There is some disagreement re the exact date about Golda Myerson's famous speech in Chicago in 1948. I consider the 22nd or 23rd January the most likely.
from: O Jerusalem - Larry Collins
page 169ish: The same problem preoccupying the harassed Secretary General of the Arab League in Damascus would disturb the leaders of the Jewish Agency in Tel Aviv that winter. One January evening they were summoned to hear a report by Eliezer Kaplan, their treasurer. Kaplan had just returned from a fund-raising trip to the United States with his pockets virtually empty. The American Jewish community, so long the financial bulwark of the Zionist movement, was growing weary of the incessant appeals for aid of their Palestine brothers, he reported. The time had come, Kaplan said, to face a bitter reality. In no case could they count on more than five million dollars from America in the critical months ahead.
That figure hit the group gathered around Kaplan like a thunderbolt. One by one, their glances turned toward the stubby man who had followed Kaplan's report with ill-disguised impatience. David Ben-Gurion was better placed than any of them to understand how serious were the consequences of what Kaplan had just said. The rifles and machine guns for which he had sent Ehud Avriel to Prague could hold back the Palestinian Arabs; but against the tanks, artillery and aircraft of the regular Arab armies he was sure the Yishuv would one day face, they would be useless, however courageous its soldiers might be. Ben-Gurion had drawn up a plan to equip a modern army. To carry it out, he needed at a minimum five, six times the sum mentioned by Kaplan. Springing from his seat, he growled to the men around him, "Kaplan and I must leave for the United States immediately to make the Americans realize how serious the situation is."
At that moment a quiet female voice interrupted him. It belonged to the woman who had found her Zionist faith taking up a collection in Denver, Colorado.
"What you are doing here I cannot do," Golda Meir told Ben-Gurion.
"However, what you propose to do in the United States I can do. You stay here and let me go to the States to raise the money."
Ben-Gurion reddened. He liked neither interruptions nor contradictions. The matter was so important, he insisted, he and Kaplan should go. The other members of the Agency Executive, however, supported Golda. Two days later, with no more baggage than the thin spring dress she wore and the handbag she clutched in her hand, she arrived in New York on a bitter winter's night. So precipitate had her departure been that she had not had the time to take the convoy up to Jerusalem to fetch a change of clothes. The woman who had come to New York in search of millions of dollars had in her purse that evening exactly one ten-dollar bill. When a puzzled customs agent asked her how she intended to support herself in the United States, she replied simply, "I have family here."
Two days later, trembling on a podium in Chicago, Golda Meir found herself facing a distinguished gathering of the members of that family. They were the leaders of the Council of Jewish Federations, drawn from the forty-eight states of the Union. Their meeting and her arrival in the United States had been a fortuitous coincidence. Before her in one Chicago hotel room were most of the financial leaders of the American Jewish community, the very men whose aid she had been sent to seek.
For the carpenter's daughter from the Ukraine the task before her was an intimidating challenge. She had not been back to the United States since 1938. On her earlier trips, her associates had been dedicated Zionists and Socialists like herself. Now she faced the whole enormous spectrum of American Jewish thought, much of it indifferent or even hostile to her Zionist ideals.
Her friends in New York had urged her to avoid this confrontation. The council's leadership was not Zionist. Its members were already under great pressures for funds for their own American institutions, for hospitals, synagogues, cultural centers. They were weary, as Kaplan had discovered, of appeals from abroad for money.
Yet Golda Meir had insisted. She had telephoned Henry Montor, director of the United Jewish Appeal, in Chicago and, despite the fact that the speakers' program of the meeting had been drawn up long in advance, announced that she was on her way. Then, pausing only to buy a coat with which to face the American winter, she had set out for Chicago.
Now Golda Meir heard the toastmaster announce her name. At the sight of her simple, austere figure moving to the speakers' stand, someone in the crowd murmured, "She looks like the women of the Bible." Then, without a text, the messenger from Jerusalem began to speak.
