“This is Your Life” – Activity – