Natan Sharansky, Israel’s Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, will be meeting with a small group of Jewish students and faculty today.

Invitations to the events were extended only to a pre-selected group, mostly consisting of Hillel (formerly Jewish Campus Services of Greater Toronto) leadership. The event, hosted by Hillel and the Wolfond Centre for Jewish Campus Life, has not been publicized on campus.

Campus media will not be present during the discussion, but have been invited to meet with Sharansky afterwards. Sharansky “wanted the opportunity to meet with campus media,” says Lisa Isen Baumal, director of the Wolford Centre for Jewish Campus Life.

A riot broke loose at Concordia University last year when pro-Palestinian protestors forced the cancellation of a speech by former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

When asked whether they were worried about a similar outbreak of violence, Isen Baumal said that this event cannot be compared to what happened at Concordia. “We’re not worried because he’s not speaking to a large audience,” she says. The event is an “invitation-only affair” and was “deliberately not advertised because it’s not a public event,” says Isen Baumal. All the same, Sharansky will be “coming with a lot of security” and the “campus police have a security plan,” says Isen Baumal.

Isen Baumal also emphasized that U of T is not Concordia, and this campus “is not as politically charged a campus as Concordia, and wouldn’t see that same kind of violence and rioting,” says Isen Baumal.

Sharansky is a “huge human rights activist” and is “coming more in capacity of human rights work” than because of his position with the Israeli government, says Isen Baumal.

Sharansky was imprisoned for 13 years after Soviet authorities convicted him in 1978 of treason and spying on behalf of the U.S. Seen as a symbol for human rights and Soviet Jewry, he was finally released in 1986 after a long international public campaign. He arrived in Israel that same night and has since continued to promote the cause of Soviet Jewry.

Sharansky will also be speaking at York University on Sept. 15 at 1:30 p.m. This event is open to York community members only.