Miriam Feirberg-Ikar, ‘iron lady’ mayor of Netanya since 1998, dies at 74

Miriam Feirberg-Ikar, who served as mayor of Netanya since 1998, died on Friday after a years-long battle with a serious illness, according to an announcement from the coastal city.

“We are shocked and dismayed by the passing of our dearest Iron Lady of Netanya, the legendary mayor, Miriam Feirberg-Ikar,” the municipality said on social media. “With her winning smile, Miriam became the face of Netanya in Israel and the world.”

Details of Feirberg-Ikar’s funeral will be announced later, the municipality said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud party to which Feriberg-Ikar belonged, said she “dedicated her life to public service, advancing society and bold, future-oriented urban development.”

“At every meeting with her throughout the decades, Miriam asked to advance the city of Netanya. She lived, breathed and dreamed Netanya, and this is evident in the city’s tremendous development under her leadership,” he said.

President Isaac Herzog eulogized Feirberg-Ikar on X as a “larger-than-life” personality who showed “true leadership with a heart of gold and social sensitivity.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also commended Feirberg-Ikar for having “changed the face of he city and contributed much to the development of sports and culture in Netanya.”

Feirberg-Ikar, a divorced mother of two, was born in Acre in northern Israel, and moved as a child with her family to Netanya. A social worker by training, she worked in various capacities in Netanya’s municipality since the 1970s before being elected mayor in 1998 on the municipal Likud ticket.

She was re-elected five more times, most recently in 2024. At the time of her death, Feirberg-Ikar was tied with Tel Aviv’s Ron Huldai as the longest-serving mayor in Israel.

Under Feirberg-Ikar, Netanya attracted investments from large Israeli and international companies, including Cisco, Ikea and Cellcom. The city also saw large-scale real estate development, including the construction last year of a soccer stadium named Miriam Stadium after Feirberg-Ikar.

Her tenure was also marked by several corruption scandals. She was investigated twice — once in her first term for alleged wiretapping of political rivals’ offices, and again last decade for allegedly taking bribes to promote real estate developments. In both cases, the State Prosecutor’s Office determined there was insufficient evidence to charge the Netanya mayor.

The city in central Israel is home to an estimated 223,920 people, making it the seventh-largest city in the country after Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Haifa, Petach Tikva, Rishon Lezion and Ashdod, according to the 2022 census.

Netanya has also long been known inside Israel as a hub for crime, organized or otherwise, with a flourishing market for narcotics and firearms. The trend continued under Feirberg-Ikar, with Netanya’s central-north neighborhood ranking third in overall crime, and first in number of break-ins, in 2024, according to the local MyNet news site.