Nina Katzir

Nina Katzir was born in 1914 in Mahilyow

Nina Katzir was born Nina Gottlieb in Mogilev in 1914. At 16 she moved alone to Mandatory Palestine and lived in her grandfather's house in Rehovot. She took private lessons from Ephraim Katchalski, and the two married in February 1938.

She completed her studies at the Beit Hakerem seminary in Jerusalem and became a teacher. She taught Hebrew to new immigrants in ulpanim and English in schools, including the Tichon Meuhad high school in Rehovot. She developed modern methods for teaching English and wrote a Jerusalem Post column on teaching foreign languages.

In 1973 she wrote the book Hebrew with a Smile for tourists, published by the Ministry of Tourism. As the president's wife she started meetings between children's writers and children, and International Children's Week was marked in Israel at her initiative. In December 1973, after the Yom Kippur War, she caused a small controversy by arranging for copies of Playboy to be given to soldiers.

The couple had three children: Nurit, Meir and Irit. Nurit, an actress, died in 1965 from gas inhalation, and Nina Katzir worked with the Nurit Foundation on activities for teenagers. In 1978 the Nurit Katzir Municipal Theater Center was founded in Jerusalem in her daughter's memory. Nina Katzir died in 1986.