Dennis PragerFounder, PragerU · Founder of PragerU | NYT best-selling author

One piece of paper can mean all the difference. Never take your freedom for granted.

6 Oct 2023 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, Speaker B recounts his personal journey from the Soviet Union to freedom. At age 21 he left the USSR after being recruited by the Israeli government to smuggle Jewish items and names out of the communist country. On his return flight aboard Pan Am, he reflects emotionally while looking out the window, realizing that a small gray passport— a simple piece of paper— represented his ticket to liberty. The narrative emphasizes the profound emotional weight of that passport and the broader theme of not taking freedom for granted.

Chapters

You must have felt so guilty going from one, you know, well, driving into freedom.
Julie, it cracks me up that you have no idea, because I went communist countries, free countries, over and over and over. That was my preoccupation and my studies. When I left the Soviet Union when I was 21, the Israeli government sent me in to smuggle in Jewish items and smuggle out Jewish names. I was there for a month. Flying back on Pan Am, the old Pan American Airlines, I sat— it was a pretty empty plane, I remember, so I had two seats next to me empty. I sat at the window and I cried, and I cried for that reason. Well, many reasons, but I had this little, then gray, passport. I thought I could leave there and go to freedom because I have this little booklet. That's the difference.