Tributes have poured in – from ordinary people all the way up to Italy’s president – to honor Italian Nobel Prize-winner Rita Levi Montalcini on the occasion of her 103rd birthday.

Levi Montalcini, who turned 103 years old on Sunday, was a joint recipient of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1986. She was born on April 22, 1909 to a Jewish family in Turin.

During World War II, because of anti-Semitic restrictions imposed by the fascist government, Levi Montalcini worked secretly in a clandestine laboratory she built in her bedroom. She and her family fled Turin in 1941, first to a mountain village and, in 1943, to Florence, where they spent the rest of the war in hiding.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

After the war, she moved to the United States and eventually divided her time between the United States and Rome.

One of Italy’s most admired women, Levi Montalcini was named a Senator for Life, one of Italy’s highest honors, in 2001.

She was quoted in the Italian media as saying that she did not want any big celebration of her birthday, but would raise a glass and maybe enjoy a piece of cake with close associates.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount