Golda Meir

== Personal life ==
[[File:Golda Meir grave.JPG|thumb|upright|Golda Meir's grave on [[Mount Herzl]]]]
Meir's husband Morris Meyerson (also "Myerson") was born on 17 December 1893 in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]]. They married on December 24, 1917, and remained married until his death in Jerusalem on 25 May 1951. She never remarried. Despite never divorcing, the couple grew apart over the course of the marriage.<ref name="HA" /> When Meir took her children with her to the United States in the 1930s, Morris stayed behind in Jerusalem. 

Meir had two children.<ref name=":0" /> Her son, Menachem, was born in Jerusalem in 1924 and died on 14 December 2014 in Tel Aviv. He was a professional cellist who studied at the Israel Conservatory and [[Manhattan School of Music]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Menahem MEIR 1924–2014 |url=http://www.seligman.org.il/webtrees/individual.php?pid=I4239&ged=Seligman%20Joffe%20Yachad%20Swartzman%20Gillis%20Sandman%20Lederman%20Fleishman.GED |access-date=2023-02-17 |website=www.seligman.org.il}}</ref> Her daughter Sarah was born on 17 May 1926 and died on 30 January 2010 in [[Revivim]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sarah MEIR 1926–2010 |url=http://www.seligman.org.il/webtrees/individual.php?pid=I4247&ged=Seligman%20Joffe%20Yachad%20Swartzman%20Gillis%20Sandman%20Lederman%20Fleishman.GED |access-date=2023-02-17 |website=www.seligman.org.il}}</ref> 

She had two sisters, Sheyna (1889–1972) and Tzipke (1902–1981), as well as five other siblings who died in childhood.

Morris, [[Sheyna Korngold]] and her husband Shamai were buried on [[Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery]] in [[Givatayim]].

In 1956, after becoming Foreign Minister, she changed her surname from "Meyerson" to "Meir", meaning "illuminate", as her predecessor Moshe Sharett had all members of the foreign service [[Hebraization of surnames|take a Hebrew surname]].

She was a heavy smoker and coffee drinker, and did not exercise often, which may have contributed to her recurring heart problems.<ref name=":1" />

Of her Jewish identity, Meir said in the 1975 edition of her autobiography ''[[My Life (Meir autobiography)|My Life]]'' that:<blockquote>It is not only a matter, I believe, of religious observance and practice. To me, being Jewish means and has always meant being proud to be part of a people that has maintained its distinct identity for more than 2,000 years, with all the pain and torment that has been inflicted upon it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Golda Meir |title=My Life |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=1975 |isbn=0860073947 |page=459}}</ref></blockquote>

She strongly identified with Judaism culturally, but was an atheist in religious belief.<ref>Giulio Meotti (2011). ''A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism''. p. 147. {{ISBN|9781459617414}}. "Even atheist and socialist Israelis like David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and Golda Meir were marked by the stories and legends of King David and the prophets. In other words, their lives had been shaped by Hebron."</ref><ref>Fischer, Raymond Robert. ''Israel My Inheritance: Persecuted Messianic Jews Cry Out for Justice and Reform.'' Lake Mary: Creation House, 2011. Print.</ref><ref>See [[Emma Goldman]], "The Philosophy of Atheism", in [[Christopher Hitchens]], ed., ''[[The Portable Atheist]]'' (Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2007), 129–133; Golda Meir is quoted by [[Jonathan Rosen]] in "So Was It Odd of God?", ''The New York Times'', December 14, 2003.</ref> She is famously reported to have stated: "I believe in the Jewish people, and the Jewish people believe in God."<ref>{{cite news |last=Rosen |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Rosen |date=December 14, 2003 |title=So Was It Odd of God? |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/books/so-was-it-odd-of-god.html?pagewanted=all |access-date=December 22, 2018 |quote=He seems to subscribe to Golda Meir's observation: 'I believe in the Jewish people, and the Jewish people believe in God.'&thinsp;}}</ref>