Golda Meir (1898-1978) was Israel’s fourth prime minster, the first woman to hold that position. As Klagsbrun, a columnist for the Jewish Week and author of The Fourth Commandment, recounts in this deeply researched biography, Meir’s was an exceptional life from the beginning. Born in Czarist Russia, she immigrated to the U.S. in 1906 and grew up in Milwaukee. An outspoken socialist, she moved to mandatory Palestine in 1921 and public service jobs led her into politics. She served as minister of labor and foreign minister, and was Israel’s first representative to the USSR. In 1969, she became prime minister, and during her tenure she negotiated arms agreements with Nixon and Kissinger, held clandestine meetings with Jordan’s King Hussein, and worked strenuously, if unsuccessfully, for a land-for-peace agreement with Israel’s neighbors.

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