Golda Meir

=== Minister Plenipotentiary to the Soviet Union (1948–1949) ===
[[File:Golda Meir Moscow 1948.jpg|thumb|Meir surrounded by crowd of 50,000 Jews near [[Moscow Choral Synagogue]] on the first day of [[Rosh Hashanah]] in 1948. This image later appeared on the 1984 10,000-shekel banknote.]]
Meir served as minister plenipotentiary to the [[Soviet Union]] from 2 September 1948 to 10 March 1949.<ref name="Goldstein131">Yossi Goldstein, "Doomed to Fail: Golda Meir's Mission to Moscow (Part 1)", ''[[Israel Council on Foreign Relations|The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs]]'' Vol. 5 No. 3 (September 2011), p. 131</ref>

She was reportedly impatient with diplomatic niceties and using interpreters. She did not drink or ballroom dance and had little interest in gossip and fashion. According to her interpreter, when asked by a Russian ambassador how she traveled to Moscow, she responded "tell His Excellency the Ambassador that we arrived riding on donkeys".<ref name=":1" /> 

This was an important and difficult role. Good relations with the Soviet Union impacted Israel's ability to secure arms from Eastern European countries. In turn, [[Joseph Stalin]] and Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] saw its relationship with Israel as a means of furthering the Soviet position in the Middle East.<ref>Yossi Goldstein, "Doomed to Fail: Golda Meir's Mission to Moscow (Part 1)", ''[[Israel Council on Foreign Relations|The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs]]'' Vol. 5 No. 3 (September 2011), p. 134 and 137</ref> However, [[Israel–Russia relations|Soviet–Israeli relations]] were complicated by Soviet policies against religious institutions and nationalist movements, made manifest in actions to shut down Jewish religious institutions as well as the ban on [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] language study and the prohibition of promoting emigration to Israel.<ref>Goldstein (Sept 2011), "Doomed to Fail", p. 138</ref>

Just 20 days after her term began, [[Anti-cosmopolitan campaign|antisemitic crackdowns]] began in response to an article by Soviet Jewish writer [[Ilya Ehrenburg]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Answer to a Letter |url=https://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv12n2/ehrenburg.htm |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=www.revolutionarydemocracy.org}}</ref> Meir and the other Israeli representatives responded by making a point of visiting Russian Jewish businesses, synagogues, and performances.<ref name="Goldstein131" />

On 3 October, during [[Rosh Hashanah]] celebrations at the [[Moscow Choral Synagogue]], she was mobbed by thousands of [[History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union|Russian Jews]] chanting in Russian "Nasha Golda", meaning "Our Golda". In her autobiography she said "I felt as though I had been caught up in a torrent of love so strong that it had literally taken my breath away and slowed down my heart." This event was commemorated by the Israeli 10,000-[[Old Israeli shekel|shekel]] banknote issued in November 1984. It bore a portrait of Meir on one side and the image of the crowd greeting her in Moscow on the other.<ref>[http://www.iasps.org/nbn/nbn353.htm Call Uncle Sam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726165417/http://www.iasps.org/nbn/nbn353.htm|date=July 26, 2011}} ''News Behind the News'', June 10, 2001</ref>

To her close friends, she admitted she had little to do in Moscow and felt isolated from Israeli politics.<ref name=":1" /> Despite being a socialist that was born in Ukraine, her Jewish side caused friction with the Soviets that made progress difficult. By the end of her term, she felt she had accomplished little. She reportedly felt guilty for not achieving more for the Russian Jews, as she would have been in their situation if her father had not moved to the United States. 

She planned to run for the first [[Knesset]] elections on 25 January 1949. The month before the elections, she returned to Israel and campaigned for [[Mapai]]. Mapai won 35% of the votes and formed a coalition, and Ben-Gurion invited her into the cabinet. She was sworn in on 8 March, and continued to serve in the Knesset until 1974.