Golda Meir - A short Introduction to Her Life

Golda Meir: A short Introduction to Her Life

Dina Ripsman Eylon and Sisterhood Press, Inc., 2015 All rights reserved. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission 1


Dina Ripsman Eylon, Ph.D.

In the epigrammatic preface to her autobiography My Life, Golda Meir admits that

she has never kept diaries, nor would she ever describe herself as a writer of letters.

The purpose of telling her life story evolved from a strong hope that perhaps those who

read [her] book will learn and understand a little more about Israel, Zionism and the

Jewish people. Indeed, for Golda the three epitomized her existence. Her Zionist

convictions changed the course of her early life in America and led to a path of political

and social change in a country were her childhood dreams became a reality. Remarkably,

Goldas seminal contribution to her people intertwined with the history of modern

Zionism, depicting the toil and turbulence of a newly born Jewish state.

Golda Meir [Golda] (1898-1978), born in Kiev, Russia, was the prime minister of

Israel from 1969 until 1973. In 1972, Golda published a small tome entitled My Fathers

Home. In this tiny book, Golda describes her childhood in Russia, the USA, and the

early days of her life in pre-state Israel. The title itself is worthy of note because it does

not say my mothers home or my parents home. The reason probably stems from

Goldas keen closeness to her father and his philosophy of life. Quite frequently, Golda

acknowledged the contributions and support of her close family and friends from whom

she absorbed her cultural interests, especially her husband, Morris Meyerson. This

genuine humility is evident in the following description:

It is difficult to analyze and decide in certainty which characteristics and personality traits I received from my parents. In no way would I blame them for what I am or have become. It seems to me that I mainly received a tendency to be open about personal issues and family issues. From my father I inherited my stubbornness and endurance, and from my mother I inherited my optimism. There was never a depressive atmosphere at home even during the most sever and difficult times. (Beit Avi [My Fathers Home], 9)1

1 This authors translation from the Hebrew text.



Golda recalls tales about her great-grandmother, who was also called Golda. No

decision was made in the household without consulting this wise woman. Relatives

constantly told her how much she resembles her great-grandmother.

Her father, Moshe Yitzhak Mabovitch, was a tall, skinny man, who had very

delicate features. He was especially nave and accepted people at their word. This trait

came at a cost to both him and his family, but he remained faithful in the fundamental

goodness of human nature. Goldas parents were traditional in their religious orientation:

They kept a kosher kitchen and celebrated all the Jewish holidays and festivals. But

religion as such to the extent that it can be separated from tradition for Jews played a

very small role in [their] lives. (My Life, 3)

Goldas mother, Blume, nee Naiditch, was attractive, energetic, and witty. While

more practical than her husband, they both possessed pleasant and optimistic

personalities. They had nice singing voices and on Friday nights friends and family used

to flock to their home and sing Shabbat songs. This tradition continued to the next

generations and at the time Golda was writing her biography, her children and her sisters

children still sang those songs.

Golda claims that her parents fell in love at first sight when her father came to her

mothers hometown Pinsk to join the Russian army. They had eight children of whom

only three girls survived: Sheyna, Golda and Clara.2

Golda never met her paternal grandfather. Yet, it was widely known that he was

one of the thousands of kidnapped Jewish children of Russia, shanghaied into the

czars army to serve for twenty-five years. Ill-clothed, ill-fed, terrified children, more

often than not they were under constant pressure to convert to Christianity. (My Life, 17)

Her Mabovitch grandfather had been snatched by the army when he was all of thirteen,

the son of a highly religious family, brought up to observe the finest points of orthodox

Jewish tradition. He served in the Russian army for another thirteen years, and never

once, despite threats, derision and often punishment, did he touch treife (non-kosher)

food. All these years he kept himself alive on uncooked vegetables and bread. Though

pressed hard to change his religion and often made to pay for his refusal by being forced

to kneel for hours on a stone floor, he never gave in. When he was released and came 2 The other children died in infancy.



back home, he was nonetheless haunted by the fear that inadvertently he might somehow

have broken the Law. So to atone for the sin he might have committed, he slept for years

on a bench in an unheated synagogue with only a stone at his head for a pillow. [She

adds] Little wonder he died young. (Ibid.)

Goldas family originated from Pinsk but as their economic condition became

dire, they moved to Kiev where Golda was born. The only memories Golda retained from

this period of her life were the death of her grandmother, a pogrom alert, and the extreme

hunger and poverty she experienced.

When Golda was five, the family returned to Pinsk. Soon afterwards, in search of

better opportunities for his family, her father traveled to the USA. In the interim, Golda,

her sisters, and her mother stayed behind with her mothers extended family. After

spending some time in NYC, Goldas father moved to Milwaukee. Finally, three years

later in 1906, the rest of the family joined him.

One of the most influential people in Goldas life was her older sister, Sheyna.

Golda refers to her as her shining example, [her] dearest friend, and [her] mentor. (My

Life, 21) She continued to seek her approval even after she became the prime minister of

Israel. At the early age of fourteen, Sheyna was a revolutionary, an earnest, dedicated

member of the Socialist-Zionist movement. (My Life, 22) This behavior endangered

Sheyna and her fellow revolutionaries due to repeated raids by the czars police.

According to Goldas personal accounts, Sheyna was stubborn to a fault, and despite the

strong opposition from her parents, she continued to attend meetings almost nightly.

Golda would secretly listen to the discussions between Sheyna and her revolutionary

friends and tried to comprehend the tearful and loud interchanges between her mother

and her sister. When Theodore Herzl died in the summer of 1904, as a sign of mourning

Sheyna decided to wear only black clothes (My Life, 24) and persisted until the family

reached Milwaukee two long years later. (Ibid.)

