Golda Meir

Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitch on 3 May 1898 in Kiev, in the Russian Empire, to a Ukrainian-Jewish family. Her father, Moshe Yitzhak Mabovitch, was a carpenter, and her mother was Blume Neiditch. Meir later recalled one of her earliest memories: her father boarding up the front door because of rumors of an imminent pogrom. In 1906, after Moshe had gone ahead to seek work, the family immigrated to the United States and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Milwaukee gave Meir both schooling and early responsibility. Her mother ran a grocery store, and by the age of eight Meir was often watching the shop while Blume bought supplies. She attended Fourth Street Grade School, later known as the Golda Meir School, and graduated as valedictorian despite frequent tardiness caused by work in the store. As a child, she helped organize the American Young Sisters Society to raise money for classmates’ textbooks. She later attended North Division High School, worked part-time, and studied at the Milwaukee State Normal School before becoming a teacher in a Yiddish-speaking Folks Schule.

Her political thinking took shape through a mix of family hardship, immigrant life, education, and debate. In Denver, where she lived for a time with her sister Sheyna Korngold, Meir was exposed to talk-filled evenings on Zionism, literature, women’s suffrage, trade unionism, and other subjects. Back in Milwaukee, she joined Young Poale Zion, later Habonim, and embraced Socialist Zionism. In 1917, she became a naturalized United States citizen and married Morris Meyerson, with the condition that they would settle in Palestine.

In 1921, after the First World War, Meir and her husband immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. They settled in kibbutz Merhavia after an initial rejection. There she picked almonds, planted trees, worked in the chicken coops, and ran the kitchen. The kibbutz soon chose her as its representative to the Histadrut, the General Federation of Labour. By 1934, she had joined the executive committee of the trade union. During and after the Second World War, she held several key roles in the Jewish Agency, and in 1948 she signed the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Meir entered the Knesset in 1949 and served as Labor Minister until 1956, when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion appointed her Foreign Minister. She retired from the ministry in 1966 because of ill health, but returned to the center of Israeli politics in 1969, becoming prime minister after the death of Levi Eshkol. She was Israel’s first, and to date only, female head of government. Early in her premiership, she made diplomatic visits to western leaders to promote her vision of peace in the region.

Her years as prime minister were marked by both stature and severe criticism. The Yom Kippur War of 1973 caught Israel off guard and brought heavy early losses, leading to public anger and an inquiry into the failures. Her Alignment coalition was denied a majority in the following legislative election, and she resigned in 1974. Meir died of lymphoma in 1978 and was buried on Mount Herzl. Remembered as a founder of the state and called the “Iron Lady” of Israeli politics, she is also widely blamed for the surprise of 1973 and criticized for dismissive statements toward Palestinians. Her words still draw attention because they came from a life lived close to power, conflict, work, migration, and hard political choices.