This is a 1986 photograph of women protesting outside the building of the Israeli communist party, Rakah. They are calling for the release of Ida Nudel, a well-known refusenik. They are holding two signs – one in English and one in Russian – with her image. Behind them are banners written in Hebrew, Russian, and English. The banners refer to the 27th Communist Congress which was being held in Moscow from February 25 to March 6, 1986. This was the first Congress presided over by Mikhail Gorbachev, the new general secretary. The women in the photograph belong to The 35’s Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry which was founded in London and inspired women activists all over the world.
By 1986, Ida Nudel had been a refusenik for fifteen years, had spent four years in exile in Siberia, and was living in a small town having been denied permission to live in a big city. Due to her work helping other refuseniks, she was given the name of “guardian angel.” Ida Nudel was finally granted permission to immigrate to Israel in 1987.
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The 35’s – The 35’s Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry was founded in London on May 1, 1971 by a group of middle-class housewives when Raiza Palatnik, a thirty-five year old Jewish librarian from Odessa applied for an exit visa to move to Israel and was arrested and sent to prison for “slandering the Soviet Union.” A group of Jewish women in London dressed in black, stood in front of the Soviet embassy, and went on a hunger strike. They later continued to protest against Soviet politicians and cultural events. The 35’s worked outside of the usual leadership of British Jewry which displeased the establishment but empowered women. Many of the activists had been children during the Holocaust and felt that their parents’ generation hadn’t done enough to help European Jewry at that time. They didn’t want their children to feel the same way about them, so they became very involved and vocal in advocating for Soviet Jewry. In the 1970s, it was very unusual for women, particularly middle-class Jewish mothers and housewives, to be politically active and to demonstrate and protest in the way that The 35’s did. But The 35’s were very influential in pushing the established Jewish community to get involved in the Soviet Jewry movement and changing the way that women were viewed.
Ida Nudel - Ida Nudel was one of the most famous refuseniks in the former Soviet Union. In 1971, Nudel and her sister, her only relative, applied to leave the USSR to move to Israel. While her sister was granted permission, Nudel was not on the false grounds that she had been exposed to Soviet secrets at her place of work. As a refusenik, Nudel lost her job and began working to help her fellow refuseniks. She was known as the “guardian angel” for the work that she did supporting other refusenik families. During this time she was arrested and harassed on many occasions. In 1978, Nudel hung a banner from her balcony saying: “KGB - GIVE ME MY EXIT VISA.” As a result, she was arrested and sentence to four years of exile in Siberia. After being released from Siberia in 1982, Nudel was not allowed to live in a large city; this did not, however, prevent her from being well known in the western world. Jewish people from around the world and international leaders and celebrities such as Secretary of State George Shultz and actresses Jane Fonda and Liv Ullman worked on behalf of Nudel’s release. In 1987, Nudel was given permission to leave the USSR and move to Israel, where she made her home near her sister. Since moving to Israel, Nudel has been involved with the organization Mother to Mother, which works with at-risk youth from the former Soviet Union who have moved to Israel.
Refuseniks – During the communist rule of the Soviet Union, it was very difficult for Jews to obtain visas to leave the country, and only a small quota of Jews was allowed to leave each year. The Jews who were refused an exit permit were unofficially named “refuseniks” and were considered either traitors or a security liability. Jews who applied for an exit visa were subjected to KGB (secret police) surveillance, were often denied employment, and, as a result, would either face imprisonment or find a menial job. Famous refuseniks included Natan Sharansky, Ida Nudel, Yosef Mendelevitch, Israel and Sylva Zalmenson, and Yuli Edelstein, who later became the speaker of the Knesset (Israeli parliament). In the 1970s the plight of the Soviet refuseniks became known, and Jews from around the world placed international pressure on the USSR to allow Jews to leave the country. In 1990s, with political changes in the USSR Jews were allowed to leave freely.
