{{Short description|1978–1983 First Lady of Israel (1936–1993)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Ofira Navon<br />אופירה נבון | office = First Lady of Israel | president = Yitzhak Navon | successor = Aura Herzog | predecessor = Nina Katzir | birth_date = 1 January 1936 | death_date = 22 August 1993 (aged 57) | birth_place = Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine | death_place = Jerusalem | image = Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Mrs. Ophira navon.jpg | term_start = 29 May 1978 | term_end = 5 May 1983 }}
'''Ofira Resnikov Navon''' ({{langx|he|אופירה נבון}}; January 1, 1936 – August 22, 1993) was the wife of Yitzhak Navon, the fifth President of Israel.
==Biography== Ofira Navon was born in Tel Aviv to Batya (née Spitkovski) and Eliezer Reznikov-Erez, both originally from Russia. Her father died when she was 8. She earned an MA in education and psychology from the University of Georgia, where she was also a member of the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, and had professional certification in rehabilitation psychology from Columbia University. She and Yitzhak Navon had two children, Naama and Erez.<ref name=NYT>{{Citation | last = | first = | author-link = | date =August 23, 1993 | title =Ofira Navon Is Dead; Israeli, 57, Backed Rights of Children | periodical = New York Times | url =https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/23/obituaries/ofira-davon-is-dead-israeli-57-backed-rights-of-children.html | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = March 15, 2010 }}</ref>
==As First Lady== thumb|250px|Ofira Navon park, Jerusalem During her husband's presidency, from 1978 to 1983, Navon raised the profile of the president's wife. As First Lady, Navon established the President's Council for the Welfare of the Child. She worked with Jehan Sadat, wife of the Egyptian president, on rehabilitation projects for soldiers wounded in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Navon also pushed for an international treaty to protect children caught in war zones.<ref name=NYT/>
Navon was the first Israeli-born presidential wife. With her Ashkenazi upbringing, her marriage to a Sephardi Jew was unusual at the time. The fact that they were parents of small children was another first for the presidency in Israel.<ref name=NYT/>
==Illness and death== In 1979, Navon was diagnosed with breast cancer and rejected a mastectomy, opting for chemotherapy and a lumpectomy. Later she argued for the right of patients to determine their own treatment. In August 1993, Navon died of leukemia at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem at the age of 57.<ref name=NYT/>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Navon, Ofira}} Category:1936 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Deaths from leukemia in Israel Category:Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Category:Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Spouses of presidents of Israel Category:People from Tel Aviv Category:Burials at Mount Herzl Category:20th-century Israeli women scientists Category:20th-century psychologists