Golda Meir was Prime Minister of Israel. She served from 1969 to 1974, becoming Israel’s fourth prime minister and its first woman to hold the office.
Born Golda Mabovitch in Kyiv in 1898, Meir grew up partly in Milwaukee after her family immigrated to the United States. She became active in the Labor Zionist movement and moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1921. Before becoming prime minister, she helped build Israel’s political institutions, served as labor minister, and was foreign minister from 1956 to 1966.
Meir became prime minister after Levi Eshkol’s death in 1969. Her tenure was dominated by security concerns and diplomacy, especially the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. Although Israel recovered militarily, public criticism over the war’s early failures contributed to her resignation in 1974. She remains Israel’s only female prime minister to date, as well as one of the country’s most internationally recognized leaders.