Zivia Cohen was born in Jerusalem in 1930. She served in the Palmach (lit. "Strike Companies" - a fighting force during the British Mandate for Palestine) and is a certified occupational therapist. Cohen has a BA in Rehabilitation from New York University and an M.Ed (education) from Temple University, Philadelphia. She is also a graduate of a Journalism course from the Technion. She has worked in rehabilitation, was a deputy manager in a hospital for treating chronic deseases in Philadelphia, and a rehabilitation coordinaor in Machne Israel Medical Center of Malben (Institutions for the Care of Handicapped Immigrants).



Cohen beleives and has proved that knowlleged has major impact on shaping awareness and changing behavior, and this is why she has, from 1960, dealt with women-related topics on the media. She had a column in Kol Israel named "Women in the Global Press", edited the section "For the Woman and the Home" in LaMerhav newspaper, Wizo's "Bamat HaIsha (lit. Woman's Stage"), and "Devar Hapoelet" (lit. "Words of Women Workers"), which later became "Na'amat" magazine. She also wrote and edited brochures related to women's status for Na'amat, and brochures about rights and services for the elderly for Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality. Since 1995 she has been active on the Social Television (Channel 98). She wrote and edited "Bat Chen" Album, the chapter about women's corpse in "Zahal Bechilo" (lit. IDF and its corpses), and the album "We Volunteered for the British Army".

The prizes Cohen has won include the Reichenstein Award for best interview in 1966 on "First Palmach women talk about the first days", and the award in 1970 for the series "The Deviant Girl" (both published in LaMerhav). Cohen and Ricki Vishnia's film "The Sooner the Better" won the first award in a pensioners' festival in 2004, and at the "Creating Reality" international festival in 1970.

As part of her public dueis, from 1998 to 2001 Cohen headed woem organization council and was the Vice-President of the International Council of Jewish Women. She was also a member of the Council for Culture, the plenum of Israel Broadcasting Authority, the board of the Journalists Association, the Council for a Beautiful Israel, and the Council of Clalit Health Services.



Through her vast activity in the media and in women's organizations, Cohen has made a great contribution towards empowering women. She has provided them with tools to achieve self-fulfillment and improve their lives. She gave them information about their rights and motivated them to fight for more rights. In her publications, she has provided them with the opportunity to meet groundbreaking figures, so that the latter would serve as role models. In 1993 Cohen was awarded the Service Award of the Histadrut Labor Federation and in 2007 the "Freedom of the City" of Tel Aviv. In addition, she is the mother of two, grandmother of five, and great grandmother of three.