First Lady of Israel

The first lady’s public activities are individually shaped rather than legally prescribed: each presidential spouse has developed the position around social and communal concerns important to her.[1][5] This freedom has allowed the role to encompass both participation in the president’s engagements and independent initiatives, including charitable projects, cultural programs, and advocacy for vulnerable groups.[4][1] Michal Herzog has explained that she was neither elected nor appointed to a specific role, while undertaking engagements of her own and accompanying the president on many of his duties.[1]

The presidency provides the institutional setting for these activities.[7] Israel’s president is head of state, and the office is largely ceremonial; the president is elected by members of the Knesset every seven years and also participates prominently in government formation, represents Israel internationally, and grants pardons.[8][7] Beyond duties established by law, presidential activities include promoting associations and agencies, receiving delegations and guests, and meeting people from different parts of Israeli society.[7] Citizens have also addressed petitions to the president and his wife, regarding the presidential household as somewhere to turn when conventional channels have failed to resolve their problems.[7]

The President’s Residence has consequently served as a setting for direct encounters between presidential spouses and the public.[7][9] Under the Ben-Zvis, meetings with different communities and public receptions helped make the residence a gathering place for Israel’s diverse population.[9] Later first ladies used it for initiatives ranging from children’s welfare and immigrant hospitality to a communal garden and a Hebrew poetry prize.[4] In a 2025 interview, Michal Herzog described the office and residence after October 7 as “the house of the people,” where people from different backgrounds could bring their pain and seek assistance.[5]

Vera Weizmann, wife of Chaim Weizmann, is described as Israel’s first first lady.[10] A 2024 historical account describes her managing access to her husband while he was ill in New York in May 1948.[11] In that account, a reporter telephoned with news of his election as president of the Provisional State Council; Vera asked the reporter to call back later and then told her husband, “You are the first president of Israel.”[11]

Vera brought an established professional and Zionist background to the presidential household.[10][4] She studied medicine in Geneva, obtained a medical license in England in 1913, and worked in infant clinics; her work in Manchester’s poorer neighborhoods included infant and maternal nutrition and health care.[10][4] She left medical practice for Zionist activity in 1916 and helped establish the Women’s International Zionist Organization, WIZO, in 1920.[4] She subsequently served as joint chair of its world executive committee and as president of Youth Aliyah.[10] She also founded the Association of the War of Independence Handicapped Veterans, which became the basis for the IDF Disabled Veterans Organization.[4]

After Chaim Weizmann became president in 1949, the chiefly symbolic character of his position frustrated Vera, who referred to him as “the Prisoner of Rehovot.”[10] Following his death in 1952, she became president of the Israeli Red Cross and renewed her involvement with Youth Aliyah.[10]

Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi likewise entered the presidential household after decades of public activity.[12] She had helped establish the Po’alei Zion socialist party, immigrated to Palestine in 1908, and participated in founding both the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem and the self-defense organization Ha-Shomer.[12] In 1920, she opened a Jerusalem tree nursery that evolved into a women’s collective.[12] Her subsequent agricultural and educational projects included a farm offering young women agricultural training and general education.[12] Her extensive writing eventually included ten books and hundreds of articles about the history and development of the Yishuv and the State of Israel.[12]

When Yitzhak Ben-Zvi became president, the character of the presidency was still taking shape.[2] He was elected on December 8, 1952, in the third round with 62 votes.[2] Crowds watched the presidential procession through Jerusalem, and approximately 1,000 visitors from Israel and abroad came to the presidential residence in the days after the inauguration.[2]

The Ben-Zvis wanted the President’s House to express shared values and stand above social divisions.[2] Preferring to remain in their Jerusalem apartment, they rejected a proposed luxury apartment and requested a modest wooden hut for presidential use.[2] Rachel regarded the cabin as appropriate to a period of mass immigration and helped make the residence accessible to newcomers from different communities and diasporas.[4][13] The priorities expressed in Ben-Zvi’s 1952 inaugural speech, which the couple shared, included gathering Jews from the Diaspora and bringing different ethnic groups together as one nation living in peace.[2] These aims took shape amid security threats, political isolation, economic hardship, and large-scale immigration.[2]