Despite the commotion and family drama in the Mabovitch home, young

inquisitive Golda pursued her own scholastic endeavors. Regina Medzini, Goldas

lifelong friend, recalls that Golda preferred reading to playing and socialization. She

frequented the local library in Milwaukee, consuming works of Russian authors such as

Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and Fedor Dostoevsky; French authors like Victor Hugo,



Guy de Maupassant and Anatole France; and English and American authors such as

Arnold Bennett, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Sinclair Lewis.

When Golda was fourteen, following incessant arguments with her parents about

her political and social activities, she ran away from home and settled for a while with

her sisters family in Denver. While in Denver, Golda studied the writings of Pter

Kropotkin and Emma Goldman, along with the theories of Anarchism, Pacifism, and

Feminism. She also became enamored with the Yiddish literature of Mendele Mokher

Safarim, Sholem Aleichem and Y. L. Peretz. In The Zionist Purpose, a speech Golda

delivered at Dropsie College on November 26, 1967, she vividly demonstrated the

enormous admiration she felt for the works of four writer-activists, who had a paramount

effect on the Jewish population of pre-state Israel and on her own convictions: Aaron

David Gordons Selected Essays, Berl Katzenelsons What Is Socialist Zionism? Aims

and Principles of the United Zionist Party, Samuel Yavnielis A Journey to Yemen and

Its Jews [Hebrew] and Rachel Bluwsteins Flowers of Perhaps. These revolutionary

socialist-Zionists, founders of the kibbutz movement, strongly believed that only self-

reliance could emancipate Jews from their ghetto mentality and warrant them a moral and

historical right to the Land of Israel, where they could erect a model society.

At Sheynas home, a gathering place for socialists, Zionists, and other radicals,

Golda met Morris Meyerson and they fell in love. She enrolled in the Milwaukee

Teachers Training College in 1916 and a year later married Morris. He introduced her to

classical music, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and the Rubiyt of

Omar Khayym. The young couple left for Pre-State Israel in 1921, settling first in

Kibbutz Merchavia and then moving to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where they started a

family a son, Menachem, was born in 1924 and a daughter, Sarah, was born in 1926.

Reminiscing on the couples absorption in Kibbutz Merhavia, she said: Even

before we left America, my husband and I had decided to go to a kibbutz. At that time no

one knew clearly what a kibbutz was. We applied to Merhavia. Three general meetings

of the kibbutz members were held to determine whether to accept us or not, not because

there was anything against Myerson, but I was an American girl and the kibbutznicks

doubted whether an American girl would seriously want to work hard and fit into their

life. Finally, at the third meeting, they decided to accept us. I think what settled the matter



in our favor was the phonograph we brought with us. It was the first phonograph without

the horn in the country, and we had many good records. The phonograph is still in

Merhavia. (A Land of Our Own, 32-33)

Apparently, the eastern European members of the kibbutz were biased when it

came to new immigrants from America. As seen here, Golda did not develop any

resentment and fought prejudice subliminally but sternly.

In 1928, Golda embarked on a lifelong political career as she joined the Womens

Labor Union. In 1934, she became a member of the executive committee of the Israel

Labor Union, and later headed its political department. During the 1940s, as the head of

the political department of the Jewish Agency, she actively negotiated concessions with

the British mandatory government. Upon the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948,

Golda was appointed the first ambassador to Moscow, a position she held until April

1949. Later that year, she became the minister of labor. From 1956 to 1965, Golda served

as the first female foreign minister of Israel, developing new relationships between Israel

and various African, Asian, and Latin American countries. On her retirement from the

foreign ministry, she accepted the post of the secretary-general of the Labor Party. In

1969 after the sudden death of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, Golda became the worlds

second female prime minister after Madame Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka. She

resigned in 1974, deeply distraught by the conclusions of the Agranant Inquiry

Commission, ruling that the IDF and Goldas government had erred in assessing the

imminent danger posed to the nation before the Yom Kippur War (1973).

Bibliography

Archives

Israel State Archives, Quiryath Ben Gurion, Jerusalem includes the official and private documents of Golda Meir. Archives for the Labour Movements, Lavon Institute, Tel-Aviv includes official and private documents. The Ben Gurion Archives, The Ben Gurion Research Center, Sde Boker Campus, Israel maintains a correspondence file between David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir. In the USA, extensive collections can be found at the Golda Meir Library at the University of



Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and the Golda Meir Center for Political Leadership in Denver, Colorado. Selected Printed Sources

Mann, Peggy. Golda: The Life of Israels Prime Minister. New York: Coward, McCann

& Geoghegan [1971].

Martin, Ralph G. Golda: The Romantic Years. New York: Scribners, 1988.

Meir, Golda. Beit Avi (My Fathers Home) [Hebrew]. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad,

1972.

_________. Golda Meir Speaks Out. Edited by Marie Syrkin. London: Weidenfeld and

Nicolson, 1973.

________. A Land of Our Own: An Oral Autobiography. Edited by Marie Syrkin. New

York: Putnams, 1973.

________. My Life. New York: Putnams, 1975.

________. This Is Our Strength: Selected Papers. New York: Macmillan [1962].

Meir, Menahem. My Mother Golda Meir: A Son's Evocation of Life with Golda. New

York: Arbor House, 1983.

Noble, Iris. Israels Golda Meir: Pioneer to Prime Minister. New York: J. Messner

[1972].

Golda Meir - A short Introduction to Her Life

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