Nechama Rivlin, First Lady of Israel, Dies at 73

Nechama Rivlin, 73, wife of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, died on May 4 at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva from complications from a lung transplant she underwent in March, according to Israeli media reports. Her passing occurred a day before what was to have been her 74th birthday. For over a decade, the first lady had been living with pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic and severe respiratory disease in which scar tissue accumulates in the lungs. She was regularly seen in public with a portable oxygen tank. Born in pre-state Israel in 1945 to Ukrainian immigrants, she became a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1967 in the departments of zoology, ecology and genetics until her retirement in 2007. She married Reuven Rivlin in 1971 and had with him three children: Rivka, Anat and Ran, and several grandchildren. “When Nechama moved to the President’s Residence, she chose to focus on art, activities for children with special needs, the environment and nature, through compassion and love of people,” the office said in a statement.