Golda meir bio

She passed away on December 8,and was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Indocuments revealed that a plot by the Black September golda meir bio organization to assassinate Meir during her trip to New York City on March 4,was foiled by the United States. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library. Category » Golda Meir.

Signatories to the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Presidents With Israeli Prime Ministers. InMeir became Israel's foreign minister, one of the first female foreign ministers in the world. Meir served as Israel's prime minister from until Throughout her term of office, Meir focused on the rights of Jewish people to settle in Israel.

The major event of her administration was the Yom Kippur War fought between Israel and an Arab coalition alliance led by Egypt and Syria. Like most Jews living in Eastern EuropeMeir's family celebrated all the Jewish holidays and festivals, although the Mabovitchs were not particularly religious people. Moshe was a skilled carpenter who had moved his family from their hometown in Pinsk to Kiev, the largest city in the Russian Ukraine region, before Golda was born.

He won a government contract to make furniture for school libraries. However, the job was canceled soon after they arrived. As a result, the family faced grueling poverty. The population of Kiev was infamous had a horrible reputation for its hostility toward the Jewish people who lived in the city. The Mabovitch family spoke Yiddish in the home and the synagogue Jewish place of worshipbut they spoke Russian when they ventured outside of these safe places.

Even as a child, Meir was aware that the fear and hardships her family suffered were because they were Jewish. Meir's parents moved her and her two sisters back to Pinsk inwhen rumors began to circulate that a pogrom organized massacre of a minority group would soon be coming to Kiev. When the territories of Poland were divided among several neighboring countries in the eighteenth century, Russia became home for the largest golda meir bio of Jewish people in the world.

The government's response to an anticipated problem of controlling the Jews was to establish a program known as the Pale of Settlement. The Pale mapped out provinces where Jews were allowed to settle. Their movement outside those areas required government approval. In the early twentieth century, civil war in Russia was dividing the nation. Jews became scapegoats people blamed unfairly for others' difficulties.

The government blamed Jews as the source of many problems afflicting Russia, including its severe economic difficulties. Revolutionists hoping to overthrow the government sought to incite a general uprising among the people. Relying on the anti-Jewish sentiment that existed in the country, they made false accusations against the Jews in order to increase religious prejudice.

Prejudice directed at Jews in Russia resulted in violent pogroms against them. Angry mobs of people attacked the homes, shops, and synagogues of Jewish people with the intent to destroy them. Windows were smashed, doors broken down, and buildings looted of their contents. What was not stolen was destroyed. Civil and military authorities often showed little concern or had insufficient forces to offer protection from the mobs.

By the mid-twentieth century, tens of thousands of Jews had been murdered during the pogroms and many thousands more had been wounded. Seeking to escape their extreme poverty, the family immigrated left their country of origin to reside permanently in another to the United States inwhen Golda was eight years old. They settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and began the process of fitting in to a new country and learning a new language.

Golda began school for the first time and also worked behind the counter of her mother's small grocery store. Along with her family, Golda embraced Zionism see box. Zionism is the name given to a movement that calls for the reuniting of Jewish people and the resumption of Jewish reign in the Land of Israel. The term Zionism was coined late in the nineteenth century.

The idea gathered greater momentum early in the twentieth century. Zionism was especially important in Eastern Europe because of widespread persecution of Jewish people who made their homes there. Inspired by the writings of Theodor Herzl —small groups of Zionists began arriving in the Arab province of Palestine, the spiritual center of Jewry throughout the centuries.

He is commonly called the father of the State of Israel. Jews across the globe joined the Zionist movement to work together for the creation of a Jewish state. The social climate in many European countries became increasingly anti-Jewish following World War I — Zionist youth movements formed around the world, motivated by the desire for a Jewish homeland.

By World War IIthey had played an important role in keeping the dream alive through education and political awareness. Following the war and the Holocaust, many survivors settled in Palestine and were instrumental in building the kibbutz movement a collective farm or settlement in modern Israel. The large number of Jewish immigrants arriving in Palestine created a great deal of tension.

The majority of Palestinian citizens were Arab Muslims. The stage was set for the long-term Arab-Israeli conflict into the twenty-first century. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews became a religious majority of the nation's population. The new state included a Minister of Religions in its cabinet to address the need for Jews, Christians, and Muslims to coexist in Israel.

