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PAGE 14 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE June 20, 1986
Interiors
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Sister wages 14-year battle
to win Ida Nudel’s freedom
by Carol Green
World Zionist Press Service
For liana Friedman, there is
neither day or night. After she
returns home from her job as a
bookkeeper at Na’amat/Pioneer
women, she goes on to her next
job—waging a one-woman crusade
for the release of her sister, Soviet
Prisoner of Conscience Ida Nudel.
For the past 14 years, Friedman
has been working ceaselessly on
behalf of her sister, who is in exile
in a distant region of the Soviet
Union.
Friedman has corresponded with
most of the world’s major heads of
state on her sister’s behalf: the Red
Cross, the Socialist Party, the
Communist Party, Amnesty Inter
national. An entire room in Fried
man’s Rehovot apartment is filled
with letters and documents related
to Ida’s case.
Though she is a pleasant woman
who enjoys people and laughter,
Friedman has little time for either.
“They didn’t only destroy Ida’s
life,” she remarks with bitterness.
The sisters’ ordeal began in 1971
when they applied for permission
to leave the Soviet Union. Although
neither sister was an active Zionist,
both intuitively felt that Israel was
their homeland. “In the Soviet
Union they don’t let you forget
that you are a Jew,” observes
Friedman.
As the only members of their
family to survive the Holocaust,
the sisters were very close. Nudel
lived with liana and her husband
and young son in one Moscow
apartment. “My son is Ida’s son;
my family is Ida’s family,” says
Friedman.
When Ida was refused an exit
visa, both sisters were puzzled.
They had never been involved with
politics or in any illegal activities.
“We were so naive. We both thought
it was a bureaucratic slip,” recalls
Friedman.
The sisters decided that Fried
man and her family would go and
that Ida would remain in Moscow
and join the family later. “If I
would have known that it would be
years until I’d see Ida again, I
wouldn’t have left,” says Friedman.
With liana gone, Ida was left
alone. “That was when she started
to help people,” explains her sister.
Ida got to know other refusniks.
She helped them prepare requests
to leave and accompanied them to
government offices to secure exit
visas. She hosted them in her
apartment. Sometimes the place
would get so full that Ida could not
find a place to sleep. In her circle of
activists Ida became known as the
“angel.”
Ida also adopted the prisoners of
conscience who were languishing
in Soviet prison camps. She wrote
to them and sent them care pack
ages. She called them “her boys.”
Ida knew that the KGB was spying
on her. In her apartment she left
notes to her KGB “visitors”: “You
can take everything except the care
packages for the boys.”
Ida also began to participate in
political activities and demonstra
tions. On June l, 1978, a group of
refusnik women staged a legal pub
lic demonstration to coincide with
official festivities marking the In
ternational Day of the Child. “The
idea was to show that the Soviet
Union is not a paradise for child
ren,” explains her sister. Ida ob
jected to using children in a dem
onstration and only reluctantly
agreed to participate. That morn
ing, Ida tried to leave her apart
ment to go to the demonstration.
KGB agents blocked the door.
Without court authorization, they
placed her under house arrest. From
her fourth floor balcony, Ida hung
out a banner saying: “KGB, Give
Me My Visa.” For this act she was
charged with the crime of “hoolig
anism" and sentenced to four years
of exile in Siberia. “Ida was pun
ished like a man; no other woman
was ever punished this way,” ex
plains her sister.
Ida lived in a barracks-like hut
without running water and had to
tramp long distances in the snow,
in below-freezing temperatures, for
firewood and other basic provi-
Continued next page.
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