Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said, this evening, that winning the Israel Prize for immigration "is a great honor and a great responsibility. When speaking about the ingathering of exiles, this applies to my wife Avital and all the aliyah activists and prisoners of Zion in the Soviet Union who fought valiantly for the right to immigrate to Israel."
Sharansky added, "The ingathering of exiles continues. Immigration today is immigration by free choice: Israel is the best place for self-realization as a Jew and to influence the future of the Jewish people. We must do everything so that Israel will be home to all the Jews of the world."