"You must believe me," she said, "when I tell you that I have not come to the United States solely to prevent seven hundred thousand Jews from being wiped off the face of the earth. During these last years, the Jewish people have lost six million of their kind, and it would be presumptuous indeed of us to remind the Jews of the world that seven hundred thousand Jews are in danger. That is not the question. If, however, these seven hundred thousand Jews survive, then the Jews of the world will survive with them, and their freedom will be forever assured." But if they did not, she said, "then there is little doubt that for centuries there will be no Jewish people, there will be no Jewish nation, and all our hopes will be smashed."
In a few months, she told her audience, "a Jewish state will exist in Palestine. We shall fight for its birth. That is natural. We shall pay for it with our blood. That is normal. The best among us will fall, that is certain. But what is equally certain is that our morale will not waver no matter how numerous our invaders may be."
Yet, she warned, those invaders would come with cannon and armor. Against those weapons "sooner or later our courage will have no meaning, for we will have ceased to exist," she said.
She had come, she announced, to ask the Jews of America for twenty- five to thirty million dollars to buy the heavy arms they would need to face the invaders' cannon. "My friends," she said in making her plea, "we live in a very brief present. When I tell you we need this money immediately, it does not mean next month, or in two months. It means right now… . "It is not to you," she concluded, "to decide whether we shall continue our struggle or not. We shall fight. The Jewish community of Palestine will never hang out the white flag before the Mufti of Jerusalem … but you can decide one thing-whether the victory will be ours or the Mufti's."
A hush had fallen on her audience, and for an instant Golda thought she had failed. Then the entire assembly of men and women rose in a deafening wave of applause. While its echoes still rang through the dining room, the first volunteers scrambled to the platform with their pledges. Before coffee was served Golda had been promised over a million dollars. They were made available immediately in cash, a fact without precedent. Men began to telephone their bankers and secure personal loans against their own names for the sums they estimated they would be able to raise later in their communities. By the time that incredible afternoon was over, Golda was able to telegraph Ben-Gurion her conviction that she would be able to raise the twenty-five "Stephans"-twenty-five million dollars, in the code they had chosen (using the name of American Zionist leader Rabbi Stephen S. Wise).
The woman who had arrived in the United States one bitter January night with ten dollars in her pocketbook would leave with fifty million, ten times the sum Eliezer Kaplan had mentioned, twice the figure set by David Ben- Gurion, three times the entire oil revenues of Saudi Arabia for 1947.
Gold Myerson (Meir) Saves Israel
Israel's Midwife: Golda Meir in the Closing Years of the British Mandate[1]
MERON MEDZINI
In the course of consultations in Ben-Gurion's home in Tel Aviv on 3 January 1948, she became fully aware of the serious economic plight of the Yishuv. Kaplan had just come back from America and reported that American Jews were getting tired of contributing to what they considered "overseas needs". He estimated the immediate costs of the war at 7 million dollars. Ben-Gurion thought the once American Jews learn of the gravity of the situation, they will contribute directly to the Haganah. But the question was how to insure tax exemption given to contributions for charitable needs. The Haganah was not exactly a charitable organization. On 12 January Ben-Gurion raised the idea of himself and Kaplan flying to America to raise funds. Golda was adamantly opposed: "You are vital here and no one can replace you". She had serious doubts about Kaplan's fund raising abilities. He was not the man to arouse passion and cause people to empty their pockets. She proposed that she undertake this mission and it was hard to argue over her qualifications for the task. By then she had probably reached the conclusion that her usefulness in Jerusalem was minute compared with the need to raise funds. In her orders of priorities funds for arms were far more important than stale arguments with British officials and squabbles with the leaders of the besieged Jerusalem Jewish community over food and money allocations. She also knew that the main decisions were made in Tel Aviv by Ben-Gurion and the Haganah high command, and that diplomacy was secondary in their considerations. She knew that Jerusalem had become marginal. Ben-Gurion was highly impressed with her confidence she could do the job and brought her mission to a vote in the Executive, probably to save Kaplan an embarrassment. In his war diary Ben-Gurion noted that "it was decided that Golda will travel to America."
Prior to her departure she received detailed instructions from Ben-Gurion what the needs were. They included jeeps, rockets, motor boats and corvettes. She was asked to report to him on a weekly basis.
