Veteran journalist Sarah Frankel dies

Just ahead of Remembrance Day, veteran journalist and activist on behalf of Soviet Jewry Sarah Frankel died on Saturday at age 82.

Frankel’s father fell in the War of Independence, and her brother was killed in the Six Day War. When her father died, the family was not notified by the army, and they only discovered his death by chance. After not hearing from her father for some time, Frankel, her mother and her brother began scouring hospital lists, and when they didn’t find his name among the wounded, 13-year-old Sarah began looking at the lists of those who had fallen in battle. When she called out that she had found the name, the duty officer said laconically: “Hey kid, was that your father?”

Frankel, who came from an Etzel family, began her career as a journalist with the long-defunct right-wing publications Herut and Hayom. She subsequently worked for Israel Radio, covering the Jewish World, focusing on immigration, absorption and antisemitism.

In 2002 she received the prestigious Smolar Prize for journalism awarded by the American Joint Distribution Committee in memory of longtime Jewish Telegraphic Agency editor Boris Smolar. She also spent many years working for Nativ, the secret liaison bureau that spurred global activity on behalf of Soviet Jewry, and headed its operations in the United States.