Human-rights activist, world-famous refusenik and former chairman of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky shared some pointers to help people get through coronavirus-related quarantine in a video released on Monday.
“I have some experience of spending time in solitary confinement,” Sharansky said in the clip, “and I want to give you five tips.”
The author of Fear No Evil was born in 1948 in the Soviet Union; at the age of 29, he was arrested for engaging in Zionist activity, he said.
He was imprisoned for nine years in Soviet labor camps, half of which he said was in solitary confinement, and spent 405 days in a punishment cell. He was released in 1986 after heavy international pressure, including U.S. diplomatic efforts and humanitarian efforts led by his wife Avital Sharansky.
His second piece of advice was not to make plans for the future “based on the hope” that everything will be back to normal in the few days or weeks. He added, “It does not depend on you. So, try to build plans that fully depend on you. … Read the book that you wanted to read or … learn the language that you always wanted to speak. And then it depends all on you: whether you succeed in your plans or not.”
Sharansky’s third tip was to hold on to your sense of humor. He said, “in prison I loved telling jokes to my anti-Soviet guards, and thank God, [now] there are so many jokes on the Internet.”
Tip No. 4: “Don’t give up on your hobbies.”
His final tip was to “feel your connection.”
“Remember that you are not alone. We Jews, for thousands of years, all over the world, were scattered, but we always had this feeling that we are a part of a big people, great people with our mutual past, our mutual future and our mutual mission.”