Ida Nudel

Ida Nudel ( _he. אידה נודל; _ru. Ида Нудель) (born April 27, 1931) is a former refusenik and an Israeli activist. She was known as the "Guardian Angel" for her efforts to help the "Prisoners of Zion" in the Soviet Union.

Biography

Nudel was born in 1931 in Novorosis, Crimea, in the Soviet Union. In 1970, she heard of the Dymshits-Kuznetsov hijacking affair, and decided to become a refusenik. She contacted a Jew named Vladimir Prestin, a known refusenik who was secretly teaching Hebrew.Segal (1996), pp. 67-68] In 1970 she first sought an exit visa to leave the USSR, saying she couldn't stand its discrimination against Jews. The authorities refused, saying she possessed state secrets she had learned working for the Moscow Institute of Planning and Production. Her sister, Elena, received permission to leave with her husband in 1972.Slater & Slater (2006), p. 192]

In the summer of 1972 she organized a hunger strike at the central office of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to protest the arrest of refusenik Vladimir Markman. After four days, the police ended the strike by blocking their entry.Segal (1996), p. 69] She started a campaign for keeping contact with prisoners of Zion who called her "Mama" and "The angel of mercy".Slater & Slater (2006), pp. 192-193] She spread word about items the prisoners needed, and requested them from visitors from all over the world. These included vitamins, warm coats and chocolate, as well as pens, cigarettes, and three-dimensional postcards, that could be exchanged with the guards for small favors.Segal (1996), p. 72]

She soon lost her job. In June 1978 she placed a banner in her apartment in Moscow reading "KGB, give me my visa to Israel". She was sentenced to five years of internal exile. She was sent to Krivosheino, on the River Ob, Siberia. For several months, she was the only woman in a factory dormitory, before finding herself a log hut and a job as a night guard at a truck yard. The KGB warned the residents of the village to stay away from her. She kept receiving letters of support and corresponding with prisoners of Zion, including Anatoly Sharansky.Segal (1996), pp. 80-81] She was released on March 20, 1982, having been warned not to associate with any refuseniks or foreigners, and was permitted to live for five years in Bendary, Moldavia.

In April 1984, she was visited by Jane Fonda. The two struck a friendship and Fonda began a campaign for Nudel's release.Slater & Slater (2006), p. 193] Others involved in the campaign included Liv Ullman, and Israeli President, Chaim Herzog, left an empty place at his Passover table in her honor.Cite news
last = Friedman
first = Thomas L.
title = Soviet Emigre Starts Life as an Israeli
work = New York Times
accessdate = 2008-09-06
date = 1987-10-16
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDE1431F935A25753C1A961948260] In July, Nudel's residence permit in Moscow was revoked and by the following February she was barred from entering the city. On October 2, 1987, she was informed she had been granted an exit visa.

Immigration to Israel

On October 15, she arrived in Israel. She was greeted at the Ben Gurion International Airport by Fonda, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres as well as her sister. She was immediately presented with an Israeli identity card and immigration papers, and had a brief telephone conversation with United States Secretary of State, George P. Shultz. The ceremony was broadcast on Israeli television.

She wrote a best-selling autobiography, "A Hand in the Darkness", and moved to Karmei Yosef, near Rehovot, with her sister Elena. She ran "Mother to Mother", an organization funded by donations from abroad, seeking to take the children of Russian immigrants off the streets and into after-school activities.Cite news
last = Deutch
first = Gloria
title = Former Soviet refusenik Ida Nudel: Where is she and what is she doing?
work = Jerusalem Post
accessdate = 2008-09-06
url = http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/17576/edition_id/349/format/html/displaystory.html] In 2005, she petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel to force Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to use any measures necessary to save the lives of fifteen jailed Palestinian collaborators facing execution,Cite news
last = Rosner
first = Tal
title = Collaborators get surprise help
work = Ynetnews
accessdate = 2008-09-06
date = 2005-06-04
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3068970,00.html] and spoke against Israel's upcoming disengagement plan.Cite news
last = Marciano
first = Ilan
title = 70,000 protest pullout at Western Wall
work = Ynetnews
accessdate = 2008-09-06
date = 2005-08-10
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3125587,00.html] In 2007, she filed a petition to the Supreme Court demanding it order Israeli Internal Security Minister, Avi Dichter to withhold visitation rights from Hamas and Hizbullah prisoners in Israel, as long as the Red Cross was prevented from seeing kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldiers Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.Cite news
last = Zino
first = Aviram
title = Former prisoner of Zion against Palestinian visitation rights
work = Ynetnews
accessdate = 2008-09-06
date = 2007-06-26
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3417672,00.html]

References

Bibliography

*Cite book
publisher = Behrman House
isbn = 0874416124
last = Segal
first = Sheila F.
title = Women of Valor: Stories of Great Jewish Women Who Helped Shape the Twentieth Century
date = 1996-09-01
*Cite book
edition = revised & updated
publisher = Jonathan David Publishers
isbn = 0824603702
pages = 368
last = Slater
first = Elinor
coauthors = Robert Slater
title = Great Jewish Women
date = 2006-06-01