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Fridman Avraam-Betsalel (1923-1993)

Personal data
SurnameFridman
NameAvraam-Betsalel
Birth year1923
Birth placeRiga
Death year1993
SexM

Fridman (Friedmann) Avraam-Betsalel (Awraam-Betzalel) (1923, Riga — 1993) — activist of the Zionist movement.

From the age of 15 Avraam-Betsalel Fridman was active in the youth halutz movement “Ha-Noar Ha-Agudati,” affiliated with the party Poalei Agudat Yisrael (part of Agudat Yisrael, an international Orthodox Jewish movement), in Riga until the Soviet occupation.

In 1940–1941 he worked in the underground, and from 1941 to 1945 he was imprisoned in the Riga Ghetto and in German concentration camps.

In 1947 he was arrested by the Soviet authorities, accused of Zionist activity during 1940–1941 and of attempting to leave the Soviet Union illegally for Palestine in 1946. He was sentenced to five years in labor camps (ITL) and two years of exile.

He was released in 1953, but only in 1969 was he able to emigrate to Israel. There he became a member of the executive committee and the supreme council of the Organization of Prisoners of Zion.