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Ida Nudel behind bars A placard distributed throughout the world
for her right to receive an exit visa from the Soviet Union and did not hesitate to participate in protests against human rights violations. Nor was she afraid to meet with hundreds of foreign citizens – including Jews from around the world – or to speak her mind. Following her protest activities, the Russian authorities would not cease arresting and harassing her. In the summer of 1978, she was put on trial and sentenced to four years of exile to Siberia. In that moment, she became the most famous "Prisoner of Zion." The world's leaders, including United States President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a series of intellectuals and celebrities, including the actresses Jane Fonda and Liv Ullmann, as well as many others – demanded that she be granted an exit visa. Jewish personages in Israel and the world had also repeatedly demanded her freedom. One of them was the songwriter Naomi Shemer, who wrote a song for her that became a hit and was studied in every educational institution in Israel:
We both were born in the same year, from one people come / And though we two have never met / Nor may I bid you welcome yet – Allow me for all that to call you sister / And tell you in a tongue ancient as time – Your people are my people, your G-d, mine / [...] The family tree we both do share is ancient / The wind that moves it blows beyond the pale / One is the wind that soars across the borders / Of the Siberian frost – to Eretz Yisrael / [...] That wind it is that moves your silent lips now / And pledges us to seal one with the other / A covenant of sister souls / And whispers to me as I write to wish you well / To wish you all the blue and light of Eretz Yisrael – That I believe the long awaited day is soon to come / When I may bid you welcome, and when one enormous sun / Will shine upon the two us, dear sister
Ida Nudel fought for her right to receive a visa to make Aliya to Israel for 16 years. She only succeeded in getting the visa in October 1987 – when she was already 56 – and then made Aliya. At first, she lived in Rehovot and had difficulties assimilating. She later moved to Karmei Yosef, alongside her sister – and was relieved.
The Schönau Transit Camp Affair
On September 29, 1973, two Palestinian terrorists in Austria hijacked a train on which rode seven Jews that left the Soviet Union on their way to Israel. The terrorists took these Jews – including a 73-year-old man, an ailing woman and a three-year-old child – hostage. After the hijacking, the terrorists issued an ultimatum and announced that "if the Austrian Government does not
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