Rabbanit Naomi Hadari, Wife of Kotel Yeshiva Head, Dies at 91

Rabbanit Naomi Hadari, wife of the late Rabbi Yeshayahu Hadari, head of the legendary Kotel Yeshiva, passed away on Monday at the age of 91. She was a well-known figure in the Religious Zionist community and among thousands of Kotel Yeshiva students who found a welcoming home in the Hadari family residence in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter for decades.

Born Naomi Rekover, she married Rabbi Yeshayahu Hadari in 1957. The couple was among the first families to resettle the Jewish Quarter after Jerusalem's liberation in the Six-Day War. When the Kotel Yeshiva was established in 1967 and Rabbi Hadari was appointed its head, Rabbanit Hadari played an active role in the educational endeavor. Their home became a gathering place for students, many of whom regarded her as a maternal figure throughout their studies.

Professionally, Rabbanit Hadari was a social worker and later managed a department at the National Insurance Institute. She was the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Rekover and a granddaughter of the Mandelbaum family, one of Jerusalem's historic families. She is survived by three daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who continue the Torah legacy. Among her sons-in-law are Rabbis Aryeh Hendler, Mordechai Feig, and Avigdor Grossberg.

Rabbi Yeshayahu Hadari led the Kotel Yeshiva for over thirty years and was a key figure shaping the yeshiva and a generation of scholars, rabbis, and public figures in Religious Zionism.