Her parents, Max and Rose, were Yiddish-speaking Jews from the Russian Empire who immigrated to the United States in 1909 and 1908, respectively.

[2][3] Levitov went to work at the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York, where she met, then married, Morton Sobell.

[2][4] She was not prosecuted, but her husband was convicted of "conspiracy to commit espionage" and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

She also fought to have her husband's conviction overturned, filing eight unsuccessful appeals and even leasing the main stage at Carnegie Hall where she hosted the "Committee to Secure Justice for Morton Sobell" on May 15, 1956.

[4] After living with Alzheimer's disease for a decade, she died on April 15, 2002, at a nursing home in Redwood City, California.