Rita Gluzman

Rita Gluzman (born 1948) is a Ukrainian-American activist and convicted murderer. Gluzman first came to prominence in the 1970s when she successfully pressured the Soviet Union to allow her husband, scientist Yakov Gluzman, to immigrate to Israel with the rest of their family. The couple later moved to the United States. In 1996, Gluzman conspired with her cousin, Vladimir Zelinin, to murder Yakov after he filed for divorce. Gluzman became the first woman to be convicted under the United States Violence Against Women Act. She was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released from prison on health grounds in 2020.

Biography Gluzman raised in Chernivtsi, Soviet Ukraine. Her parents were survivors of the Holocaust. Gluzman was raped by a police officer when she was 10 years old. Her mother told her not to discuss the rape with anyone. Afterwards, Gluzman's father was sent to an internment camp. When Gluzman was 11 years old, her mother abandoned her for two years, and she had to take care of her younger sister on her own. During this time, the two survived by picking through garbage and eating handouts by neighbors. She married Yakov Gluzman in 1969, whom she had known since primary school. Gluzman's father waited fifteen years for a permit from the government to allow his family to leave, but the permit did not include Gluzman's husband. She spoke across the U.S. and reportedly went on an 18-day hunger strike to generate interest in her case. She also met with multiple UN officials, including then-UN Ambassador Rita Hauser. Gluzman spurred interest in her case by providing numerous interviews, and advocated for individuals to petition the then-Russian ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin for her husband's release. and co-owned a electroplating company, E.C.I. Technology, with Rita. while Rita asserted that Yakov was having an extramarital affair with a woman in Israel. Police asserted that Rita feared a costly divorce and giving up control of the company.

Yakov was murdered on April 6, 1996 in his home in Rockland County, New York. He was stabbed and struck with an axe, and his body was chopped into pieces with a hacksaw. Gluzman's car had a stolen license plate, and a passport and travel books for Switzerland and Australia were found inside.

Tabloids described Gluzman as the "Jewish Lizzie Borden".

Zelenin was released from prison on January 8, 2015.

On July 28, 2020, Gluzman was granted a compassionate release after she experienced several medical issues including multiple strokes and a diagnosis of early Parkinson's disease. She was released from the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas and headed to Hackensack, New Jersey, where she planned to reside with her sister. She began her five year court-ordered supervised release immediately after. According to the conditions for her supervised release, Gluzman will be confined to her home with few exceptions and will have to wear a GPS monitoring device.