Yedida Rudawsky, who was recruited by the Shin Bet and worked behind the scenes for the team that captured Nazi SS Officer Adolf Eichmann, passed away March 3, 2013, in Denver.
Rabbi Salomon Gruenwald and Cantor Martin Goldstein officiated at the March 4 service at the HEA. Interment followed at Mt. Nebo Cemetery. Feldman Mortuary made the arrangements.
Yedida was a consummate Sabra, with a very tough exterior but a very sweet, soft interior, the family said.
In the last seven years, she fought her illness with dignity and grace. She would travel the world in between treatments, and take on each successive round like it was the first.
She never gave up, even after the doctors did . . . She refused to be a victim or a patient, but rather a fighter and a survivor.
Yedida Arouch was born Sept. 3, 1934, in Jerusalem, the daughter of Isaac and Sara Arouch.
Growing up in a divided Jerusalem during Israels War of Independence, in a community cut off from the rest of her country, she acquired a toughness that stayed with her the rest of her life.
Yedida enlisted in the IDF and was recruited into the Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service. She was part of the undercover support team for the Israelis who captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
While in the Shin Bet, she married Oded Rudawsky on Aug. 10, 1954. They immigrated to the US in 1964.
Yedida earned an education degree at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1968, the couple moved to Denver with their three children.
Yedida started her career teaching a bilingual preschool class at the JCC. It was the first program of its kind in the US.
She also taught at Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy (now Denver Jewish Day School), BMH religious school, and started a private Friday afternoon religious school.
Upon her retirement from teaching, Yedida established a wholesale jewelry business that gave her the flexibility to travel to Israel and other countries and also spend time with her family.
At the time of her death, Yedida and Oded had been married for 58 years.
Over the years, that tough Sabra exterior softened, the family said. We started calling her Savta since she became a doting grandmother and less of a mother, even to her children.
Yedida Rudawsky is survived by her husband Oded Rudawsky of Denver; sons Ron (Andrea Grasso), Zvi (Staci), both of Denver, and Gil (Leslie) of Boulder; brothers David Arouch and Simon Arouch, both of Israel, and Joshua Arouch of Florida; and grandchildren Alyssa, Derek, Alex and Lily.
Contributions may be made to Dravet.org or JFS.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
