NOVEMBER 2 • 2023 | 61
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Israel’s ‘Iron Lady’
A

lthough she passed away 70 years 
ago, former Israeli Prime Minister 
Golda Meir (1898-1978) has been 
a headliner in the media once again. Over 
the past several months, the feature film 
Golda premiered in theaters around the 
country (see the Sept. 3, 2023, JN). Deborah 
E. Lipstadt, an accomplished historian and 
United States Special Envoy to Monitor 
and Combat Antisemitism, 
published a new biography 
this year: Golda Meir: Israel’s 
Matriarch. Recently, sever-
al articles have noted that 
President Joe Biden’s positive 
views toward Israel were 
shaped by his meeting with 
Meir in 1973. 
The recent terrorist attack against inno-
cent Israeli citizens, and the subsequent 
ongoing war against the perpetrator, 
Hamas, has also generated stories that fea-
ture Golda. Comparisons of this surprise 
attack on Israel to that of the 1973 Yom 
Kippur War, during which Meir was prime 
minister, have become fodder for journalists 
and other writers.
It is not an exaggeration to say that, even 
now, Golda Meir is a polarizing figure. 
To some, the first and only female prime 
minister of Israel, was the “Iron Lady,
” a 
strong-willed, tough and smart politician 
who always had the well-being of Israel first 
and foremost in her thoughts and actions. 
Moreover, Meir made it to the prime min-
ister’s chair in a male-dominated political 
culture. 
To others, Meir was the anti-hero. Many 
held her responsible for the Yom Kippur 
War and found her inflexible politics to 
be wrong-headed. Many in the women’s 
rights movement considered her a sell-out 
because she would not declare herself a 
feminist and was hostile to some aspects 
of the feminist movement. It cannot be 
denied, however, that Meir demonstrated 
the power of women.
BTW — Lipstadt’s biography of Meir is 

excellent. Like all historic 
figures of such stature, 
Golda Meir was a complex 
character. Lipstadt’s goal 
in writing her book is to 
find the reality between 
the extreme perspectives 
regarding Meir. Indeed, 
there are a number of biog-
raphies of Meir, including 
a not-so-accurate autobi-
ography, but Lipstadt’s is perhaps the best 
scholarly attempt at a balanced portrait of 
one of the most famous women in modern 
history.
After reading about Meir in the William 
Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit 
History, it is obvious that she had a deep 
connection to Detroit’s Jewish community: 
She is cited on nearly 4,000 pages. Meir vis-
ited the city many times, often to raise funds 
for the Yishuv and, after 1948, for Israel. 
The earliest article I found was in the 
Feb. 1, 1929, Jewish Chronicle. It was a 
front-page story: “Detroiters Honor Goldie 
Meyerson” (she became Meir in 1956, when 
she was appointed Israeli foreign minister).
On a visit to the city in 1951, then as 

Israeli minister of labor, 
she spoke to a crowd of 
9,500 Detroiters at the State 
Fair Coliseum. The occa-
sion was the third Israel 
Independence Day. Rabbi B. Benedict 
Glazer of Temple Beth El introduced her as 
“
America’s Gift to Israel.
” Golda was raised 
in Milwaukee (May 18, 1951, JN).
On one of her visits, my friend Hy Safran 
told me that Meir stayed overnight at his 
grandfather’s house in Detroit. Grandfather 
Hy Safran was a prominent local Jewish 
leader and often hosted fundraisers for 
Israel. 
Golda Meir was a towering figure in 
Israeli and world history. There is plenty 
of great reading about her in the Davidson 
Archive. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN archives, 
available for free at thejewishnews.com.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

Golda Meir 
and Hy Safran

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at thejewishnews.com