Professor Pnina Lahav Speaks at Taubman Symposia at University of California Santa Barbara
The professor and law alumni scholar spoke about the life of Israel’s only female prime minister, Golda Meir.
Professor of Law and Law Alumni Scholar Pnina Lahav recently presented a lecture as part of the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies series at the University of California – Santa Barbara.
The endowed symposia series began in 1997 at the UC Santa Barbara Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC). A gift from the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation provided funding to bring leaders with great distinction to the IHC. These notable figures would share their scholarship and experiences on Jewish culture. Previous speakers include former BU professor Elie Wiesel.
Lahav’s lecture, titled “Golda Meir through the Feminist Lens,” explored the life of Israel’s first and only female prime minister. From Meir’s early beginnings to final acts, Lahav shared the narrative of a woman who broke preconceptions and changed the course of a country.
The talk centered around research for Lahav’s upcoming biography on the late leader, Golda Meir: Through the Gender Lens. Lahav examined how being a woman shaped Meir’s path.
Although Lahav’s talk engaged with a feminist perspective, Lahav acknowledged that Meir was not an active feminist. To Meir, efforts should have instead focused on progress for the Jewish community. Once that work was fulfilled, then energy could be focused toward gender equality.
Lahav began with Meir’s early years, highlighting how social expectations invited Meir to assimilate into the American culture of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her parents pressured her to forego high school and get married early. Lahav chronicled her rebelliousness and the ways in which she ignored conventions.
After the Balfour Declaration recognized the right of the Jewish people to a home in Palestine, Meir and her husband Morris travelled to Palestine. There, she became an active member of the Labor Zionist movement and took on the Jewish cause as her “life project,” Lahav said.
This cause took precedence in Meir’s life, over both her marriage and her children.
Lahav explained how Zionist motivations continued to fuel Meir’s work in Israel. As minister of labor in the first national cabinet, Meir created a social security system and government-funded maternity leave. She also became the first female foreign minister in the western world.
“In March 1969, she was voted the fourth prime minister of Israel,” Lahav said. During her term, the devastation of the Yom Kippur War brought a misogynistic antagonism against Meir, a once beloved figure. Her celebrated work faced immediate criticism. Such critiques darkened a bright career of public service.
It took decades for historians to revisit Meir’s contributions. Lahav concluded that Meir’s work brought progress to Israel, despite the adversity working against her. Lahav offered a balanced perspective on the legacy of Golda Meir.
Professor Lahav’s scholarship focuses on constitutional law, gender matters, international and comparative law, jurisprudence, and legal history. Her biography of the Hon. Simon Agranat, Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, garnered Lahav the Seltner and Gratz College Centennial Book Award. She has received the BU Law Melton Prize for excellence in teaching and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israel Institute and the Association for Israel Studies.
Reported by Josee Matela (CAS/COM’20)
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