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Golda Meir may be having a moment, yet her memory endures in a Midtown plaza
(New York Jewish Week) — Golda Meir may have been known as the Iron Lady for her steady leadership of Israel, but her lasting mark on New York City was made in bronze.
A bronze bust of Meir is located in a plaza between 39th and 40th streets on Broadway in Manhattan. Since 1979 it has been known as Golda Meir Memorial Square.
The bust had already been commissioned when the plaza was dedicated in honor of Meir, Israel’s fourth and so far only female prime minister who died in 1978. Malcolm Hoenlein, then executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, consulted with Clara Stein, Meir’s sister, before approaching the city with a proposal for the square.
“We felt that for it to really be representative and to have a personal significance, a sign was not enough,” Hoenlein told the New York Jewish Week.
Meir visited — and extolled — New York multiple times before and after becoming Israel’s prime minister in 1969. She served in the role until 1974, when she resigned following Israel’s flawed but ultimately successful performance in the Yom Kippur War.
The last years of her life are getting another look with the new biopic about Meir’s life, “Golda,” starring Helen Mirren, set to hit theaters Friday. The film, directed by Oscar-winning Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv, takes place during the three-week period of the Yom Kippur War and focuses on Meir’s involvement in the war and her legacy.
It was just after Meir’s death that Hoenlein embarked on a plan to memorialize her. He approached Jack Weiler, an honorary chairman of JCRC who owned a building on 39th and Broadway, who offered the location for the plaza.
“He was very enthusiastic because he knew Golda well,” Hoenlein said of Weiler.
Meanwhile, sculpturist Beatrice Goldfine, who also knew Meir, volunteered to contribute the bust. Approximately 2 feet tall, it rested for decades atop a granite pedestal before being relocated more recently to a plinth surrounded by decorative foliage inside the plaza.
Hoenlein was drawn to the plaza because of its location in the heart of the Garment District — an area that was once dense with tens of thousands of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Another draw to the area was the Jewish garment worker sculpture just one avenue away.
When he chose the site, people warned Hoenlein that the Garment District’s demographics were changing, and the Jewish presence was starting to decline. “They were very concerned that [the bust] would be vandalized all the time,” he said. “The fact is it has never been vandalized. There was not one single anti-Israel or antisemitic attack on the location.”
The only damage to the bust has, he said, been the result of pigeons who he assumes “are not lined up with any particular ideology.”
The addition of the sculpture also aimed to make the plaza a gathering space. Hoenlein recalled using it as a space for various pro-Israel rallies over the years.
Meir frequently visited New York. She called it “a haven of refuge” for Jewish people from “the tears, fears, humiliation, degradation and death that was the share of Jews in Eastern Europe,” in a 1969 visit to New York covered by JTA.
During that three-day stay, Mayor John Lindsay presented Meir with the key to the city and the Gold Medal of the City, the highest award.
“Israel has conquered the desert and defeated it, but today, a single woman has conquered the heart of New York. New York is yours,” he told her.
“She visited New York on numerous occasions. She had close ties and many close friends, people that she knew well,” Hoenlein said.
In 1947, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion planned to go on a fundraising tour in the United States, but Meir insisted that she go instead.
“Two days later, with no more baggage than the thin spring dress she wore and the handbag she clutched in her hand, she arrived in New York on a bitter winter’s night, so precipitate had her departure been that she had not had the time to take the convoy up to Jerusalem to fetch a change of clothes,” according to the Yeshiva University Library’s blog. “The woman who had come to New York in search of millions of dollars had in her purse that evening exactly one ten-dollar bill. When a puzzled customs agent asked her how she intended to support herself in the United States, she replied simply, ‘I have family here.’”
Meir visited the Modern Orthodox flagship on two occasions: in 1963, addressing the alumni association as Israel’s Foreign Minister, and in 1973, as Israel’s prime minister, to receive an honorary degree.
Golda Meir was born in Kyiv in 1898, but moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her family in 1906. She lived in the Midwestern city until 1921, when she emigrated to Palestine with her husband.
The new biopic isn’t the first portrayal of Meir’s life. In New York, there was the 1977 Broadway production “Golda” by William Gibson that Meir attended at the Morosco Theater in New York and called “terrific!” Gibson revisited Meir with a 2003 one-woman Broadway show, “Golda’s Balcony,” starring Jewish actress Tova Feldshuh as Meir.
Meir had strong feelings about the city. Coming from a family of refugees with roots in Czarist Russia, “The first lesson of what democracy really means, I learned here,” Meir said during one of her New York visits.
