Golda Meir / Golda Meir (Hebrew: גּוֹלְדָּה מֵאִיר; pronounced [ˈɡolda meˈʔiʁ],[nb 1] born Golda Mabovitch, May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, stateswoman, politician and the fourth prime minister of Israel.
Born in Kiev, she immigrated to the United States as a child with her family in 1906, and was educated there, becoming a teacher. After marrying, she and her husband immigrated to then Mandatory Palestine in 1921, settling on a kibbutz. Meir was elected prime minister of Israel on March 17, 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister.[2] The world's fourth and Israel's first and only woman to hold such an office, she has been described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics,[3] though her tenure ended before that term was applied to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion used to call Meir "the best man in the government"; she was often portrayed as the "strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people."[4]
Meir resigned as prime minister in 1974, the year following the Yom Kippur War. She died in 1978 of lymphoma.[5]
