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Golda Meir — Part of Our Way of Life
A Woman Empowered
It takes a great man of faith to trust in G-d and obey His Word even when others tell him not to. Boaz Ido, one of the producers in our Lev Haolam family, is just such a man. When Boaz faced the problem of how to grow a flourishing olive grove while all he had were a few weak and withered trees, he knew he had to put the Torah first in his business, and G-d would bring the increase.
Surely most of those who stand for Israel know of Golda Meir, the first (and so far, only) female prime minister of Israel. But did you know that, like so many of those we help, Golda was an olim (an immigrant to Israel)?
And did you know that, before she made aliyah (immigrated to the Holy Land), Golda worked as a schoolteacher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the American city in which she was raised?
An Immigrant Childhood
Born in Kyiv, the Ukrainian city then part of the Russian Empire, in 1898, one of Golda Mabovitch’s earliest memories was of her father boarding up the family’s door because of anti-Semitic pogroms.
Golda’s father headed to the United States when she was still small, to find work and to find a safer place for his family. After saving enough money, he brought the entire family to America, where Golda’s mother ran a grocery store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In Milwaukee, Golda showed her leadership skills early on, tending the store by the age of eight, and organizing a fundraiser to buy textbooks for classmates less fortunate than herself. Golda studied to become a teacher, worked at the Milwaukee Public Library, and met a young man
A Lifelong Zionist
It was also in Milwaukee that Golda began her lifelong support for Zionism, taking part in youth programs and traveling the U.S. raising money for and awareness of the Zionist movement. When Morris proposed marriage, Golda agreed – on the condition that they make aliyah to the Holy Land, which was then British-mandate Palestine – and the couple moved there in 1921, settling on a kibbutz (a communal farm).
In the Holy Land, Golda worked tirelessly for the Jewish people – for aliyah, for protection during the Holocaust, and for the establishment of the modern state of Israel.
A Servant of Israel
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Golda served as a diplomat for the fledgling state, as well as Israel’s labor minister and foreign minister. After battling lymphoma and retiring because of her health and age in the 1960s, Golda realized that serving the state of Israel was her calling.
In 1969, Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died suddenly. To replace him, Israel elected Golda Meir as its fourth premier and first female leader. Prime Minister Meir came out of retirement to serve her people – God’s people – once again.
During her time leading Israel, PM Meir faced many challenges, including the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Golda Meir passed away at age 80 on December 8, 1978, and is buried at Mt. Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem, where so many of her fellow Israelis lay. Like so many Israelis, Golda was born away from the Promised Land, she returned to this country that she described so lovingly and eloquently in her 1975 autobiography, My Life:
“I am also grateful that I live in a country whose people have learned how to go on living in a sea of hatred without hating those who want to destroy them and without abandoning their own vision of peace. To have learned this is a great art, the prescription for which is not written down anywhere. It is part of our way in Israel.”
The Case of the Hat
On Israeli Independence Day in 1973, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the State of Israel, the IDF held its last military parade. It was decided to permanently cancel the custom due to high costs, and this was to be the last hurrah, held in the presence of the Prime Minister who sat on the dais. Shortly after the parade, the Israeli Hatmakers’ Union (it turns out there was such a thing) published an official letter of grievance in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek Maariv article dedicated to the Prime Minister’s sloppy appearance, and the fact that she chose not to wear a hat during the parade.
- “Mrs. Meir’s bear head, exposed to the sun, served as a negative example to all Israeli women,”
- The union members wrote, demanding that Meir become a fashion leader and help promote the fashion of hats among Israeli women.
- Union members even offered to create a special hat model named for Golda, whose sale would compensate for the economic fallout they predicted would be caused by her appearance, which they feared would lead Israeli women to forego hats altogether.
Separation of Religion and State?
Golda Meir had a complex relationship with religion, dating back to long before her term as Prime Minister. During an official visit to Moscow in 1949 as Israel’s ambassador to the Soviet Union, Golda visited the famous Moscow Choral Synagogue. Photos of the visit were published in Israel and around the world, and upon her return to Israel, Member of Knesset Benjamin Mintz challenged her to pay a similar visit to a synagogue in Tel Aviv, saying “I invite you to the Great Synagogue for a prayer of thanksgiving. Or do you only visit synagogues in Moscow?” Without skipping a beat, Meir clarified that she had entered the synagogue in Moscow and agreed to sit in the women’s section because she wanted to meet the local Jews. But that as far as Tel Aviv was concerned, she would be happy to attend synagogue as soon as equality was achieved and she was allowed to sit in the main hall alongside the male members of the congregation.
Meir, the only woman ever elected as Israel’s prime minister, is a fascinating figure in the history of her young country, which right now is in the midst of an unbelievable fourth national election in two years due to its complex government system. The documentary Golda, which played at film festivals last year, offers great insight into who she was and how she operated, most comparable to Margaret Thatcher in terms of her strong will and reputation.
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