Golda Meir
Broadway and West 39th Street, Manhattan
This unremarkable bust of the former prime minister of Israel Golda Meir sits in a triangle of paved open space at the corner of 39th and Broadway, an area that was named Golda Meir Square in 1979. The statue faces to the north up Broadway, glimpsing a twinkle of Times Square through the acrid smoke of the halal meat vendors. Golda’s gaze is somewhat determined and turned slightly upward, as if she might be wishing she were facing some other direction.
Golda in Golda Meir Square.
The statue was dedicated on Oct. 3, 1984, which happened to be a busy day for civic dedications in New York. About half an hour before an official commemoration at the corner of 49th Street honoring the former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, the then-Manhattan borough president Andrew J. Stein filled in for Mayor Ed Koch, who was in Washington that day, at the dedication of Golda’s statue. Stein’s uninspired remarks, as summarized by a report in The New York Times the next day, offered an unassailable, if not unimaginative, justification for Meir’s immortalization: “Of all the Israeli leaders,” Stein said helpfully, “she was the leader Americans knew best.” …Fair enough.
The statue was commissioned by the Jewish Community Relations Council. A representative from the group, Peggy Tishman, was only slightly less forgettable during the dedication. “This unique memorial,” she said, “the only one of its kind in the United States, is a tribute to a great stateswoman.” …Agreed.
The bust was made by the sculptor Beatrice Goldfine. It is made of bronze; the pedestal is pink granite. From bottom to top, it’s about six and a half feet tall.
According to the book “Guide to Manhattan’s Outdoor Sculpture,” Goldfine, who apparently knew Meir personally, said she wanted “to capture Mrs. Meir’s inner personality, strength, warmth, and concern for all people.” Which was probably a long shot…
Inscribed bronze plaque on the front of the pedestal.
Affixed to the front of the pedestal is a bronze plaque that reads:
GOLDA MEIR
1898-1979
IN MEMORY OF THIS
GREAT LEADER, PIONEER
AND HUMANITARIAN
DEDICATED BY THE CITY OF NEW YORK
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
RELATIONS COUNCIL AND
SWIG, WEILER AND ARNOW
SEPTEMBER 1984
Swig, Wieler and Arnow was a giant, New York-based real estate partnership that has since dissolved.
On the back, it says:
B. GOLDSTONE
1980
Golda Meir was born in Kiev, in the old Russian empire, on May 3, 1898. She emigrated with her family to the United States in 1906, settling in (of all places) Milwaukee, then left for Palestine in 1921. She was one of the founders of Israel in 1948, serving as that country’s fourth prime minister from 1969 to 1974. She died of cancer on Dec. 8, 1978, in Jerusalem.
Updated September 2007, SIRIS 87870133
