Pnina Lahav Selected to Deliver Lapidus Lecture in American Jewish Studies at Princeton University
The renowned scholar of constitutional and comparative law discussed the life of former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
On March 23, Professor of Law and Law Alumni Scholar Pnina Lahav delivered the Lapidus Family Fund Lecture in American Jewish Studies, an endowed lecture cosponsored by Princeton University’s Program in Judaic Studies, the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Program in Law and Public Affairs.
Lahav’s talk, titled “Golda Meir: American Roots, Zionist Life,” explored the American tissue of the life of Israel’s former prime minister.
Born in poverty in Kiev, Czarist Russia, Meir immigrated to Wisconsin with her family in 1906. She lived there until 1922, when she moved to Palestine with her husband. “An aspiring politician gifted at making connections with her audience, and a passionate follower of Socialist Zionism, Meir spent most of her time in the company of men,” Lahav says. “Amid pervasive gender-based discrimination, Meir rose to the top of the Israeli political leadership.” She was elected prime minister of Israel in 1969, and would serve as a “powerful voice on the world stage” until the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which occurred on her watch and precipitously ended her career.
“This lecture addresses the American fingerprints on Golda’s identity and the impact that major legal developments in the United States during and after World War I had on her emotional and political development,” Lahav says. “It also covers some crucial milestones for her—her difficult family life, her success at codifying fair labor standards for Israel, and the challenges of navigating Israeli politics between the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars.”
Professor Lahav has published many articles on constitutional law, freedom of expression, and women’s rights. She is the author of the acclaimed biography Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century(University of California Press 1997) and the editor of several other volumes.
Professor Lahav has taught at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Herzlia, Oxford University and Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 in Lyon, France. At BU Law, Lahav teaches Constitutional Law, which “automatically keeps your teaching fresh,” she says. “Each year the Court either addresses new issues or revisits old ones, and the course content keeps changing.” Her most recent scholarship is a comparative study of war powers. She is currently working on a critical biography of Golda Meir.
