Fridman last September in Madrid. where I was a congressional delegate to the meeting of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Mrs. Fridman informed me firsthand of the tragic situation of her sister Ida Nudel who. after serving a terrible exile in Siberia. was still not able to emigrate and join her family in Israel. On June 21. 1978. a Peoples Court in Moscow found Ida Nudel. a small. frail woman of 47 years. guilty of the charges of malicious hooliganism and sentenced her to a term of 4 years of exile in Siberia. She had been convicted for publicly expressing her desire to emigrate from the Soviet Union by hanging a placard on the balcony of her Moscow apartment which read. "KGB Give Me My Visa." Ida Nudel has first applied for an exit visa in May 1971. along with her sister. Elena Fridman. and Elenas family. At that time. Ida was employed as a accountant at the Moscow Institute of Hydrology and Microbiological Synthesis for Planning and Production. Early in 1972. Ida was fired from her job. which was typical and expected. but shortly thereafter she was refused a visa. although her relatives were given permission to leave the Soviet Union. Ida insisted that her relatives leave without her. since she fully expected to join them shortly. convinced that a bureacratic error had been made. Tragically. such was not the case. Over the years. Ida Nudel repeatedly applied to leave the U.S.S.R. and was denied each time. The refusals served to reinforce the sense of her Jewish heritage. and she became an active figure in the Jewish emigration movement. She became instrumental to the support and wellbeing of refuseniks. prisoners. and their familyshe became known as the Guardian Angel of Soviet Jewish prisoners of conscience. She maintained a volume of correspondence with prisoners. visited them in camps and prisons. and sent them parcels of food. medicine. and books.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration visa Visa