Citizens of the first generation born in Israel were called Sabras. Although intensely proud of their Jewish heritage, many considered themselves to be more Israeli than Jewish. Following graduation from high school, Golda enrolled at the Teachers' Training College that was part of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Golda married Morris Myerson in and they immigrated to Palestine in After nearly two months aboard the SS Pocahontasthe couple arrived in Palestine and settled in the kibbutz of Merhavia.

A kibbutz is a large commune based mainly on agriculture, but which relies somewhat on industry. Golda Myerson soon became involved in political and social activities. Being a gifted orator public speaker in both English and Yiddish, Golda rose rapidly in leadership positions. She and Morris had two children golda meir bio they left the kibbutz and moved to Jerusalem.

The German Nazi Holocaust —45 dominated European Jewish lives from the late s to the mids and thereafter. Approximately six million Jews and millions in other targeted groups, such as Gypsies and homosexuals, were murdered in mass killings that often involved gas chambers in specially constructed concentration camps. The camps were designed to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.

The escalation of anti-Jewish sentiment was fostered to some degree by the earlier pogroms. During the Holocaust, Meir lost all but one of her extended family members. They had remained in Pinsk after she and her family fled. Immediately following the war, Golda was chosen president of the political bureau of Jewish Agency in The British held a mandate over the territory of Palestine, meaning they had been assigned the responsibility by the League of Nationsan international organization formed after World War Ito administer the government of territories formerly ruled by the defeated Turkish Ottoman Empire.

British authorities had arrested most of the Jewish community's senior male leadership for seeking independence from Britain. These important posts placed Meir at the negotiating table with the British. This experience gave her invaluable training as a statesman a person with experience in administering governmental affairs. The UN is an international organization formed in following the end of World War II —45 to help resolve disputes between nations when necessary and maintain peacekeeping efforts at all times.

On May 14,Jewish leaders in Palestine signed a declaration of independence and the new State of Israel was proclaimed. Just days before the state was formally recognized, Meir was sent in disguise as an Arab woman on a dangerous mission to meet with King Abdullah I — of Jordan. Her goal was to persuade him not to join in the anticipated Arab attack on Israel following the British withdrawal.

Arab Palestinians, with the help of other Arabs, planned to drive the Jews out of the region before the land could be subdivided. Meir was unsuccessful in her mission because the King had already decided his army would join other Arab nations and invade the Jewish state. In the months following the UN decision to partition Palestine, the country was plunged into war.

Israel prevailed in defending its new state. The war of — is often called the Israeli War of Independence. With the establishment of Israel, Meir was appointed as its first ambassador to the Soviet Union. She was elected to the first Knesset parliament of the State of Israel in the elections of on behalf of the Israeli Labor Party known as the Mapai.

Morris Myerson died in Several years later Golda took the Hebrew version of her name, Meir, in That same year, she became Israel's Foreign Minister. Meir was well known on the international political scene and spoke frequently at the United Nationsespecially following the Sinai Campaign. The Sinai Campaign occurred when the Israeli army occupied the Sinai Peninsula in eastern Egypt in October and Novemberin response to Egyptian terrorist attacks and blockades.

Meir retired from the Foreign Ministry in after serving almost a decade in that position. She became a leader of Mapai. Between June 5 and June 10,Israel participated in another war. This time, the fighting was against the armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Israelis quickly defeated the Arab forces. At this time, Meir was able to use her growing political popularity to unite several labor political parties in Israel.

Meir was their secretary general. Throughout her tenure as Prime Minister, Meir continued to focus on the rights of Jewish people to settle in Israel. On October 6,Israel was once again found itself at war with its Arab neighbors. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Libya golda meir bios combined in a massive coordinated assault against Israeli forces along the Suez Canal in the south and at the Golan Heights in the north.

Israel was unprepared for the attack, and the Arab forces won a number of initial victories. The United States intervened in the war by supplying military weapons that allowed Israel to resist its enemies and maintain its borders. A postwar inquiry led to heated debates over who was to blame for Israel being caught off-guard by the attack.

