Funeral services were held Sunday for Rivka Guber who died last Thursday at the age of 79. Known as the “mother of the sons” in memory of her two children who died in the War of Independence, and famous throughout Israel for her pioneering work and personal example she showed in volunteer work for the absorption and integration of new immigrants, she plunged to her death from the 12th floor of the old age home in which she was residing in Ramat Aviv. Mrs. Guber was buried in Kfar Warburg cemetery in a state funeral.
School children in Kfar Warburg, the Lachish region and other areas where she and her late husband had moved to help new immigrants, were given the day off from school to attend the funeral. In a brief eulogy, President Yitzhak Navon described Mrs. Guber as a “symbol of the suffering and courage of the Jewish people.”
He added that in this period, of ethnic and religious polarization in Israel, the public should learn from the example of people like Rivka Guber. As the mother of two young children she had volunteered for service with Palestine units ot the British army in World War II.
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