Golda Meir: The Early Years- Part II

From RRW
Guest Blogger: Mitchell First

                                   Golda Meir: The Early Years- Part II

         Just to review, Golda was born in Kiev in 1898. She came to the U.S. with her mother and two sisters in 1906. They came to Milwaukee where her father had settled a few years earlier.

          Last week, I ended with how Golda enjoyed her elementary school in Milwaukee and graduated as the class valedictorian.

         Around this time, her older sister Sheyna developed tuberculosis and had to go to the “Jewish Hospital for Consumptives” in Denver. Shamai, her boyfriend from Russia, came to America and made his way to Denver, and the two ended up getting married. Sheyna was nine years older than Golda. (As to Golda’s younger sister Zipporah, she was renamed “Clara” by her school principal.)

         After Golda graduated from elementary school, she planned to go to high school and become a teacher. But her mother felt that she should now begin working in the store full time and start thinking about getting married. Her mother also reminded Golda that getting married was forbidden to women teachers by Wisconsin state law. (I believe this was the law in many other states as well!)

           Golda began her first term in high school in Milwaukee in the autumn of 1912. But the fighting with her parents about this choice continued.  Also, her mother was attempting to marry her to someone who was twice her age.  Golda wrote all of her difficulties to Sheyna, and Sheyna and her husband suddenly invited Golda to come to Denver to live with them and continue school there.

              This sounded good, but how was 15 year old Golda going to leave Milwaukee? She realized that the only solution was not to tell her parents anything and simply leave. She did write them a brief note that they would read the next day. Before she went to sleep, she went over to Clara’s bed. She felt very guilty about leaving her without even saying goodbye. She stroked her face and kissed her, but Clara slept through the farewell. Golda knew that she had deeply wounded her parents but leaving was  essential for her growth.  In the two years she spent in Denver, her father, unforgiving, wrote to her only once. But her mother did exchange letters with her. When she eventually returned from Denver, she no longer had to battle for the right to do as she wanted.

            Sheyna and Shamai’s home in Denver was a place where many Jewish intellectuals passed through. Golda learned much from the discussions that took place there, all influencing her more firmly to be a Socialist Zionist.  Also, one of the people she met there was Morris Meyerson. He was not Zionistic like Golda. He loved poetry, art and music. They began to date and slowly fell in love.

             She then got a letter from her father saying that if she valued her mother’s life, she should return home. She agreed with Morris to temporarily separate, and she went back home. This time it was understood that she would finish high school. She did and then in Oct. 1916 she registered at a teacher’s training college. While she was away in Denver, her parents had changed and became more active in the Jewish community in Milwaukee. Many important Jewish and Zionist leaders now passed through their home.  More and more, Zionism was beginning to fill her mind and her life.

               Morris dreamed of a world in which everyone would live in peace. National self-determination held little attraction for him. But Morris was willing to agree to marry Golda and move to Palestine. His decision was influenced by the Balfour Declaration of Nov. 1917.

               Golda writes that “although in years to come the ambiguous way in which it was worded was to be responsible for virtually endless bloodshed in the Middle East, in those days it was greeted by the Zionists as laying the foundation at last for a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine. It goes without saying that the announcement filled me with elation. The exile of the Jews had ended. Now the ingathering would really begin and Morris and I together would be among the millions of Jews who would surely stream to Palestine. It was against the background of this historic event that we were married on Dec. 24 1917.”   

              America’s involvement in WWI delayed their Aliyah for a few years, since all transatlantic passenger service was cancelled. But eventually in 1921, they were able to make their voyage to Palestine.

              The story of their voyage to Palestine in 1921, their time in kibbutz Merchavyah, how Golda was initially viewed as a “spoiled American” there, their leaving the kibbutz due to Morris’ health difficulties, the difficulties Golda had with trying to be a mother to their children, a spouse to Morris, and an active member of the Zionist movement, all of this you will have to read about yourself. Again, the book I am basing this on is her autobiography, My Life.  Another interesting book about her early years is Golda: The Romantic Years, by Ralph G. Martin, 1988.

                P.S. Sheyna moved to Palestine shortly after Golda and Morris, and Golda’s parents moved in 1926. But what about the younger more Americanized sister, Clara? She became a sociologist and married another sociologist. They lived first in Ohio and then in Connecticut. When Golda met Clara’s husband for the first time, he made it clear to her that he disapproved of all nationalism and regarded Zionism as an “extremely reactionary movement”! (Nevertheless, Clara did visit Golda in Israel many times over the years.)

             P.P.S. My favorite story: When Golda was around 20, she wanted to give speeches in Milwaukee about Labor Zionism. But women were not allowed to speak in shul. She decided that the best way for her to reach the Jewish community was to set up a box outside of shul and speak there. When her father heard her plan, he was outraged. He declared: “Moshe Mabovitch’s daughter was not going to stand on a box on the street and make a spectacle of herself!” He threatened that he would publicly pull her home by her braid. Golda was stubborn and made her speech anyway. Yet her similarly stubborn father never dragged her away! It turns out that he was so carried away listening to her that he forgot his threat! Golda wrote that she considers that speech the best one she ever made!

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Mitchell First can be reached at MFirstAtty@aol.com. What do Bill Clinton, Golda Meir, and former NY Knicks star John Starks have in common? They all wrote biographies entitled “My Life.”