Golda Meir's American Roots
Golda Meir’s American Roots
Golde Mabovitch Meyerson, better known as Golda Meir or simply Golda, was a founder of the modern state of Israel. Her name ranks in the Zionist pantheon with Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion. Unlike these others, Golda was shaped by her formative years as an American.
Born in 1898 near Kiev, Ukraine, Golda was named for her maternal great-grandmother, who always took salt instead of sugar in her tea to mark the bitterness of the Jewish Diaspora. Golda claimed that her memories of Ukraine were of grinding poverty, hunger and pogroms. According to biographer Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Golda later "attributed her lifelong commitment to Jewish security to her [childhood] memories of anti-Semitic violence and the experience of hiding from the Cossacks."
In 1903, her father, a carpenter, emigrated to America, promising to return for his family when he had enough money. Three years later, her mother, tired of waiting, took Golda and her two sisters to join him in Milwaukee. They settled into a tiny apartment in the city’s poor Jewish section and Golda’s mother opened a convenience store in which all the girls were expected to work.
Despite having learned English only six years earlier, at age 14 Golda graduated from Milwaukee’s Fourth Street Elementary School as class valedictorian. She longed to be a teacher but her father opposed her going to high school. Showing signs of the independence that would characterize her adult life, Golda defied him and enrolled in North Division High School, taking after-school jobs to pay her expenses. When her father insisted that she quit school and find a husband, Golda ran away to Denver and moved in with her married sister. It was in Denver that Golda fell under the sway of socialism and Zionism and fell in love with Morris Meyerson, a sign painter who loved poetry, music and history but never shared her Zionist passion. In 1913, Golda returned to Milwaukee, graduated from high school, enrolled in teachers college and taught as a volunteer at a Yiddish folkshule.
In December 1917, one month after Britain declared its support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, Golda married Meyerson on the condition that they move to Palestine and live on a kibbutz. Eager to prove to the Jews of the yishuv (the settlers in Palestine) that she was not a "soft" American Jew, Golda convinced Morris to settle on kibbutz Merhavyah, one of the country’s most bleak and vulnerable. There, despite her fear of chickens, she became an expert on raising poultry. Soon, she was representing the kibbutz at meetings of the Histadrut, Israel’s General Federation of Labor. It was at this time that she hebraicized her name to Meir.
While now an Israeli, Golda’s early years in America shaped her thinking and her career –not to mention her spoken Hebrew --which was filled with English-sounding pronunciations—and helped lay the groundwork for her rapid rise in Israeli politics. In 1928, Golda was offered a job with Histadrut’s Council of Women Workers, which she accepted. Golda moved to Tel Aviv against Morris’s wishes. A charismatic speaker, she rapidly became a spokeswoman for Histadrut and later the world Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, and was particularly effective raising funds from Americans. When Israel declared itself a Jewish state in 1948, Golda rushed off to the United States to raise $25 million so that newborn Israel could purchase arms to defend itself from Arab attackers. Her quick wit, charm and passion for Israel enabled her to raise $50 million - twice her goal. She would return frequently to raise money from American Jewry. Meir saw it as Diaspora, and especially American, Jewry’s duty to help build the Jewish homeland.
When Golda was elected to the Knesset in 1949, David Ben Gurion appointed her Minister of Labor. In 1956, he promoted her to Foreign Minister, the second highest cabinet post. Renouncing the pomp associated with diplomacy, according to Pogrebin, Meir "entertained foreign dignitaries in her kitchen, in an apron, serving them her homemade pastry along with a stern lecture on Israel’s security." Diagnosed with lymphoma, Golda retired from government service in 1966 but three years later she was persuaded by the Labor Party to come out of retirement to serve as Prime Minister.
In the early 1970’s, polls revealed that Golda was the most respected woman in America, despite the fact that she was no longer an American. Nevertheless, Golda’s stint as national leader ended sadly when Israel suffered heavy losses in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Blamed for Israel’s military unpreparedness, Meir resigned in June of 1974. In the years before her death in 1978, Golda earned the status and affection accorded an elder stateswoman. Golda Meir now ranks as one of the great female heads of state in modern history.