Prize laureates
Ukrainian civic activist and dissident of Jewish origin, a prominent figure in the Ukrainian Jewish movement, Executive Co-President of VAAD Ukraine and Executive Vice-President of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine.
Even in Soviet times, he cooperated with the Ukrainian and Moscow Helsinki Groups, circulated samizdat, documented the use of punitive psychiatry and helped the families of political prisoners. He was twice sentenced to three years in prison for his human rights work, but continued his civic activities after his release and rejected KGB offers of concessions in exchange for ending his political activity. In the late 1980s, he helped establish the People’s Movement of Ukraine and became one of the key figures in the revival of organised Jewish life in independent Ukraine.