Mrs. Nechama Rivlin, Wife of Israel’s President, Passes Away

Nechama Rivlin, a”h, wife of President Reuven Rivlin, passed away on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for the family said. She passed away at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, a day shy of her 74th birthday. Funeral and shivah arrangements were not yet announced Tuesday morning.

Mrs. Rivlin had been suffering from health issues for several years, and in March had undergone an operation for a lung transplant. Her death was apparently due to complications from that operation, the hospital said. The family thanked the hospital staff for their hard work and their professional care of Mrs. Rivlin during the period of the transplant, as well as in treatments for lung disease in the years prior to the operation.

Nechama Rivlin was born in 1945 in Moshav Cherut in the Sharon region, daughter of a family that had immigrated to Israel from Ukraine. She completed a degree in biology, and in 1967 began lecturing on zoology at Hebrew University. She married the President in 1971. She is survived by him and three children – Rivi, Anat and Ron – as well as 8 grandchildren and a sister, Lorda. She discovered that she was sick with an irreversible lung condition in 2007.

Upon hearing the news, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that he and his family “along with all Israelis express their deep regret at the death of Nechama Rivlin, z”l. We had all been praying for her recovery for a long period as she bravely fought for her life. We send our condolences from the depths of our hearts to the President and his family.”