She arrived in New York on 23 January 1948 in a blinding snow storm and was met at the airport by her son Menachem, then studying music there. From then until she returned to Palestine on 17 March, her schedule was a whirlwind of activities, most of them fund raising. She had not been to America for ten years, and discovered a new Jewish world. In the past she addressed mainly small groups of Histadrut and Poalei Zion supporters, who like herself were Eastern European Jews. She addressed them in Yiddish and was happy with 100 or 200 dollar contributions. Now she set herself as target the astronomic figure of 25 million dollars, the amount Kaplan estimated would see the Yishuv through until August 1948. She knew well the money raised will determine the Yishuv's ability to acquire weapons for the war of survival. Her major surprise were the new breed of American Jews, as described by her son in his biography of his mother: "Not Socialist, not back to the soil, live-on-the land Zionists, not immigrants, nor even in many cases the children of immigrants and not primarily of Russian but also of German Jewish descent. They were well established, in some cases fabulously wealthy, hard-working, hard-headed American Jewish industrialists, some ten to fifteen years younger than Golda…"[22] Millions of them were deeply influenced by their experience in the American army in Europe, where many saw the horrors in the death camps where they encountered the corpses and the skeletons. Some felt guilt over the passive role played by their leaders who failed to rescue European Jews. Some felt the gust of the "wings of history" and wanted to be part of the greatest event about to unfold in Palestine - Jewish sovereignty. Most of them wanted to identify with the struggle against the British and the Arabs and for them Golda symbolized the Yishuv fighting for its life. She reminded them of their mothers and grandmothers, a trait that will be her trade mark for decades to comer. Her problem was to by-pass the federation professionals and appeal directly to the donors. She was convinced that once they heard the story they will ensure that their funds will go to where they counted most - Palestine and not remain in America for local needs, which is what many of the professionals wanted. Golda harbored ill will towards the heads of the United Jewish Appeal from her fund raising days in the 1930's when they refused to have emissaries from Palestine address the donors and preferred local dignitaries, movie stars, politicians or local rabbis.
Her task was made somewhat easy by the Executive Director of the United Jewish Appeal, a 42 years old Canadian by birth, Henry Montor understood the import of the moment and believed that Golda could deliver the goods. His strategy was to expose her to the Jewish and national press, and then bring her to Chicago, where the annual General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations was held. He arranged for a press conference in 24 January 1948 at the United Nations Headquarters in Lake Success, New York, where she reviewed the situation and expressed optimism that in spite of the hardships there shall soon be an independent Jewish state in Palestine. Wisely she refrained from delving into United Nations resolutions, committees and legal language. She ended her remarks by calling on the United Nations to implement partition and said that if the Arabs so wanted, there can be peace within "five minutes". Once again she repeated her simplistic approach to the Arab attitude to the Jews, which she probably understood but thought in terms of a passing fad. The briefing was well reported. Even the New York Times ran a short story. Montor and Golda were now ready for her to appear in Chicago.
This was not an easy task. The matter of Palestine was not even placed on the agenda of the Assembly. Those who planned it preferred to stick to the routine issues of inter- faith relations and the situation within the Jewish federations. They totally missed the moment's import and how the coming Jewish independence was going to impact American Jews. Golda was furious with the professionals. At the last moment Montor was able to get her on the agenda. She was warned - make a short speech, to the point, don't be too emotional, don't make demands, don't disturb the mood of those present and above all don't annoy the professionals. She spoke for thirty five minutes without notes. Dressed in a simple black dress, no make up and wearing no jewels, she electrified the gathering. To some she looked like an American frontiers woman from the Wild West. She spoke quietly, even melancholically, without raising her voice, from the heart. She was at her best.
