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Golda Meir

Personal Profile

Golda Meir
  • Birth Name:
    Goldie Mabovitch
  • Date of Birth:
    May 3, 1898
  • Zodiac Sign:
    Taurus
  • Place of Birth:
    Kiev, Russian Empire
  • Place of Death:
    Jerusalem, Israel
  • Date of Death:
    December 8, 1978
  • Cause of Death:
    Leukemia
  • Sex:
    Female
  • Nationality:
    Israeli
  • Education:

    Fourth Street Grade School

    North Division High School

    Milwaukee Normal School

    University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

Family

Golda Meir
  • Spouse:
    Morris Myerson

Career

Golda Meir

Trivia

Golda Meir
  • From 1928 Golda Meir was the secretary of the Working Women's Council in Palestine and served as its representative on the leadership of the Histadruth.
  • Golda Meir also represented the council at a number of international labor meetings and was a delegate to its sister organization, the Pioneer Women, in the United States.
  • After 1929 Golda Meir was elected a delegate to most meetings of the World Zionist Organization. This was the real beginning of her Zionist political activity.
  • In 1940 she was appointed head of the political department of the Histadruth.
  • As such, she fought against the British White Paper of 1939, which limited Jewish immigration to Palestine.
  • Meir organized illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine at this time, when Jews faced danger in Europe because of World War II (1939–45) and persecution by the German Nazi regime.
  • When the Palestine Administration (the main British governing body) imprisoned the leaders of the Jewish Agency, a Zionist organization.
  • In June 1946, Golda Meir was appointed acting head of the Jewish Agency's political department.
  • Originally picked to replace the arrested Moshe Shertok-Sharett (1894–1965) in this position, she continued in this role until the proclamation of the independence of Israel on May 14, 1948.
  • Early in 1948 she visited the United States to organize an emergency fund campaign for Palestine, with very successful results.

Quotes

Golda Meir
  • "You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity. "
  • "Women's liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that. "
  • "Whether women are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse. "
  • "We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go. "
  • "We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative. "
  • "We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient. "
  • "We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel. "
  • "Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. "
  • "To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man. "
  • "To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be. "
View all Quotes: Golda Meir

Biography

Golda Meir
Last Updated: Friday, October 30, 2009

Golda MeirGolda Meir was born the daughter of Moshe and Bluma Mabovitch in Kiev, Ukraine, on May 3, 1898. Golda Meir moved with her family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1906. The Mabovitch family had fled their home in part to escape pogroms (mob attacks) that had been carried out against Jews in Russia at the time. Golda Meir later recalled that her childhood terror of anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) violence strongly influenced her later commitment to establish Israel as a safe, secure Jewish state.

After attending high school, Meir went to the Teachers' Training College in Milwaukee in 1917. Golda Meir had attained her school-teacher's training over the objections of her parents, who had felt that girls should be married, not pursue a profession. Golda Meir did both, marrying Morris Myerson in 1917 (later she modified her name to Meir). In 1921 they left for Palestine. This Middle Eastern region, which included the territory of modern-day Israel and the West Bank, was at that time under the administration of Great Britain and largely populated by Arabs.

After arriving in Palestine, the Myersons joined a kibbutz (a communal settlement) where after some training they were put in charge of the chicken farm. However, Golda Meir's husband became ill, and the couple decided to move to Tel Aviv. The couple eventually moved to Jerusalem where their two children were born. In Jerusalem, Golda Meir found work as treasurer of the Office of Public Works of the Histadruth, a labor organization that included kibbutz workers and that became the most important economic organization in the Israeli state.

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