JERUSALEM (AP) – Ida Nudel, one of the strongest fighters for Jewish freedom from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s, died in Israel on Tuesday, Israeli media reported. He was 90 years old.
Nudel was born in the Soviet Union in 1931 and became famous in the 1970’s as a promoter of freedom for imprisoned Soviet Jews, as well as a dissident – one of the thousands who were banned from leaving the country at the time.
Nudel asked for permission to leave for 16 years, but Soviet authorities barred him from issuing visas because he may have heard government secrets while working as an accountant for a state-owned company. His sister and siblings were allowed to immigrate to Israel in 1971, leaving him.
He spent four years in exile in Siberia by hanging a sign on his porch in Moscow in 1978 that said ″ KGB, Give Me My Visa. ″ After her release in 1982, she was banned from living in major Soviet cities.
Her performance was inspired by American artist Jane Fonda, and her story was told in the Italian film “Mosca Addio” (Farewell Moscow) in 1987, starring Liv Ullman.
In 1987, he was allowed to travel to Israel, where he was received by thousands on the wall and received by Israeli leaders.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the Nudel “a symbol of favor for immigrants to the Soviet Union” and “a good example of a Jewish soldier.”
Yuli Edelstein, a Israeli lawmaker and former ally refusenik, on Twitter called him “one of the biggest figures in the war on the right to move to Israel from the Soviet Union.”
“Unfortunately, in recent years I have been accompanying many of my brothers and sisters, the Prisoners of Zion, on their final journey,” he said.