Helen Levitov Sobell

Helen Levitov Sobell (March 13, 1918 – April 15, 2002) was an American teacher, scientist and activist, and the former wife of convicted spy Morton Sobell. She petitioned but failed to save Julius and Ethel Rosenberg from execution for conspiracy to commit espionage.

Biography Sobell (bottom) with her husband Morton shortly after his release from prison, March 2, 1969. In the back is a portrait of Morton by Hugo Gellert. Helen Levitov was born in Washington, D.C. Her parents, Max and Rose, were Yiddish-speaking Jews from the Russian Empire who immigrated to the United States in 1909 and 1908, respectively. As a child, she contracted polio.

During her lifetime, she attended Wilson Teachers College. Throughout World War II she worked at the National Bureau of Standards as a spectrometer technician.

She then taught science at the Elisabeth Irwin High School. Her husband was released from prison in 1969. In 1980, at the age of 62, she earned her Ph.D. in computer education from Teachers College, Columbia University.