The Great Leader Series No. 16 - Golda Meir

As the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, has been celebrated by Jewish communities all over the world recently, I have chosen Golda Meir as my great leader this month.

This Jewish leader was born Golda Mabovitz in Kiev, now in the Ukraine, in 1898. One of her earliest memories was her father boarding up the door to their home against a rumoured pogrom. Living in the “pale of settlement”, part of Kiev where Jews were allowed to live, was hard for Golda and her sisters and they often went hungry and cold. Five of her other siblings died in their childhood. Golda was close to her older sister, Sheyna.

In 1903 the family moved to Pinsk whilst her father went to the USA to prepare the way for the whole family to emigrate. Sheyna had put herself in danger by engaging in Zionist revolutionary activities. In 1906 the whole family emigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where her father worked as a carpenter and her mother ran a grocery store. Golda had to mind the shop for a while each morning from the age of eight, whilst her mother did the marketing.

She attended the Fourth Street school from 1906 to 1912, and it was here that she organised her first community project by forming the American Young Sisters Society. Their purpose was to raise funds for poor children of Milwaukee who couldn’t afford schoolbooks.

It was here that the first glimpses of her leadership are seen, along with her organisation skills and compassion.

There was some disagreement between Golda and her parents when she decided to become a teacher. They raised objections because school teachers were not allowed to marry and they expected Golda to leave school, settle down and get married.

Golda wanted to be someone so she ran away to Denver to live with her sister Sheyna, who was now married. She attended school in Denver and attended meetings with other young Jews to discuss the injustices Jews were suffering all over the world. At one of the meetings she met Morris Myerson, the man she would later marry.

After two years she returned home to Milwaukee at the request of her father. She finished her schooling but took time out of her studies to talk to others about the ill treatment of Jews and the need for a Jewish homeland.

Golda and Morris married in 1917. Golda was working for Zionist group, Poalei Zion, travelling around North America speaking about the need for  a Jewish homeland. By 1921 they had saved enough money to move Palestine. They joined a kibbutz where they stayed for two years before moving to Jerusalem where their two children were born. Golda continued to be busy giving speeches and attending meetings.

Sadly, in the same year as Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, 1933, Golda and Morris separated. Many Jews left Germany and fled to Palestine. The Arabs were alarmed, being concerned that the Jews would push them out of their own country. Golda was appointed to the executive committee of the General Federation of Jewish Labour in Palestine.

In 1939 World War II broke out. Nearly half the world’s population of Jews died, six million people. After the war when so many survivors of the Holocaust fought their way to Palestine, much pressure was brought to bear on the United Nations to create a state of Israel.

The Arabs were very upset and wanted to fight the Jews. In early 1948 Golda journeyed to America to collect money for military equipment and raised over $50 million.. During the violence that followed many people were killed.

On 14 May 1948 Golda was one of thirty eight people [and only one of two women] to sign Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

She was asked to become Israel’s ambassador to Russia, later in the same year. Although she enjoyed the position, she was frustrated that she was unable to achieve anything that would help the people of Israel. In 1949 she accepted the post of Minister of Labour back in Israel. 1950 and 1951 there were nearly seven hundred thousand people who became citizens of Israel. Golda’s task was to find homes and jobs for these people as quickly as possible.

In 1957 she became Foreign Minister. At the same time she chose to Hebraicize her last name. She had ignored a demand to do this while she had been an ambassador, but now changed her name to Meir that means illuminate.

Her main aim at this time was to have peace between Jews and Arabs but in the early 1960s she was diagnosed with lymphoma. She continued to work, hiding her illness. She eventually resigned from the Cabinet in 1965 due to illness and exhaustion and returned to her earlier modest life.

However she was recalled to service in 1967 to take on the role of Secretary General of the Alignment. She retired again some eight months later on 1 August 1968.

In February 1969, the then prime minister of Israel, Levi Eshkol died suddenly and Golda Meir was asked to take his place. She came out of retirement and served as prime minister until 1974.

Golda’s term of office began during a time when Israel was brimming with confidence having won a decisive victory in the ongoing violence between Jews and Arabs and had captured large areas of territory in the Six Day War. However in 1973 the Arabs attacked Israel and Israel was not prepared. The blame for this was laid squarely on Golda Meir’s shoulders and she resigned in 1974 at the age of seventy six.

She died of cancer in Jerusalem in late 1978.

But why have I chosen Golda Meir as a great leader? She showed complete dedication to the state of Israel, before and after its creation, and its people. “Her complete involvement, tempered with love, fired by devotion, caused the world to know that she was a true mover of mountains.”

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org

www.wic.org/bio/gmeir.htm

http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-famous/goldmeir.html

http://www.uwm.edu/Library/digilib/Golda/records/biography.html

Date : 22-09-2007