Speech #970201961

Mr. Speaker. known as the "Angel of Mercy" for her ministrations to Soviet Jewish political prisoners. Ida Nudel has been trying to emigrate to Israel since May 1971. Idas employment as an accountant in the Moscow Institute of Hydrologyshe was dismissed in January 1972gave her no cause to think she would be refused emigration permission. Shortly after losing her job. however. Ida was informed by the Soviets that her exit visa was denied because of access to "secrets"-still a favorite Soviet pretext for emigration refusals. as seen on July 9. 1982. in the cases of hunger strikers. Yuri Balovlenkov and Sergei Petrov. Faced with obstinate and arbitrary refusals by the Soviets of her emigration applications. Ida became involved in charity work which earned her the title. "Angel of Mercy." Defeating the cruel and arbitrary world of Soviet labor camps. Ida Nudel visited and wrote letters to Jewish Prisoners of Conscience. she sent them parcels of food. medicine. and books. and she acted as their advocate with camp and Moscow officials. Ida also informed the West about Soviet prison camp abuses and the plight of various political prisoners. Recent Soviet efforts to isolateeven from relativesparticularly active Prisoners of Conscience. such as Anatoly Marchenko or Mykola Matusevich. reveal how the Soviet system is stung by Western awareness of Soviet prison camp brutalities. After 7 years of waiting for an exit visa. in June 1978. Ida Nudel decided to publicly protest her arbitrary treatment: She hung a sign from her balcony calling on the Soviet authorities to let her go to her family in Israel. In reprisal. on June 21. 1978. a Soviet court sentenced Ida Nudel to 4 years of Siberian exile for "malicious hooliganism." But even that 4year term of isolation. hardship. and illness imposed by the Soviet regime was not enough reprisal against Ida for her persistent defense of her own rights and those of others: recently. Ida Nudel was told she has 48 hours to leave Moscow where she is denied official permission to live. Nevertheless. Ida Nudel persists in trying to emigrate and to help others. In closing my tribute to this brave and kind woman. I would like to quote from one of Ida Nudels letters from exile. Typically. she focuses not on her own plight. but examines the hope represented for all Soviet citizens by the emergence and continuation of the Jewish emigration movement: Through our suffering we have been able to push the gates of the U.S.S.R. just slightly ajar. Through the tiny opening we have made in the Iron Curtain. Jews manage to get out of the U.S.S.R.