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| The following passages spotlight events in Ben
Gurion’s life. The emphasis here is on the personal rather than on the political
aspects of his life. |
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Memories of Early Childhood
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Compiled by Miriam Kishon |
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| I had two grandfathers. My mother’s
father was a gardener but he died before I was born. His name was David, and I was named
after him. However, I remember my other grandfather, my father’s father, who was a
lawyer. His name was Arie Green. He was the first to teach me Hebrew and Bible. He used to
put me on his knee and teach me Hebrew words, like parts of the body (head, hair, nose
mouth). Then he used to walk in the room and would say: "I am walking. I am standing.
I am sitting." Grandfather used to speak Hebrew to me and I had to answer in Hebrew.
Most of all I liked the language games. One of them went like this: I said a Hebrew word
and he had to say a word that started with the last letter of my word; for example; chair
- rug - garden - nose and so on. We could play this game for hours. Unfortunately my
grandfather died when I was eight years old. |
My Father
| My father, Avigdor Green, was a lawyer, like
my grandfather. He was a Zionist and the meetings of "ןויצ יבבוח"
(Chovevei Zion) were held in our house. As a lawyer he had to be in court where he met
clerks, lawyers, judges, policemen and governors. The Jews in our town were proud of him
and came to him for advice. My father was not very religious but he observed the
Shabbat and the Jewish holidays. He taught me to respect every Jew no matter what way of
life he chose. My father immigrated to Israel in 1925, with my two brothers and sisters.
He died in 1942 at the age of 86.
My mother Sheine had eleven children but only
five survived and immigrated to Israel. I was the tenth child and the youngest of the
boys. I was a weak child and my parents worried about my health. My father wanted me to be
a doctor and my mother was sure I would be a great rabbi. My mother used to take me to the
countryside every summer to visit our relatives. There I learned to like
agriculture. My mother took very good care of me and it is from her that I learned the
meaning of "mother’s love." She died when I was ten years old, and this was
the saddest event in my childhood. In those days we didn’t have a photographer in our
town, and so I don’t have any pictures of her.
My First Steps In Zionism
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My love for the country may have started with
my love of the Hebrew language. I enjoyed Bible stories and then at the age of nine
or ten I remember that I read Mapu’s book "The Love of Zion." I loved
reading very much and read works by Hebrew writers like Ahad-Ha’am and stories by
Smolensky. I love poetry in particular and my favorite poet is Bialik. I even used to
memorize some of his poems. One day when I was ten years old I heard that the Messiah
had arrived - tall, with a black beard - his name was Dr. Herzl. At the age of 14,
together with two of my friends, we founded the youth group "Ezra." We called it
by this name because of Ezra the scribe from the Bible who spread the idea of going back
to the Promised Land "ןויצ תביש" and that’s what we had in
mind too. We also collected money for Israel and spoke and taught Hebrew.
Two years later, at the age of 16, I left my home town Plonsk and moved to Warsaw. My
dream was to build in Israel, so I wanted to study engineering. I made my living from
teaching and I continued with my Zionist activities - this time the movement was called
"פועלי ציון." My desire to go to Israel was so strong that I
interrupted my studies and immigrated in 1906. The rest of my family who survived came
only 19 years later.
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