Born in 1906 in the shtetl of Vorontsovka, in the Herson district, Ukraine, he was heavily wounded at the front line while serving in the Soviet Army. After WWII he graduated from the department of History of the Moscow State University and worked as a history school-teacher. From early childhood he was fluent in Yiddish and Hebrew. In 1958 he was arrested (together with his wife Dora Kustanowich-Podolsky and their son Baruch) for the collection and distribution of Israeli literature and charged with anti-Soviet and Zionist activities. Sentenced to 7 years imprisonment in the Gulag, he spent all the 7 years in the camps of Mordovia. In 1965 he was released, and in 1968 went to Israel together with his wife. He died in October 1969, just in 4 months after reaching Israel, and is buried in Akko (Acre).
The information about Shimon Podolsky was provided by his son, Dr. Baruch Podolsky.
