Sylva Zalmanson

Sylva Zalmanson (, ; born Siberia, 1944) is a Soviet-born Jewish Prisoner of Zion, human rights activist, artist and engineer who made aliyah to Israel in 1974.

Early life Born in Siberia in 1944 to a middle-class Jewish family from Riga. The family escaped the German invasion and returned to Riga in 1945, after the Soviets defeated the Nazis and re-occupied Latvia. While she was a university student at the Riga Polytechnic University, she became engaged in Zionist activities, distributing Hebrew-language study books to different Jewish communities around the Soviet Union, listening to Israel Radio programs in Russian, and other activities that were considered illegal under Soviet law. and the group's pilot, Mark Dymshits, received a death sentence. The death sentences were reduced to 15 years after only 8 days, due to massive free world pressure. The Let My People Go! campaign brought awareness to the world and tens of thousands of people demonstrated all over the world demanding the release of the activists and that Soviet Jews were given the opportunity to emigrate.

Migration to Israel before and after the trial

During the time Zalmanson and the other Zionist activists were imprisoned, and as a result of the diplomatic pressure put on the Soviet authorities, hundreds of thousands of Jews received visas to leave.

From prison to freedom Sylva spent four years in Potma women’s penal colony and was later put in solitary confinement, after hitting another camp's inmate who made anti-semitic remarks.

Mark Dymshits, Sylva Zalmanson, Edward Kuznetsov attending a rally with approximately 250,000 supporters in New York City, 1979. Most of the group, including Sylva's husband and brother were released in April 1979, due to a prisoners exchange with the American government that caught two Soviet spies in New Jersey.

Today Today, Sylva lives in Israel. She and Edward had a daughter and were divorced two years after his release, in 1981 without a trial. For years, until her retirement in 2005, Sylva worked as a Mechanical Engineer. She started painting in 1992, working in acrylics, oil and mixed media. Sylva became a member of the "Painters and Sculptors Association of Israel" and has exhibited in Israel, the US, UK, Italy, Romania, and Finland.

Sylva and Edward's only daughter, Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov, an Israeli Filmmaker, directed a documentary film in 2016 about their story, Operation Wedding.