Goldfoot Genealogy: How Women of Israel Have Always Stood Out

Saturday, March 07, 2020

How Women of Israel Have Always Stood Out

Nadene Goldfoot

Woody Allen's rendition of the typical Jewish mother:
and our stereotype has suffered, but we have been
strong and caring mothers. Children usually listen to us.
We're smart. We give excellent advice-usually.
We're the nudges who are never quite satisfied but give our children the reasons for attaining the most of of their talents.
At first in history, Judaism was traced through the father.
Later, it was traced through the mother when mankind got a little smarter.

We'll never forget our Leah, Rachel, Rebekah and Sarah,
women in the Torah who were our examples. Sarah was the wife
of Abraham; Rebekah the wife of Isaac and Rachel and Leah, sisters and the wives of Jacob.

Who do children listen to? Their mothers. That's because they are the ones who deal with the children the most. Children listen to their mothers or get in trouble. If they were in deep trouble with Mom, Dad would hear about it and with him, they would be very sorry that they ever got in such trouble in the first place. A child shouldn't ever fear his mother as she's the source of loving us.

So it was long ago before the Israelites had a king. They had judges. The judges were made up of either men or women. Women were pretty much on equal footing because both sexes had important positions in the family as Moses had spelled life positions out.

Before the Israelites settled in Canaan at the end of the Exodus of 40 years from Egypt, the elders of each group or community or nuclear family acted as judges. Afterward, the soldier-leader, priest or prophet assumed in addition to his chief function that of Judge.

The leaders of Israel in the period from the death of Joshua until before the time of Eli and Samuel which was about from 1220 to 1050 BCE spoke of information found in THE BOOK JUDGES. There were 6 important ones: Othniel-1st judge in Israel and son of Kenar of tribe of Judah, led the army, saved them from king of Aram-Naharaim)or (Syria)- who had enslaved Israel for 8 years), Ehud-from tribe of Benjamin who saved Israel from oppression of Eglon, king of Moab; Deborah-see below, Gideon-judge for 40 years of tribe of Manasseh, had defeated Midianites by using volunteer Israelites; offered kingship but refused, saying G-d was king of Israel;  Jephthah-was threatened and so defeated the Ammonites and also defeated his own Ephraimites who opposed his leadership, judge for 6 years,  and Samson- from tribe of Dan, son of Manoah, a Nazirite, strong, fought Philistines as Israelites wanted freedom from their suzerainty, . Deborah was the one female. Six others were mentioned in passing: Shamgar, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon.

Deborah was one of the judges. who lived way back in about 1150 BCE. She was the nurse for Rebekah. She had such capabilities that she was deemed a prophet as well. She was married, being the wife of Lapidoth. When the 12 Israelite tribes were fighting against the Canaanite king Jabin of Hazor and Sisera, his ally and commander, she was the one who roused up her people to revolt. At that time their leader was Barak, son of Abinoam. Something worthwhile noting that was written down for posterity to remember this feat was THE SONG OF VICTORY which was attributed to Deborah. It is regarded as one of the oldest compositions preserved in Hebrew. This information is recorded and found in (Genesis 35:8, Prophets, Judges 5). It goes back to the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Rebekah was the wife of Isaac, daughter of Bethuel and mother of Esau and Jacob, the twins who were so different from each other. Rebekah was noted for her kindness.

Deborah was one of few women who have ever attained the public dignity and supreme authority, and was the only woman in the Bible who was placed at the height of political power by the common consent of the people. She has been compared to Joan of Arc who rode in front of everyone and led them to victory. So did Deborah! Her faith in G-d was where her strength came from and it was contagious, going to Israel. She was the keeper of a new spiritual vision that lit up all of Israel.

Golda Meyerson Meir nee Mabovitch (b:3 May 1898-d: December 8, 1978 in Kiev, Ukraine, Russia,
daughter of Moshe and Bluma Mabovitch, when in 1905 a pogrom in their city killed 105, moved to USA as a child; In 1916-17, Golda Mabovitch attended Milwaukee Normal School (now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) over the objections of her parents, who wanted her to get married rather than pursue a profession. She did both, attaining a teaching certificate and marrying Morris Meyerson.

Moved to Palestine in 1921. Active in Labor Zionism,holding important posts. She took responsibility in the Histadrut and the Jewish Agency.

In 1948 when Israel was again born, she was the 1st Israel minister to the USSR. Being a member of Mapai of the Knesset since 1949, she was minister of labor in governments following then from 1949 to 1956, and foreign minister from 1956 to 1966. Then after that she was secretary of Mapai.

In 1969 she was chosen to succeed Levi Eshkol as Israel's Prime Minister.
In 1973 Israel was at war after being attack on October 6, Yom Kippur, the most holy and serious day of the year, and Golda was then the Prime Minister. Golda had worked for that position. She wasn't chosen because she was a female. It's because she worked the hardest and deserved the position. Even so, she got a lot of flack because of the war.  Syrian forces had attacked from the north and Egypt attacked from the west. After three weeks, Israel was victorious and had gained more Arab land. Golda Meir formed a new coalition government.

She was re-elected at the end of 1973 but retired in 1974. She wrote MY LIFE, an excellent book which I have read. Her marriage suffered throughout the process and broke up. She was a chain smoker who went through many a tense moment. She was wise, and is known for her wisdom through her many sayings.

When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.

Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.

We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

Golda died from Leukemia in Jerusalem.

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon — no alternative. The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.

We hate war. We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown, and when strawberries bloom in Israel.

There were no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist..

She was there. She knew.

Women are different from men for a purpose. They were not created to be men's competitors but men's partners. Each has separate duties. Women are complaining that they have had no female president as yet. They shouldn't have a female as president just because she is a female. They should have a female because she has more of what it takes to preside than any male candidate running against her. I don't even think Prime Minister was ever Golda's goal in life. She was the best, that's all.

Real IDF woman soldier in Israel-
I bet she's another Ziva when in defense mode.

Ziva David, a fictional star in NCIS, playing the part of an Israeli, is not Jewish but is a Chilean-born American actress, Cote de Pablo.
Her role of a woman who can outbeat any man in defense moves is amazing!
She promotes the capability of IDF men as being the best in defense.

In Golda's day, women were just beginning to take their place in the IDF. Today their role in the IDF takes on even more equal responsibility with the men.