Ilana Cohen, trailblazing nursing leader in Israel, dies at 83

Ilana Cohen, a longtime chair of the Nurses and Nursing Assistants Union in Israel and one of the most prominent figures in the country’s health sector, has died at the age of 83. She was credited with leading one of the major campaigns in Israeli labor history to improve nurses’ working conditions, pay and staffing levels.

Cohen was born in Iraq in 1943, during anti-Jewish riots, and her father was killed when she was only two weeks old. Her death prompted tributes from senior health and labor figures who described her as a pioneering leader whose work reshaped Israeli healthcare.

Current union chairman Shaul Skif called her a friend and mentor and said he had fought alongside her to shape Israel’s health system, strengthen nurses’ status and working conditions, and ensure proper medical care for Israelis. He said, “Ilana Cohen was a trailblazing leader, a social activist unique in her generation, whose actions affected and will continue to affect every citizen in Israel for many years.”

Skif added that her legacy included a staffing agreement, the academicization of the profession, shorter working hours and better pay. He said, “For the State of Israel there was Ben-Gurion, for nurses there is Ilana Cohen.” Dr. Zev Feldman, head of the Government Doctors’ Organization, said she changed nurses’ status, drove major reform in the public health system and amplified the voices of patients and the vulnerable, including efforts to move elderly patients out of hallways and improve psychiatric hospitalization. Prosper Ben Hamo, head of the Clalit workers’ union, also praised her as a groundbreaking workers’ leader and an uncompromising, loyal mentor and friend.