Ida Nudel Remembered

The outgoing chairman and chairman-elect of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) today urged Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev to release Ida Nudel from exile and allow her to emigrate to Israel. Eugene Gold, who will end his three-year chairmanship on Aug. 15, and Los Angeles attorney Burton Levinson, declared “In the spirit of good will and cooperation of the SALT 11 accords, we urge the Soviet Union to release Ida Nudel and allow her to join her sister in Israel.”

Today is the first anniversary of Nudel’s exile to a small colony a few kilometers from the tiny Siberian village of Krivosheyno. Known as the “Guardian Angel” of other Jewish “Prisoners of Conscience” in the Soviet Union, Nudel first applied to emigrate to Israel in 1971.

Repeatedly detained and interrogated by the secret police, she placed on her apartment balcony a sign that read, “KGB, give me my visa.” That defiant act precipitated her four-year exile for “malicious-hooliganism.”

Meanwhile, the long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry commemorated today the first anniversary of Nudel’s exile by dedicating two benches on the grounds of the Nassau County Supreme Court building in Mineola in her name.

In a related event, a special vigil was held this morning outside the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco. The Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry which sponsored the event, declared the week of June 14-21 as Ida Nudel Week, as part of the international campaign to gain her release. In Israel, a group of women demonstrated in front of the finish Embassy, which handles Soviet affairs, urging Nudel’s release.