16 Facts About Ida Nudel

Ida Yakovlevna Nudel was a Soviet-born Israeli refusenik and activist.

Ida Nudel was known as the "Guardian Angel" for her efforts to help the "Prisoners of Zion" in the Soviet Union.

Ida Nudel contacted a Jew named Vladimir Prestin, a known refusenik who was secretly teaching Hebrew.

Ida Nudel started a campaign for keeping contact with prisoners of Zion who called her "Mama" and "The angel of mercy".

Ida Nudel spread word about items the prisoners needed and were permitted to possess, and requested them from visitors from all over the world.

Ida Nudel was sentenced to four years of internal exile.

Ida Nudel was sent to Krivosheino, on the River Ob, Siberia.

Ida Nudel kept receiving letters of support and corresponding with prisoners of Zion.

Ida Nudel was released on 20 March 1982, having been warned not to associate with any refuseniks or foreigners.

Ida Nudel was greeted at the Ben Gurion International Airport by Fonda, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres as well as her sister and thousands of Israelis.

Ida Nudel was granted an Israeli identity card and immigration papers, and had a brief telephone conversation with United States Secretary of State, George P Shultz.

Ida Nudel settled in Karmei Yosef, an agricultural community in the Judean foothills.

Ida Nudel later wrote an autobiography, A Hand in the Darkness, which was translated into English by Stefani Hoffman in 1990.

Ida Nudel filed a petition to the High Court of Justice in 2007, demanding that Israeli Internal Security Minister, Avi Dichter withhold visitation rights from Hamas and Hezbollah prisoners in Israel, as long as the Red Cross was prevented from seeing kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldiers Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

Ida Nudel relocated to Rehovot in 2008 in order to live closer to her sister.

Ida Nudel was interred at Yarkon Cemetery in Tel Aviv.