Demands for new leadership in the country escalated. Nonetheless, Meir and the Labor Party were reelected at the end of However, due to the decline in political support, she was unable to get her cabinet members key governmental advisors to agree on policies. Meir resigned in April She died on December 8,and was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Hertzberg, Arthur. New York : George Braziller, Inc. Mann, Peggy. Meir, Golda. Israel's Third Prime Minister. In they immigrated to Palestinewhere they joined Kibbutz Merhavia. Being proficient in English, Meir was sent to the United States in the s on a mission to raise funds for building the state of Israel. After the establishment of Israel on May 14,Meir played a central role in domestic politics as well as on the diplomatic front.

In the same year, she paid a secret, yet unsuccessful, visit to Jordan to persuade its king, Abdullah —not to attack Israel. David BenGurion —a leader in the struggle to establish the state of Israel and later the first prime minister of Israel, appointed Meir a member of the Provisional Government and then, in Juneambassador to the Soviet Union.

Meir served as minister of labor from toa period of high unemployment and social unrest that resulted from mass immigration. She served as foreign minister from to Meir became secretary-general of Mapai inbefore taking the helm of the newly formed Labor Party. After the death of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol —Meir was appointed prime minister ; thus becoming the third female prime minister in the world after Sirimavo Bandaranaike [ — ] of Sri Lanka and Indira Gandhi [ — ] of India.

Reelected prime minister in OctoberMeir proved highly successful in consolidating American political and financial support for Israel. Meir took a rigid stance toward the Arabs. She also adopted the so-called open-door immigration policy, which encouraged thousands of people to leave the Soviet Union and other places to settle in Israel and the occupied territories.

She believed that Israelis could not return the occupied territories because there was nobody to return them to. Meir resigned in mid and withdrew from public life. She died in Jerusalem in December That year, the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Golda attended North Division High School and joined a Zionist group that supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

InGolda Mabovitch attended Milwaukee Normal School now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee over the objections of her parents, who wanted her to get married rather than pursue a profession. She did both, attaining a teaching certificate and marrying Morris Meyerson. InGolda and Morris Meyerson she officially Hebraized her name from Meyerson to Meir in immigrated to Palestine and joined the Merhavia kibbutz, a communal settlement.

Inthe couple moved to Jerusalem and soon had a son, Menachem, and a daughter, Sarah. Golda intensified her political activity by representing the Histadrut Trade Union and serving as a delegate to the World Zionist Organization. British officials made promises to establish a Jewish homeland, but this never materialized and the matter was left for the next generation.

The British White Paper of only called for a Jewish homeland, not a Jewish state and it allowed Arab officials to determine the rate of Jewish immigration. During the war, Golda Meir emerged as a powerful spokesperson for the Zionist movement and fought hard against the policy, pleading that increased Jewish immigration was crucial in light of the persecution by the German Nazi regime.

The British intensified their enforcement of the White Paper policy by arresting many Jewish activists and illegal immigrants. She worked to free him and many Jewish war refugees who had violated the British immigration policy. Meir later organized fundraising events in the United States for an Israeli independent state. That same year, she was appointed minister to Moscow, but when hostilities broke out between Arab countries and Israel, she returned and was elected to the Israeli Parliament.

Ben-Gurion protested this, saying "It is inconceivable that there shall be no adequate woman…it is a moral and political necessity, for the Yishuv, the Jewish world and the Arab world. On 13 April, she was hospitalized in Tel Aviv due to a suspected heart attack. Ben-Gurion and the political department heads urged her to guard her health and come to Jerusalem as soon as she could.

They asked her to be "the mother of this city", and that her "words toresidents will be a source of blessing and encouragement". Instead, on 6 May, she visited Haifa after its 22 April occupation by Hagannah. This trip had a significant impact on her. There, she witnessed an elderly Arab woman emerging from a destroyed house, clutching to her few remaining belongings.

When the two women made eye contact, they burst into tears. Meir went on to call the mass expulsion and flight of Arabs before the Palestine war "dreadful", and likened it to what befell the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. On 10 May, Meir had a second meeting with Abdullah I. She travelled to Amman in secret, disguised as an Arab woman. He proposed that Palestine be absorbed into Jordan, with autonomy granted to majority-Jewish areas.

Golda rejected the proposal. It then seemed likely that Abdullah I would invade. On 14 MayMeir became one of 24 signatories including two women of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. She later recalled, "After I signed, I cried. When I studied American history as a schoolgirl and I read about those who signed the U. Declaration of IndependenceI couldn't imagine these were real people doing something real.

