Ofira Navon

Ofira Navon was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv

Ofira Navon was born in Tel Aviv in 1936 to Batya Spitkovski and Eliezer Reznikov-Erez, both from Russia. Her father died when she was 8.

She studied education and teaching at the Levinsky Seminary and then served in the IDF. In 1956 she won the title "Tzabarit 56" from the weekly HaOlam HaZeh and acted in the film "Without a Homeland". After representing Israel at a beauty contest in France, she received a scholarship to study psychology in the United States, earning an MA from the University of Georgia and a certification in rehabilitation psychology from Columbia University.

Back in Israel she worked as a rehabilitation psychologist at ILAN and as a psychologist at MICHA Tel Aviv. In 1963 she married Yitzhak Navon. The couple adopted a daughter, Naama, and later had a son, Erez.

In 1978 she became the first Israeli-born wife of a president. She founded the President's Council for the Welfare of the Child and the "Ichpat Li" fund, headed UNICEF in Israel and the umbrella group of disability organizations, and worked with Jehan Sadat on rehabilitation projects for wounded soldiers.

In 1979 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, refused a full mastectomy and had a partial removal with chemotherapy. She spoke openly about the illness and urged women to get tested. She died in August 1993 and was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.