During the 1950s, the Ben-Zvis organized 18 monthly gatherings at the President’s House, each devoted to a different group and its history, spiritual assets, and potential contribution to Israeli society.[14] Their approach centered on the “unity of the tribes of Israel” and on learning about different communities as a means of building national cohesion.[14] Monthly “New Moon” meetings and an annual Sukkot open house brought citizens into direct contact with the presidency, including Muslim, Druze, Christian, Bahai, and Samaritan communities.[9] Rachel also worked to establish a residence trust supporting libraries in immigrant communities.[4]

Photographs from 1961 document the couple’s visits to agricultural education sites and Jerusalem neighborhoods, a cornerstone-laying for a Romanian immigrant camp, and commemorations marking the fiftieth anniversaries of several settlements.[2] Their engagements included meetings with diplomats, Druze and Samaritan community members, artists, and other cultural figures.[2] Rachel’s period as first lady lasted from 1952 to 1963; after her husband’s death, she initiated Yad Ben-Zvi, devoted to research and publication on the history of Eretz Israel and the heritage of Sephardi and Eastern Jews, with seminars, conferences, and field trips.[13] She remained publicly active afterward, opening the 1965 Haifa event at which Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda signed their agreement to form the Alignment.[15]

Rachel Katznelson-Shazar was first lady from 1963 to 1973, during the presidency of her husband, Zalman Shazar.[16] An editor, journalist, and labor activist, she had helped establish the Women Workers’ Organization in the Galilee and founded Dvar Hapoelet in 1934.[4][16] Her decades of editorial work accompanied continuing activism for women and sustained Zionist public activity.[17] She received the Israel Prize in 1958 for her writing and work advancing women; the prize rationale recognized nearly fifty years of educational and cultural work with working women and her role in collecting pioneering women’s literary expression.[16][17] As the president’s wife, she strengthened connections with women’s organizations in Israel and abroad, assisted organizations serving disabled and needy people, and supported writers and artists.[4]

Ofira Navon became the president’s wife following Yitzhak Navon’s election as Israel’s fifth president in 1978 and was the first native-born Israeli first lady at the residence.[18] Before then, she had studied psychology in the United States and worked as a rehabilitation psychologist with ILAN and MICHA.[18] The Navons spoke publicly about their efforts to have children and their adoption of Naama; Ofira also faced a later breast cancer diagnosis.[18] Her public work emphasized children’s welfare, women’s advancement, and disability organizations.[4]

Aura Herzog, wife of sixth president Chaim Herzog, emphasized environmental concerns and quality of life, while Reuma Weizman, wife of seventh president Ezer Weizman, made immigrant absorption a central concern.[4] Nechama Rivlin, wife of tenth president Reuven Rivlin, combined a comparatively low public profile with work in art, nature, women’s advancement, and support for children with special needs.[4][19] Michal Herzog subsequently brought a background in law, philanthropy, and social-sector leadership to her work alongside Israel’s eleventh president, Isaac Herzog.[3]

Ofira Navon founded the President’s Residence Assembly for Children’s Welfare and the I Care Foundation, which operated education and welfare projects.[4] She served as president of UNICEF in Israel, chaired the umbrella organization of Israeli disability groups, and promoted women’s advancement.[4] Together with the first ladies of Egypt and the United States, she received a special certificate of appreciation for work supporting children in disaster zones.[4]

Aura Herzog pursued environmental and quality-of-life goals through the Council for a Beautiful Israel, which she founded and led both before and after her husband’s presidency.[4] Its activities included beauty competitions in towns, factories, schools, and places affected by neglect or distress.[4] She also spearheaded the International Bible Contest and participated in cultural institutions.[4] Reuma Weizman visited immigrant absorption centers and caravan sites and welcomed new immigrants to the President’s Residence.[4] Her other activities included volunteering through Micha for deaf children, encouraging literacy and reading, hosting diplomats’ wives, and attending international conferences.[4]

