Hagiography in the Diaspora: Golda Meir and Her Biographers

As Zeev Jabotinsky wrote, "Everyone writes memoirs; if someone doesn't . . . it begins to raise doubts. . . . [But] real memoirs require one to tell 'the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.' This I cannot promise. Memoirs are literary works . . . and in them it's probably better to mix poetry and truth . . . ."¹

Scholars must adhere to Jabotinsky's cautionary note. We assume that autobiographical writings are hardly accurate and reliable; most often they are a self-conscious effort to present a selective and distorted portrait of the author, often omitting significant and revealing truths. All serious historians, therefore, confront the problem of separating historical reality from autobiographical self-construction.

But an even more imposing challenge awaits the historian examining the autobiographies of Zionist leaders. In addition to their attempts at self re-creation, almost all the icons of Zionism's formative period exploited their autobiographies as tools for reinforcing the foundation myths of the Zionist revolution. In so doing, they provided justification not only for their own lives but also for the transformation of the Jewish people in which they had played a major role.

Though the autobiography of Golda Meir presents an exception to this general pattern, and though she is clear about the fact that she was neither a feminist nor sympathetic to the feminist movement, nevertheless in biography after biography she is portrayed as an ideal woman, not only as "the uncrowned queen of Israel" but also as "Israel's intrepid grandmother," a successful politician who was also the essence of motherly "warmth and wisdom." Why do Meir's biographers persist in portraying her as a legend, even as they are aware that they are often manipulating or hiding facts in order to reinforce "the story of an 'image.'"Why have authors, primarily those from outside Israel, continued to use Golda Meir as a symbol designed to inspire women all over the world?²

Perhaps by looking closely at several of these biographies and by taking into account each biographer's background and motivation, we can arrive at a better understanding of how "Golda" serves the need for myth in women's lives, even as she also serves the need for myth in Zionist historiography.

The Biographer as Hagiographer

Until her death, Meir's primary biographer was one of her most intimate associates, Marie Syrkin. Syrkin was the American daughter of Nahman Syrkin, a major theorist of Socialist Zionism who chose in 1907 to settle in the United States instead of Palestine. When he moved to America, Syrkin became the leader of American Po'alei Zion (Workers of Zion) and, after his death in 1924, Marie carried on his Labor Zionist work, albeit also from an American vantage point. Though she was a popular and sought after lecturer, probably her most significant contribution in spreading the ideas of Labor Zionism was as editor of its English language journal, Jewish Frontier.³

Marie Syrkin first met Meir in the early1930s, and from then on they remained in frequent contact.⁴ She wrote her first biography of Meir, Way of Valor, in 1955, subsequently revised it as Golda Meir: Woman With A Cause (1963), and later updated and published it as Golda Meir: Israel's Leader (1969). In 1973, she edited an "oral autobiography" of Golda that appeared in the United States as A Land of Our Own and in England as Golda Meir Speaks Out. Syrkin wrote the Encyclopedia Judaica entry on Golda Meir and was also the major source for subsequent biographers of Meir, who both interviewed Syrkin and extensively cited her published work.⁵

Clearly, then, Marie Syrkin was more than a close friend. She also played a major role in publicizing the facts of Meir's life and in helping to keep her memory alive.⁶ What is not clear, however, is to what extent Marie Syrkin understood that she was writing from an especially hagiographic perspective, intent...