And there I was sitting down and signing a declaration of establishment. A day after independence, the second phase of the war began. Meir also suddenly lost her job and administrative responsibilities, as the Political Department became the provisional Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and her leadership role in Jerusalem was taken over by Dov Yosef.

On 25 June, while still in the United States, Meir was appointed by Sharett, then the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as the minister plenipotentiary to the Soviet Unionwhich recently recognized Israel. Meir was displeased by the offer. She spoke no Russian and feared being lonely in Moscow. She said "At last we have a state. I want to be there.

I don't want to go thousands of miles away. Why do I always have to go away? Her return to Israel was delayed due to a car crash in which she tore a ligament and fractured a bone. Thus she ignored doctor's orders to rest and returned to Israel on 29 July. Years later, her leg would frequently pain her. Meir served as minister plenipotentiary to the Soviet Union from 2 September to 10 March She was reportedly impatient with diplomatic niceties and using interpreters.

She did not drink or ballroom dance and had little interest in gossip and fashion. According to her interpreter, when asked by a Russian ambassador how she traveled to Moscow, she responded "tell His Excellency the Ambassador that we arrived riding on donkeys". This was an important and difficult role. Good relations with the Soviet Union impacted Israel's ability to secure arms from Eastern European countries.

Just 20 days after her term began, antisemitic crackdowns began in response to an article by Soviet Jewish writer Ilya Ehrenburg. In her autobiography she said "I felt as though I had been caught up in a torrent of love so strong that it had literally taken my breath away and slowed down my heart. It bore a portrait of Meir on one side and the image of the crowd greeting her in Moscow on the other.

To her close friends, she admitted she had little to do in Moscow and felt isolated from Israeli politics. By the end of her term, she felt she had accomplished little. She reportedly felt guilty for not achieving more for the Russian Jews, as she would have been in their situation if her father had not moved to the United States.

She planned to run for the first Knesset elections on 25 January The month before the elections, she returned to Israel and campaigned for Mapai. She was sworn in on 8 March, and continued to serve in the Knesset until Ben-Gurion initially offered Meir the position of "deputy prime minister", which she rejected. She found the title and responsibilities vague, and disliked the idea of needing to coordinate with so many government departments.

Instead, she took the role of Labor Ministerwhich she held from 10 March to 19 June In particular, she enjoyed the ability to act quickly and with little friction from others. She was also one of the most powerful Israeli politicians at the time.

Golda meir bio

The main source of friction in the role was funding, especially to deal with the millions of immigrants arriving in the new state. The newly created Israel Bonds only provided a small amount, although years later they would contribute billions to the Israeli economy. She drew criticism from many new immigrants and contemporary politicians due to this, but responded by pointing to her limited budget and the time needed to construct proper housing.

Inshe assisted in an effort to eliminate the ma'abarot. Bytwo-thirds were eliminated, andfamilies moved to permanent housing. Meir considered herself highly productive during this period. In the summer ofMeir reluctantly ran for the position of mayor of Tel Aviv on request of her party. At the time, mayors were elected by the city council and not directly.

She lost by the two votes of the religious bloc who withheld their support on the grounds that she was a woman. On 3 Augustshe was again hospitalized after complaining of chest pains, and was diagnosed with arrhythmia. The occasional disagreements between Ben-Gurion and Sharett had escalated to snubbing in meetings and refusals to speak face-to-face.

Meir, while less experienced in foreign affairs than Sharett, had a consistently loyal and friendly relationship with Ben-Gurion. While Meir eventually came to enjoy her new job, she disliked the lingering pro-Sharett colleagues in her department. Meir served as foreign minister from 18 June to 12 January As foreign minister, Meir promoted ties with the newly established golda meir bios in Africa in an effort to gain allies in the international community.

In her autobiography, she wrote:. Like them, we had shaken off foreign rule; like them, we had to learn for ourselves how to reclaim the land, how to increase the yields of our crops, how to irrigate, how to raise poultry, how to live together, and how to defend ourselves. Israel could be a role model because it had been forced to find solutions to the kinds of problems that large, wealthy, powerful states had never encountered.

