Ruth Rebecca Davidow

Ruth Rebecca Davidow (September 01, 1911 – June 28, 1999) was an American nurse, filmmaker, and political activist.

Early life

Born in Volkovisk, Russia on September 01, 1911, Davidow grew up in New York City after her mother, a Jewish socialist, fled tsarist Russia in 1917. Her mother's politics were formative for Davidow. Her mother was a seamstress and became a leader in the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and sold The Daily Worker, a communist newspaper, door-to-door. working in a frontline hospital during the Battle of the Ebro.

Davidow married Fred Keller, a fellow Lincoln Brigade veteran, after the Spanish Civil War. They had one daughter, Joanie Keller Selznick. She also worked in the American South in 1965 supporting the civil rights movement as part of the Medical Committee for Human Rights. Her 21 films deal with a variety of topics in politics, health, and geriatrics.

Honors and legacy In 1996, the Spanish government awarded Davidow honorary citizenship for her nursing service during the civil war. She was profiled in the 1991 Academy Award-nominated documentary Forever Activists: Stories From the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade by Judith Montell.

Death

Davidow died on June 28, 1999, in San Francisco.