There’s a plaque in Meir’s honor inside a Milwaukee library, and a school named for her there; her only known surviving residence in the United States, in Denver, has been turned into a small museum after narrowly escaping demolition in the 1980s. Meanwhile, a life-size statue of her sits on a park bench in Tel Aviv with one depicting David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, and her legacy looms large in Ukraine, where leaders and soldiers alike say they take inspiration from Meir’s fierceness in fighting for her own country’s survival.
But Golda Meir Memorial Square is by the far the most-visited site dedicated to her — even if most of the people passing through don’t know the significance of the location.
“New York was the center of Jewish life, it still is, and is the appropriate place to have this kind of commemorative site,” Hoenlein said. “I don’t think that there’s another one like it in the United States that is a gathering point and perpetuating Meir’s memory for over 40 years.”
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The post Golda Meir may be having a moment, yet her memory endures in a Midtown plaza appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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IDF: Mistakes Led to Opening Fire on Gazan Ambulances, Officer Dismissed
Khan Yunis. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – The Israeli army has concluded its investigation into the tragic incident that occurred on the night of March 23, 2025 in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where Red Crescent rescue teams were targeted by Israeli gunfire, according to a press release by the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday.
The findings highlight a series of misjudgments and errors in judgement on the part of the IDF that led to this tragedy. According to the final report, the incident began when a force from the Golani Infantry Brigade’s Reconnaissance unit, engaged in anti-terrorist operations, spotted and neutralized what they identified as a Hamas vehicle. About an hour later, the same unit opened fire on vehicles “approaching rapidly and stopping near the troops, with passengers quickly disembarking.”
It was only after the shots were fired that they realized it was actually a fire truck and ambulances.
“Poor night visibility” is cited as a determining factor that led to this fatal mistake. The investigation specifies that “the deputy commander did not initially recognize the vehicles as ambulances. Only later, after approaching the vehicles and scanning them, was it discovered that these were indeed rescue teams.”
In a third incident that occurred fifteen minutes later, Israeli forces also fired upon a UN vehicle. The report characterizes this act as “due to operational errors in breach of regulations.”
These events strongly contrast with the initial report which portrayed the operation as a successful anti-terrorist action. The army now asserts that out of “fifteen Palestinians [who] were killed, six of whom were identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists.” However, the IDF stressed that there was no evidence of point-blank execution of ambulance workers.
“The forces also apprehended two pedestrians who raised suspicion, and released them subsequently,” the investigation found. “This indicates that the troops did not engage in indiscriminate fire but remained alert to respond to real threats identified by them.”
The investigation also reveals serious shortcomings in the military’s conduct after the ncident. The damaged vehicles were “crushed” on the spot, a decision that the military now acknowledges as “wrong.” Moreover, the first report submitted by the Reconnaissance Battalion’s deputy commander turned out to be “incomplete and inaccurate.”
In light of these conclusions, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has ordered sanctions: the commander of the 14th Brigade, a reserve unit, will receive a disciplinary note in his personal file, while the deputy commander of the Golani Reconnaissance unit will be relieved of his duties.
The investigation stressed that the dismissed commander is a “highly respected officer, whose military service and personal story reflect a spirit of combat, volunteerism, and great dedication.”
The conclusions of this investigation, which highlight severe failures in the chain of command and non-compliance with identification procedures, have been forwarded to the military prosecutor’s office for further review.
“The IDF regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” the IDF said. “The examination process also serves as part of an ongoing effort to learn from operational incidents and reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences in the future. Existing protocols have been clarified and reinforced – emphasizing the need for heightened caution when operating near rescue forces and medical personnel, even in high-intensity combat zones.”
The post IDF: Mistakes Led to Opening Fire on Gazan Ambulances, Officer Dismissed first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UN Hid Details of Official’s Travel Funding Amid Alleged Pro-Hamas Financing
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – The United Nations Human Rights Office appears to have disseminated intentionally deceptive information in an attempt to cover up travel funding that pro-Hamas organizations provided to a UN official.
UN special rapporteur for Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese took a politically-charged trip to Australia and New Zealand in November 2023. The trip included a fundraiser for a Palestinian lobby group, participation in media events, as well as meetings with pro-Palestinian politicians and civil society members, and pushing New Zealand’s sovereign wealth fund to divest from Israel.
Albanese has been accused of antisemitism by the American, French and German governments, among other entities.