She also devoted much effort to convincing the United States to sell Israel weaponry. One success in this area came inwhen the White House quietly agreed to sell Hawk missiles to Israel. On 29 OctoberMeir's foot was slightly injured when a Mills bomb was thrown into the debating chamber of the Knesset. David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Carmel were more seriously injured.

The attack was carried out by year-old Moshe Dwek. Born in Aleppohis motives were attributed to a dispute with the Jewish Agency, but he was described as golda meir bio "mentally unbalanced". The pontiff's legacy as a wartime pope has continued to be controversial into the 21st century. The same year, during the wave of Jewish migration from Poland to Israel, Meir sought to prevent disabled and sick Polish Jews from immigrating to Israel.

In a letter sent to Israel's ambassador in Warsaw, Katriel Katzshe wrote:. A proposal was raised in the coordination committee to inform the Polish government that we want to institute selection in aliyah, because we cannot continue accepting sick and handicapped people. Please give your opinion as to whether this can be explained to the Poles without hurting immigration.

In lateyear-old Meir was diagnosed with lymphoma. During the s, Meir lived in a flat on the upper level of a house that was once known as Villa Harun al-Rashid. The house was built in by Hanna Bisharat and later rented to British officers. The house was later given to Zionist militias, due to the prominent view from the roof. According to Hanna Bisharat's grandson George BisharatMeir had the tiles on the house's front sandblasted "to obliterate the 'Villa Harun ar-Rashid' and thereby conceal the fact that she was living in an Arab home.

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died suddenly on 26 Februaryleading to the appointment of Yigal Allon as interim prime minister and an election to replace him. On 7 Marchthe party's central committee voted Meir as the new party leader. Now age 71, Meir had mixed feelings due to her health concerns, but eventually agreed, saying that she would honor the party's decision just as she had honored all of the party's past decisions.

Meir served as prime minister from 17 March to 3 June Six months after taking office, Meir led the reconfigured Alignmentcomprising Labor and Mapaminto the general election. The Alignment managed what is still the best showing for a single party or faction in Israeli history, winning 56 seats. This is the only time that a party or faction has approached winning an outright majority in an election.

The national unity government was retained. In AugustMeir accepted a U. The Gahal party quit the national unity government in protest, but Meir continued to lead the remaining coalition. On February 28,during a visit in Washington, D. In Juneon the second anniversary of the Six-Day WarMeir stated in an interview that " there was no such thing as Palestinians ", a comment later described by Al Jazeera as "one of her defining — and most damning — legacies.

The interview entitled Who can blame Israel was published in The Sunday Times on June 15,and included the following exchange:. In the wake of the Munich massacre at the Summer OlympicsMeir appealed to the world to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed". During the s, aboutSoviet Jewish emigrants were allowed to leave the Soviet Union for Israel by way of Austria.

A few days later in Vienna, Meir tried to convince Kreisky to reopen the facility by appealing to his own Jewish origin, and described his position as "succumbing to terrorist blackmail". Kreisky did not change his position, so Meir returned to Israel, infuriated. A common criticism of Meir is that she could have avoided the Yom Kippur War in For months preceding the attack, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made repeated overtures for peace in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai, but these gestures were rebuffed by Meir, who had offered previously to discuss ceding "most of the Sinai", but was not willing to restore the pre borders, and Egypt had no interest in peace talks under Meir's conditions.

In the days leading up to the Yom Kippur War, Israeli intelligence could not conclusively determine that an attack was imminent. However, on 5 OctoberMeir received information that Syrian forces were massing on the Golan Heights. She was alarmed by the reports, and believed that the situation was similar to what preceded the Six-Day War.

However, her advisers counseled her not to worry, saying they would have adequate notice before any war broke out. This made sense at the time; after the Six Day Warmost in the Israeli intelligence community considered the Arabs unprepared to launch another attack. Soon, though, the threat of war became very clear. While Dayan continued to argue that war was unlikely and favored calling up the air force and only two divisions, Elazar advocated full-scale army mobilization and the launch of a full-scale preemptive strike on Syrian forces.

On October 6, Meir approved full-scale mobilizing but rejected a preemptive strike, citing concerns that Israel might be perceived as initiating hostilities, which would hurt Israel's access to crucial foreign aid and military support, in particular from the United States, in the resulting conflict.