Miriam Levinger, A”h

Hamodia is saddened to report the petirah of Miriam Levinger, a”h, a founder of the revived Jewish community in Chevron after the 1967 Six Day War. She passed away on Motzei Yom Kippur at the age of 83.

Her levaya was held on Tuesday in the holy city that she and her husband Rabbi Moshe Levinger z”l helped to rebuild.

Ephraim Levinger, one of their 11 children, said in his hespid: “You were always so emotional at the tens of thousands of Jews who came to Chevron on the week when we read the Torah portion of Chayei Sarah [which relates how Avraham Avinu purchased the Tomb of the Patriarchs]. You always said, ‘It’s a dream – your father and I dreamed of this happening.’ You were a mother to each and every individual, and to the nation as a whole,” he added.

“You always told me that every single day you thanked Hashem for having merited to raise a generation of upstanding Jews. And I had the merit of being your firstborn son.”

Her daughter Racheli asked her mother to plead with the Avos for the return of all Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish people:

“Now you and father, together with the holy [ancestors] are a powerful force. A force that has not yet been seen in heaven. Demand this in the name of all of Israel. Make trouble as only the two of you know how to do. Mother, do not rest. Work. Fight. Just like you did here,” Racheli said.

“I am grieved by the passing of the mother of all those who returned to Hebron, Rabbanit Miriam Levinger of blessed memory,” Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin said upon hearing of her death.

Together with Rabbi Levinger, “she devoted herself to the challenge of returning the Jewish people to Hebron, not as transient guests or visitors, but as those returning to their home,” Rivlin said.

“Dear Levinger family, may the building of Hebron and Jerusalem be your consolation,” he added.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tweeted, “Miriam dedicated her life, out of great devotion, to the settlement of the Land of Israel and to the love of the people of Israel. We will always remember her as a symbol and example of Zionism and pioneering.”

At Tuesday’s levaya, the deceased was first laid out on a gurney in the road outside Maaras Hamachpeleh, where hespidim were delivered under a small white tent.

The numbers were small due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mourners wearing masks then accompanied her body on foot to Chevron’s ancient cemetery, reciting Tehillim.