She explained the essence of the struggle and in simple terms told the audience "my friends, we are at war…" She asked for 25 to 30 million dollars in cash within a very short time, a couple of weeks. She told her audience that Diaspora Jewry and mainly American Jewry must rise to the occasion: "I have faith in the Jews in the United States. I believe that they will realize the peril of our situation and will do what they have to do. She even paraphrased Churchill when she said we shall fight in the Negev, and will fight in the Galil and will fight on the outskirts of Jerusalem until the very end…The Jewish community of Palestine will raise no white flag… The decision is taken, nobody can change it. You can only decide one thing: whether we shall be victorious in this fight or whether the Mufti will be victorious. That decision American Jews can make. It has to be made quickly, within hours, within days. I beg of you - don't be too late. Don't be bitterly sorry three months from now for what you failed to do today. The time is now…"[23]
A leader present sent the following report to the heads of the United Jewish Appeal: "Every man and woman who was present in Chicago…will remember the momentous event…for thirty five minutes she spoke. Many were tense as her remarks drove home. Others wept. Not a word did she speak of politics, of ideology, of far off things. She told calmly the story of the defense of Jews in Palestine, of their homes and families…Few personalities have ever received the ovation that greeted this woman of valor when she concluded."[24] The impact of her speech was magnetic. She made American Jews identify with the struggle of the Yishuv and said to them that their role was to fund the war. Chicago was the turning point. The doors swung open and invitations for her to address fund raising events began to flow. The results were nothing short of stunning. On 11 February Ben-Gurion noted in his War Diary that Golda reported that to date she was assured of 15 million dollars and by the end of the month was hoping to reach 20. Glowing cables describing her triumphal progress arrived from many sources. Sharett watched her in action in Montreal. Henry Morgenthau Jr., Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury during the war, then national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, traveled with Golda and said she did an outstanding job "bringing to us the urgency of the situation and in acting to attain 50 million dollars." A month after arriving in America, she informed Ben-Gurion that she was assured of 25 million dollars. A week later, Sharett cabled the leader saying "Golda's Iron Campaign so far 30 million in cash, hope for 40 million." Ben-Gurion was charitable enough to note that "the only ray of light so far is Golda's success. But this does not change the gravity of the situation. Will the equipment reach us and in time? That is the key question and in it hinges everything." The reference was to arms then purchased in Czechoslovakia and smuggled to Palestine.[25]
But at the moment of her greatest achievement, she suffered a major political setback dealt to her by none other than her own party. In early March 1948 the Jewish Agency and the National Council Executives decided to set up two bodies that will lead the Yishuv towards independence, a provisional State Council comprising of 37 delegates of whom 13 will form a provisional Administrative Council that will become the provisional government of the new state. Golda was included among the 37 as Mapai representative, but that party leadership refused Ben-Gurion's request to include her in the provisional government. Mapai was allotted four slots and it was obvious that the first three will go to Ben-Gurion, Sharett and Kaplan. The argument was over the fourth - Golda or Remez. Ben-Gurion argued valiantly for Golda's inclusion, saying that not only was she worthy but it is important to include a woman in the first Jewish government. That would send a message not only to the women of Israel but to the neighbouring societies as well. "It is inconceivable that there shall be no adequate woman…" he said on 3 March and reiterated his position three days later. By 6 March he realized that he lost that battle. He certainly wanted her in his first cabinet. He had come to appreciate her character, abilities and ceaseless energy, all capped by the triumphal fund raising mission in America. He knew that she was a loyal supporter of his policies and the Yishuv, he felt, owed her a debt of honor. He also feared the inclusion of Remez, a very strong personality who often came out in public against Ben-Gurion's activism and on occasion against what he thought his dictatorial way of dealing with people and issues.[26] Golda herself revealingly wrote in her memoirs about Remez: "I remember we sat on my balcony overlooking the sea one night early in 1948, talking about what the future might bring. Remez said to me solemnly: You and Ben-Gurion will smash the last hope of the Jewish People."[27] Strong words indeed. This was a terrible setback for Golda who bore the slight valiantly, not mentioning her disappointment to anyone. This event is neither mentioned in her autobiography or in books written about her later. She was probably annoyed that her colleagues did not have the courtesy to wait for her return before making the selection. But above all, in an interview granted towards the end of her life, she said she never dreamed of running against Remez - her mentor, teacher and intimate friend for over twenty five years.