Nechama Rivlin founded a communal garden at the President’s Residence and established a prize encouraging Hebrew poetry.[4] She placed sugar-water feeders among the residence’s plants for sunbirds, extending her interest in nature into the presidential grounds.[19] Her work for disadvantaged communities included women who had experienced violence: in 2016 she hosted 16 survivors of sexual assault, and three years later she joined a protest outside the residence against violence toward women.[4][19] She also ran a rehabilitation project for women imprisoned at Neve Tirtza, including an event at which the Élysée Palace’s chef cooked for the women and their children.[19]

Hospitality and remembrance were also part of Rivlin’s public activity.[20][21] She welcomed Jewish and non-Jewish delegations from around the world and was remembered for her hospitality, humility, and patriotism.[20] At a Zikaron B’Salon gathering on the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day, Reuven and Nechama Rivlin opened the presidential residence to participants and neighbors, including a survivor and her granddaughter.[21] After survivor Meir Ginosar described his experiences in the ghetto, concentration camps, and a death march, Nechama read a poem.[21] In her final years, she continued public engagements while living with serious lung disease, bringing attention to difficulties faced by people with disabilities.[4]

Michal Herzog’s professional background includes criminal, white-collar, and commercial law, management of her own law firm, and leadership of philanthropic foundations working in health, scientific research, education, and welfare.[3] Born in 1961, she holds a law degree from Tel Aviv University, speaks Hebrew, English, French, and Portuguese, and has three sons.[3] She met Isaac Herzog during their service in military intelligence unit 8200 in the early 1980s; they studied law together and married in 1985.[22] A family joke recalls their first date as an exhibition of equipment captured in the First Lebanon War.[22] Her legal work included representing Bank Leumi in the bank-share manipulation trial and representing Ronny Leibowitz, known as the “Opnobank.”[22]

Before becoming first lady, Herzog represented the Wohl Foundation in Israel, worked with Beit Noam and Merhavim, and served on the board of Ma’ala.[22] She founded Tel Aviv University’s Law Faculty alumni association, headed the Haredi Employment Coalition, served on the state commission on surrogacy regulation, and promoted corporate social responsibility.[3] Her public-organization work supported people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and social mobility.[3] At an online international conference of leaders’ spouses in 2021, held from Kyiv during the COVID-19 pandemic, she described her intended contribution as helping unite Israeli society and becoming someone citizens could turn to.[23]

Mental health became a central focus of Herzog’s work, including challenging stigma, encouraging open discussion and help-seeking, and highlighting the needs of children and teenagers, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] She has also promoted employment and sports as routes to social mobility, with attention to women in sports, young people in the social and geographic periphery, and people with disabilities.[3] In a 2025 interview, she described sports as a social agenda capable of bringing people together as well as expanding opportunity.[5]

After the October 7 terrorist attacks, Herzog described meeting hostage families and bereaved families, frequently visiting wounded people, and opening the residence to people from across Israeli society.[5] Requests reaching the presidential office concerned housing, education, and social problems, and assistance included helping families navigate bureaucracy.[5] She also described a three-day journey with the president to affected communities and sites around the attacks’ anniversary.[5] In a 2024 interview, she spoke of offering hope to bereaved families and wounded people, described “Mahlifot Mila,” a gathering of women from across society considering recovery together, and advocated including women in hostage-deal negotiations.[24]

The Jewish Agency’s Fund for Victims of Terror presented Herzog with a report on its assistance and recovery work after October 7, 2023.[25] The fund reported providing 85.5 million ILS in aid since the attacks; in 2024 it distributed 8,428 emergency grants, provided rehabilitation grants to 3,369 families, and involved 4,497 victims and relatives in group-intervention programs.[25] At the presentation, Herzog described families’ stories and determination to rebuild as deeply moving and connected the fund’s work to mutual responsibility between Israel and Jewish communities worldwide.[25] In a 2025 essay, Isaac Herzog wrote that he and Michal had attended more than 1,000 shiva calls since October 7, including a visit to the family of IDF officer Yitzhar Hofman, who was killed in northern Gaza.[26]

