Nechama Rivlin

Nechama Rivlin was born in 1945 on Moshav Herut, near Tel Mond in central Israel, to parents who had immigrated from Ukraine and helped establish the moshav.[1][4] Her parents were Mendi and Drora Shulman.[1] Her father died during her childhood, leaving her mother as the family’s sole breadwinner.[6]

She attended the regional Ruppin secondary school and did not serve in the Israel Defense Forces for medical reasons.[4][7] In 1964, she enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she studied botany and genetics.[1] Her education also included a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology and zoology and a teaching certificate in natural sciences.[7]

Rivlin met Reuven Rivlin at a party in 1970, and they married the following year.[1] Their three children were Ran, Anat, and Rivi, also known as Rebecca; Reuven also had a son, Yoel, from his first marriage.[4] Nechama Rivlin became a grandmother of seven.[1]

Rivlin began working as a researcher at the Hebrew University in 1967, three years after beginning her studies.[1] She worked at the university for about 30 years, including in its Zoology Department, and also served as a scientific secretary at the Institute of Life Sciences.[1][8] She retired in 2007.[8]

During her husband’s political career, Rivlin generally remained outside the media spotlight while pursuing her own career and interests.[1] She was not significantly involved in his political life.[4] During his 2014 presidential campaign, she wrote to him: “Rubi, my beloved and my friend, I did not marry the president, so whatever happens, you will always be my lover and my friend.”[1]

After Reuven Rivlin’s election as president, she became Israel’s first lady and focused her public activities on art, children with special needs, the environment, nature conservation, bereaved mothers, and the advancement of women.[4] She invited residents of the neighborhood surrounding the President’s Residence to visit and sought to open the institution to different communities.[6] Among those she hosted were about 200 AKIM activists promoting support for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.[6] She also hosted teachers and students from a Jewish-Arab education center whose school had been set on fire.[7][6]

Rivlin established a community garden at the residence, where children from across Israel came to plant flowers, herbs, and other plants.[6][5] Another project attracted sunbirds by placing test tubes filled with sugar water in planters.[4] She called watching the birds drink “a small moment of happiness” and enjoyed showing her grandchildren the differences between the colors of male and female birds.[4]

Her work for women included support for those who had experienced violence and a rehabilitation project for women prisoners at Neve Tirza that received little media coverage.[4] In March 2016, she hosted 16 women who had been sexually assaulted and had agreed to share their experiences publicly.[4] In 2019, she joined a protest vigil outside the President’s Residence against violence toward women.[4]

Rivlin jointly developed the President’s Wife’s Prize for Hebrew Poetry with Legal Custodian General Sigal Yaakobi, using the estate of Dr. Gardner Simon to promote the Hebrew language.[3] In December 2018, the prize was worth 70,000 shekels, and its first recipient was Amichai Hasson for his book “Without What” (בלי מה).[3] Rivlin expressed the wish that the world would always include people who “poetize it.”[3]

At a Zikaron B’Salon, or “Remembrance in the Living Room,” gathering at the presidential residence, Rivlin participated alongside her husband.[2] Those present included a Holocaust survivor and her granddaughter, retired immigrants from Maryland, and fifteen organizers of the remembrance initiative.[2] After Meir Ginosar gave testimony about his wartime experiences, Rivlin read a poem.[2]

During a September 2016 presidential visit to Kyiv, Reuven Rivlin read aloud the names of members of Nechama’s family who had perished in Ukraine.[4] She later recalled: “To hear my mother's name was a difficult moment for me, the tears were choking me. After a few minutes, I collected myself and listened to the speech with pride.”[1] She described being in Ukraine as the daughter of Drora Mintz and the wife of Israel’s president as a victory.[4]

A tribute in The Jerusalem Post described Rivlin’s affection for films, animals, and Paddington Bear.[9] The tribute recounted that, after she wrote online about the character’s lessons of helping others and caring for injured animals, she was invited to voice a character in the Hebrew-dubbed version of Paddington 2.[9]

Rivlin developed serious pulmonary fibrosis after retiring from the Hebrew University.[1] As the disease worsened, she used an oxygen tank to help her breathe.[1][10] As her illness worsened, she spent much of the year before her transplant using a wheelchair.[5]

A Jerusalem Post tribute connected her concern for children with special needs to back surgery she had undergone when young.[9] It also characterized her continued public engagements while living with lung disease as a way of drawing attention to the everyday difficulties faced by people with disabilities and to society’s responsibilities toward them.[9]

In March 2019, Rivlin received a lung transplant at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.[10] The donated lung came from 19-year-old Yair Yehezkel Halabli, who had drowned in Eilat; his family authorized the donation of several organs.[10][5] She underwent another surgical procedure about nine days after the transplant.[10]

During rehabilitation, her medical team created the impression that she was still connected to an oxygen tank while she was actually spending several hours breathing independently.[1] She reacted with incredulity when she discovered what the team had done.[1]

Her physician, Professor Mordechai Kramer, said that her idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis had been diagnosed about twelve years earlier and that she had continued her activities while using oxygen.[11] The transplant was considered despite its risks because she was otherwise in reasonably good condition.[11] Her body ultimately did not withstand the procedure and recovery, and attempts to stabilize her during a complicated post-transplant rehabilitation were unsuccessful.[4][11]

Rivlin died at Beilinson Hospital on June 4, 2019, three months after the transplant.[11] Her funeral took place at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.[10]

The community garden, Hebrew poetry prize, and work for disadvantaged communities were among Rivlin’s initiatives as first lady.[8][5] These activities included opportunities for children to participate in planting at the presidential residence and support for women who had experienced violence.[4][6]

Following her death, Ronald S. Lauder praised her hospitality toward Jewish and non-Jewish delegations from around the world, saying that she brought “the best face of Israel forward with love and compassion.”[12] Gad Ariely’s tribute emphasized her “extraordinary humility and hospitality” and patriotism, remembering her as “a matriarch of the nation.”[12]