Golda Meir

{{Audio|He-Golda_Meir.ogg|Golda Meir}} (Hebrew ?????????? ??????) (b. Golda Mabovitz; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a founder of the State of Israel. She served as the Minister of Labor, Foreign Minister, and as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from March 17, 1969 to April 111974. Golda Meir was the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet was coined for Margaret Thatcher. David Ben-Gurion once described her as "the only man in the Cabinet." She is the first (and to date only) female Prime Minister of Israel, the third female Prime Minister in the world (after Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka and Indira Gandhi of India) , as well as the only former American citizen to hold the post (Benjamin Netanyahu is a native-born Israeli whose family moved to Philadelphia when he was a teenager; he moved back to Israel after graduate school and was never a U.S. citizen).

Emigration to Palestine, 1921

Golda and Morris wanted to join a kibbutz. She applied to join Kibbutz Merhavia and was turned down at first, but eventually accepted into the community. Her duties there included picking almonds, planting trees, caring for chickens, and running the kitchen. She also began to emerge as a leader. Her kibbutz chose her to represent them at Histadrut, the General Federation of Labor. By 1924, her husband tired of the kibbutz life and they left.

Related Topics:
Kibbutz - Almond - Histadrut

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They lived briefly in Tel Aviv, before settling in Jerusalem. Here they had two children, son Menachem and daughter Sarah. In 1928, she was elected secretary of the women's labor council of Histadrut. This required her to move to Tel Aviv, but her husband stayed in Jerusalem while the children stayed with her. Morris and Golda grew apart but never divorced. When her husband died in 1951, Golda was away traveling at the time.

Related Topics:
Tel Aviv - Jerusalem - 1951

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She grew increasingly more influential in Histadrut, which evolved into a shadow government for the yet to be born nation of Israel. In 1946, the British cracked down on the Zionist movement in Palestine. They arrested many of its leaders. Golda, however, was never arrested. She gradually took charge over the organization. She negotiated with the British, but also kept in contact with the growing guerrilla movement.

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