International engagements have combined ceremonial participation with humanitarian cooperation.[3][27] During Isaac Herzog’s two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates in January 2022, Michal joined him in opening Israel’s national day at Expo 2020 Dubai, witnessing the raising of Israel’s flag and the playing of Hatikvah.[27] The trip was the first visit by an Israeli president to the UAE and included meetings with government officials, business leaders, and members of the Jewish community.[27][28] Herzog also worked with Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, on assistance for refugees and other victims of war.[3] At her initiative, a program provided psychological and professional assistance to Ukrainian therapists working with civilian victims, drawing on Israeli expertise in psychological distress and resilience and including training for first responders and mental-health professionals.[3]

The Hebrew Poetry Prize at the President’s Residence connects initiatives undertaken by successive first ladies.[3] First presented by Nechama Rivlin to encourage high-quality Hebrew poetry and support poets, particularly younger writers, it was later dedicated to her memory by Michal Herzog.[3] The principal award is 50,000 NIS, with additional commendation awards totaling no more than 20,000 NIS.[3] Alongside Rachel Shazar’s support for writers and artists and Aura Herzog’s cultural activities, the prize gives cultural patronage a continuing place in presidential spouses’ public work.[4][3]

At a June 2025 ceremony at the President’s Residence, Isaac and Michal Herzog honored the Liheyot Ye’udi educational initiative, which involved more than 67,000 students that year.[29] Student-led projects included a football tournament commemorating a fallen soldier, hot meals for IDF troops, and renovations of public shelters in northern Israel.[29] More than 700 students participated in a year-long rhetoric course culminating in a debate at the ceremony.[29]

Several presidential spouses sustained organizations and public commitments extending beyond their husbands’ terms.[10][4] Vera Weizmann’s Youth Aliyah work continued after Chaim Weizmann’s death, Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi initiated a research institution, and Aura Herzog led the Council for a Beautiful Israel before and after her time as first lady.[10][13][4] These activities accompanied substantial careers developed independently of the presidency, including medicine, agricultural education, journalism, law, and philanthropy.[10][12][16][3]

The title has also been applied outside the presidential household.[30] Leah Rabin was described as first lady during Yitzhak Rabin’s premierships in 1974–77 and 1992–95, although she never held an official government position.[30] She accompanied him to Oslo in 1993 for the signing of an accord with Yasser Arafat and to Jordan in 1994 for the signing of a peace treaty.[30] Rabin, Arafat, and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.[30] After her husband’s assassination in 1995, Leah became a prominent advocate for Israeli-Palestinian peace and continued speaking publicly about the peace process.[30]

The title’s formal standing and its application to prime ministers’ wives have generated public disagreement.[31] In 2018, Foreign Ministry chief of protocol Miron Reuben said the terms he knew were “the president’s wife” and “the prime minister’s wife,” and that Israel had no “First, Second or Third Lady.”[31] He also said such titles had not passed the Committee on Symbols and Ceremonies, amid controversy over the Prime Minister’s Office using “First Lady” for Sara Netanyahu.[31] A 2026 report again described that office’s use of the English title for Sara Netanyahu while identifying Michal Herzog as Israel’s official first lady.[6] Hebrew presidential press releases use “Eshet HaNassi,” meaning “the wife of the president,” while English releases have used “First Lady.”[1]

The public scope of a presidential spouse’s activities has also drawn objections.[15] After Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi spoke at a Jerusalem municipal ceremony alongside the president, David Ben-Gurion wrote in opposition to her participation, arguing that the presidency was not shared with a spouse.[15]

Leah Rabin’s first period as a prime minister’s wife included a controversy over an American bank account retained after the couple returned to Israel.[30] The account violated Israeli law; she stood trial and was fined, and Yitzhak Rabin resigned as prime minister.[30] The peace process she later championed also faced opposition, with the Oslo accords denounced by ultranationalists on both sides.[30]