Now, the Australian Friends of Palestine Association, which praised Hamas terror mastermind Yahya Sinwar as “incredibly moving,” claimed publicly that it had “sponsored” Albanese’s visit, and Free Palestine Melbourne, the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network, and Palestinian Christians in Australia stated that they “supported” the trip. All four are lobbying groups.
i24NEWS asked various UN officials and entities for months whether pro-Hamas groups actually did fund the trip. Albanese repeatedly insisted the trip, estimated by the UN Watch NGO to cost around $22,000, was paid for by the UN, calling claims to the contrary “egregiously false.”
Finally, in July of last year, the UN Human Rights Office, acknowledging it was fully aware of documentation that pro-Hamas groups had said they sponsored or organized the trip, told i24NEWS that, “With respect to the Australia trip by the Special Rapporteur, her travel was funded by the UN.”
They ignored requests to provide any documentation showing that to be the case.
Since then, a six-person panel of Albanese’s peers, who have long attacked her accusers, was assigned the task of investigating a host of accusations against Albanese. In a letter written last month to UN Human Rights Council President Jurg Lauber by that panel, known as the UN Coordination Committee of Special Procedures, they finally acknowledged Albanese had taken “partial external funding for internal trips within Australia and New Zealand.”
i24NEWS asked the media offices for UN Human Rights and Special Procedures for clarity on what seemed to be contrary claims.
Like former US president Bill Clinton’s cagey testimony in the Lewinsky affair, when he famously remarked, “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is,” for the UN Human Rights Office and Albanese, it apparently depends upon what the meaning of the word “to” is.
The Special Procedures office told i24NEWS: “With regard to the Special Rapporteur’s visit to Australia, her travel was funded by the United Nations regular budget. The Coordination Committee of Special Procedures assessed the allegations concerning partial external funding for internal travel (the bolding of the words is theirs) within Australia and New Zealand and concluded that there was no breach of the Code of Conduct. The Committee noted that it is common practice for conference organizers to cover the participation costs of mandate holders, and such arrangements do not constitute a violation of the established standards.”
With that, the UN finally conceded Albanese had in fact received external funding after all.
In follow-up conversations, it became clear: the UN was drawing a distinction between funding for travel TO a country, and funding for travel WITHIN a country – a bizarre distinction they failed to make for a year and a half, almost certainly to avoid discussing the topic of Hamas-supporting groups paying for a UN official’s anti-Israel business travel.
Even with all this, the UN Human Rights Office continues to ignore requests to clarify which group or groups funded this trip, and how much they contributed. Accused by i24NEWS of lying, the Special Procedures Media Office said it was a “regrettable and unfair mischaracterization,” though it still made no attempt to reconcile why the UN made no previous mention of external funding, or why the funding for Albanese’s trip “to” Australia should be counted differently from “external funding for internal travel.”
Asked during a press briefing whether UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would condemn UN spokespeople for intentionally misinforming the media and whether Guterres would support finally releasing the funding information surrounding the trip, Stephane Dujarric, Guterres’ spokesperson, said, “We support transparency in the activities of any official affiliated with United Nations.”
The post UN Hid Details of Official’s Travel Funding Amid Alleged Pro-Hamas Financing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Bennett Hospitalized, In Stable Condition
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, May 29, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Gil Cohen-Magen
i24 News – After feeling unwell during a workout on Sunday morning former prime minister Naftali Bennett was admitted to a hospital and underwent a cardiac catheterization.
Bennett is reportedly in stable condition, and will remain at the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Sabar for further monitoring and treatment.
The incident occurred after Bennett participated in the celebrations Saturday night for the Mimouna, marking the end of Passover restrictions on leavened bread, at the home of attorney Hila Revach in the southern community of Be’er Ganim, near Ashkelon.
Likud lawmaker Osher Shekalim chose to attack Bennett in an X post, saying he was “Wishing the head of the former prime minister of the mandates government good health.” This refers to Bennett’s premiership in the fragmented previous government, after he only received seven seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Shekalim said he was “wondering how someone who failed physical training at the age of 53 was able to manage seven war theaters at the same time. It is expected that he will disclose his medical file as required. Get well soon!”
Earlier this month, Bennett announced a party list under the temporary name “Bennett 2026.” In a statement released on his behalf, it was stated that if and when a decision is made to actually run for the elections, an official announcement will be made on the matter. Starting on October 7, 2023, Bennett has been interviewed extensively in the US and international media, and has worked for Israeli advocacy. His return, in a sense, to the public stage, when he is not serving in any public position, has raised questions over whether he plans to return to political life – and if so, with whom and in what framework.
The post Former Israeli Prime Minister Bennett Hospitalized, In Stable Condition first appeared on Algemeiner.com.