, Daniel, and Ariel—for their supportive and demanding love. They kept reminding him of the importance of writing this book, while reminding him daily that there are things more important than writing a book.
This book, which started around Natan’s Jewish Agency desk and was mostly written around Natan and Avital’s dining room table, is being finished via Skype, during this strange, unnerving period of mass isolation thanks to the coronavirus. Although one friend teased us that we were cashing in on quarantine with our title Never Alone, the fact that the book’s call for connectedness and engagement suits this particular moment is not due to any stroke of luck or any authorial sleight of hand. We not only stumbled onto the title over a year ago thanks to David, but we’ve both been living it our whole lives.
It’s the timelessness of this message that neither of us invented that makes it so timely—and explains how the two of us, with such vastly different backgrounds, could end up living as neighbors in Jerusalem. It’s a timeless timeliness that harks back to Sinai. This eternal message has survived worse plagues—imposed by nature and by people. But more important, its life-affirming joyfulness gives meaning to our lives, and the lives of millions of others. And it motivated our dedication, to thank our parents for passing on the torch, while inviting our children and grandchildren to carry it forward, each in their own way.
NATAN SHARANSKY
GIL TROY
Jerusalem, May 2020