Paula Ben-Gurion

{{Short description|Wife of Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Paula Ben-Gurion

| native_name = {{Nobold|{{Script/Hebrew|פולה בן-גוריון}}}}

| native_name_lang = he

| image = Paula Ben-Gurion 1955.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Paula Ben-Gurion, 1955

| office = Spouse of the Prime Minister of Israel

| term_label = In role

| term_start = 3 November 1955

| term_end = 26 June 1963

| primeminister = David Ben-Gurion

| predecessor = Tzippora Sharett

| successor = Miriam Eshkol

| primeminister2 = David Ben-Gurion

| predecessor2 = Title established

| successor2 = Tzippora Sharett

| term_label2 = In role

| term_start2 = 17 May 1948

| term_end2 = 26 January 1954

| birth_name = Paula Munweis

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|4|8|df=y}}

| birth_place = Minsk, Russian Empire (now Belarus)

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1968|1|29|1892|4|8|df=y}}

| death_place = Beer Sheva, Israel{{Cite web|url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzh/1968/01/30/01/article/89/?e=-------he-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxTI--------------1|title = ⁨מתה פולה בן־גוריון ⁩ | ⁨הצפה⁩ | 30 ינואר 1968 | אוסף העיתונות | הספרייה הלאומית}}

| party =

| spouse = {{marriage|David Ben-Gurion|1917}}

| children = 3

| relations =

| residence =

| alma_mater = Newark Beth Israel Medical Center

| occupation = Nurse

| profession =

| signature =

| website =

| footnotes =

| resting_place = Ben-Gurion Tomb National Park

}}

File:Paula Monbas and David Ben Gurion before their wedding in New York.jpg

File:Grave of David Ben Gurion and Paula Munweis in Sde Boker.jpg, Israel]]

Paula Ben-Gurion (née Munweis) ({{langx|he|פולה בן-גוריון}}; 8 April 1892{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLu2eRjzpL0C&q=Paula+Ben-Gurion+April+8+,+1892 | title=The Jewish Digest | last1=Postal | first1=Bernard | year=1962 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.jta.org/archive/mrs-paula-ben-gurion-dies-in-beersheba-hospital-after-long-illness | title=MRS. Paula Ben-gurion Dies in Beersheba Hospital After Long Illness | date=20 March 2015 }} – 29 January 1968) was the wife of David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

Biography

Paula Munweis was born in Minsk, then part of the Russian Empire, the daughter of Samuel Munweis and Bertha Bloch. She immigrated to New York as a teenager where the 1910 United States census gave her date of birth as 1890. She was trained as a nurse at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey and worked in a New York gynaecological clinic.Segev, Tom (2018 - 2019 translation Haim Watzman) A State at Any Cost. The Life of David Ben-Gurion. Apollo. {{ISBN|9-781789-544633}}. p.137{{Citation | url = http://www.forward.com/articles/3444/ | title = Forward| date = 6 May 2005}}.

David Ben-Gurion met her at the home of her employer and Poale Zion supporter Dr Samuel Ellsberg in summer of 1915. They spoke Yiddish together.Teveth, Shabtai (1987) Ben-Gurion. The Burning Ground. 1886–1948. Houghton Mifflin. {{ISBN|0-395-35409-9}}. p. 119Segev p.137 They married in 1917 at New York City's town hall. The following year Ben-Gurion enlisted as a soldier in the new British-raised Jewish Legion. He left Paula three months pregnant. They did not meet again until she arrived, with their one-year-old daughter Geula, in Jaffa 18 months later.Teveth, Shabtai (1987) Ben-Gurion. The Burning Ground. 1886–1948. Houghton Mifflin. {{ISBN|0-395-35409-9}}. pp. 125, 146 Paula was originally against the idea of going to Israel, as her anarchist politics pitted her against both Zionism and state building. Recalling this period Ben-Gurion said that she was not a Zionist, she had very little Jewish feeling, she was an American, she was an anarchist who admired Emma Goldman. She had no interest in Israel. "America is better, why do we need the land of Israel?"{{Cite news|url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4833044,00.html|title = Ben-Gurion: 'Since Paula died, I've been alone, I'm half a man'| newspaper=Ynetnews |date = 25 July 2016 | last1=Hadar | first1=Alon }}

They had three children, Geula, Amos and Renana. Throughout their marriage she had to endure Ben-Gurion's long absences abroad and recurring suspicions, sometimes justified, about his relationships with other women.Segev, Tom (2018–2019 translation Haim Watzman) A State at Any Cost. The Life of David Ben-Gurion. Apollo. {{ISBN|9-781789-544633}}. pp. 237, 240, 218–19, 487

File:Ben Gurion Family 1929.jpg

She was known for her acerbic tongue. She was fluent in Yiddish, English, and eventually Hebrew. A feisty woman, she had no qualms about asking her husband to wash the dishes. She was bemused by her husband's interest in yoga and when his tutor, the famous Moshé Feldenkrais would show up she would say: "Here comes Mr. Hocus Pocus."{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

Paula is buried with her husband at the Ben-Gurion Tomb National Park in Midreshet Ben-Gurion in Israel's Negev desert.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

In 1958, David Ben-Gurion published his letters to her: Letters to Paula and the Children.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

Legacy and commemoration

A number of schools and institutions in Israel are named for her. Leslie Moonves, former president and CEO of CBS Television, is her grand-nephew.

Paula Ben-Gurion

Biography

Legacy and commemoration

See also

References

External links

Further reading