Golda Meir

Israeli politician, born in Kiev and raised in Milwaukee, who emigrated to Palestine in 1921 and became a leading figure in the Labour Zionist movement. She served as minister of labour and then foreign minister before becoming Israel's fourth prime minister in 1969, the first woman to hold the office. Her government was criticised for being unprepared for the surprise attack that opened the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a failure a later commission attributed chiefly to military and intelligence leadership. She resigned in 1974 and died in 1978.