Soviet emigre Sarah Rudman proudly speaks two words in English: ``America good.'' It's quite a statement for someone starting life over, both she and her husband unable to work because they are crippled, living in a barren apartment an ocean and a continent away from their homeland. The Rudmans, both 64, have a hand-me-down bed without sheets, a folding table, two chairs, two lamps, a 13-inch portable TV and one curtain for two windows. All the furnishings were either donated, left over or scrounged. ``I never had many things. Books and spiritual things are much more valuable than material things,'' Mrs. Rudman said through an interpreter. ``We didn't think everything will fall from the sky. I'm happy with what I have.'' She gained something worth more than home furnishings, so she doesn't mind using a corner of her bed as a sofa. ``We wanted to be free and not be persecuted because we are Jewish,'' she said. ``We wanted our kids to be free, to get an education. People here are really free. They can express themselves. They can observe any religion they want to. Everybody does what he wants.'' Mrs. Rudman, who taught kindergarten in Odessa, hasn't left the apartment since her Dec. 20 arrival in Brighton Beach. She's laid up with a bad back, a condition stemming from typhoid fever contracted during World War II when she was evacuated to Siberia to escape invading Nazis. Her husband, Lazar, was a shoemaker until he suffered a disabling head injury in a 1983 streetcar accident. He also was mugged before leaving the Soviet Union and walks with a cane. The Rudmans came to America with a daughter and her three children. Another daughter stayed behind because her child had meningitis, and she hopes to emigrate later this year. Until then, they are reluctant to talk about Soviet life. As refugees, the Rudmans are entitled to food stamps, welfare and federal rent subsidies. They also get money for rent and food from the New York Association for New Americans, which gets the bulk of its support from United Jewish Appeal. Nevertheless, they had to borrow money from relatives and other immigrants to pay their $525 monthly rent. They were too proud at first to seek government help. ``We're a little embarrassed,'' Mrs. Rudman said. The Rudmans, who first applied to leave the Soviet Union in 1978, learn English through a paperback translation book or by watching cartoons and other TV shows. ``I am afraid of nothing. A person dies only once,'' Mrs. Rudman said defiantly. Then she clasped her hands in a gesture of prayer and said in broken English, ``America good. So very good.''
