Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s retired Foreign Minister, took stock of her many years in the leadership of Israel Government affairs, and identified two events as the highlights of her career. One was her being among the signatories to Israel’s Declaration of Independence, in 1948. The other was her appointment as Israel’s first Ambassador to the Soviet Union. She reviewed her career at a luncheon tendered in her honor by a committee of Israeli editors here.
“Standing at the crossroads of my life,” she told the assembled editors, “I see that I have always tried to abide by certain principles. I see that nothing was owed to me for my being a servant of the people. The concept that society has obligations to a public servant — whether to the position or to the title — has been entirely alien to me. I have also noted that some people attach too much importance to their own deeds.”
Referring to her Ambassadorship to Moscow, which she called “a great privilege,” Mrs. Meir noted the “great impact” on Soviet Jewry caused by her arrival in the Soviet capital as Israel’s first envoy. “That impact,” she said, “was not due to the fact that my name was Golda. They probably never heard of me before. I, as Israel’s first representative to their country, had been the privileged instrument. It could have been anyone — even a broomstick.”
Mrs. Meir remains a member of the Knesset. Her post as Foreign Minister has now been taken over by Abba Eban, formerly the Israel Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations, later Minister of Education, finally the Deputy Prime Minister. Mr. Eban announced that, next month, he will pay a 12-day visit to the United States and to Europe.
In the U.S.A., Mr. Eban will lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, and will receive an honorary doctorate from Temple University, also in Philadelphia. He will appear before several functions to be conducted by Jewish organizations, and will visit the United Nations headquarters in New York. On his tour, he will confer with a number of foreign ministers and other statesmen in both the U.S.A. and Europe.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
