Nadezhda Ovsishcher, the wife of former Soviet Army Colonel and Jewish activist, Lev Ovsishcher, died in Minsk on January 12 at the age of 64, it was reported here by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. She suffered from a deteriorating heart condition and had been hospitalized several times in the past year, according to the Conference.
The Ovsishchers applied to emigrate to Israel in 1972. Since that time they have been singled out for special harassment by local authorities. Col. Ovsishcher was deprived of his rank and military pension, and had been repeatedly attacked and maligned in the Soviet press as a “Zionist provocateur.” Through all of this the Ovsishchers remained strong in their desire to join their daughter in Israel, and were a symbol to other Jews seeking to emigrate to Israel, the Conference said.
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