Golda Meir was the 4th Prime Minister of Israel. We will learn from some famous quotes by Golda Meir.

When I was a child we had a cat which my mom christened Golda My Ear (he was a yellow tabby) which was a clever play on words that went completely over my head. Therefore, when I came across a book while shelving entitled Golda Meir: A Strong, Determined Leader it felt like fate was telling me to take it home and read it. (It's so short that I finished it on my first train home.) David A. Adler decided to write about Golda for the "Women of Our Time" biography series which covers a wide array of spectacularly talented, intelligent, and strong women. Prior to reading this book, I had no knowledge of who Golda Meir was which is pretty shocking seeing as how she was Israel's Prime Minister. She grew up in Russia but her family moved to Milwaukee when she was a young girl in the hopes that they could improve their quality of life with the opportunities that America promised were available to all within its borders. Much like her sister, Golda was homesick and longed to be a part of the larger Jewish nation and to build it in Israel. That determination never left her and she made it a reality after she married and moved to Palestine to be an active participant in the political party that wanted to build the Jewish nation. It covers not only her childhood and her move to Palestine but also her political career as Prime Minister and her meetings with Nixon (as well as her secret missions to the enemy's camps). Lest you picture her as a pacifist, she was not against using weapons to protect her people against the encroaching Arabs, Egyptians, and Syrians which threatened daily to drive them out of the space they had carved for themselves. Overall rating from me is 8/10 because I wanted a little more depth to the narrative.

 

As this is written with a younger audience in mind the chapters are very short and not exactly chock full of details. If you want the bare facts (or want to teach them to your child) then this is a great resource. I think this book and the rest of the books in the series would be a great resource in a classroom or home library as the women discussed come from different parts of the world and worked in various fields/capacities. It can never hurt to teach children about powerful women who paved the way!

 

What I'm Currently Reading: The Outsider by Stephen King

Golda Meir: Portrait of a Prime Minister... I picked this book off our junked pile at the library so I expected it to be outdated and it is a coffee table book filled with, black and white, photos so I hardly expected it to be a scintillating read.
However I did expected a little more subjectivity.

The text passed with superficial haste over Golda's childhood in Russia and America only stopping to take a breath in order to explain how she became involved in the Labour Movement and how brilliant she was even at such a tender age.
It became more interesting as it explained how she moved up through the government structure in Israel and was enlightening about the beginning of Israel's connections with Africa initiated almost single-handedly, according to this book, by Gutte Golde.

But the tone was just too reverential and adoring - Golda was wonderful when she did this and then she was fantastic doing that etc.
Golda is still a national icon but since 1969 we have become more realistic in our analysis of her legacy.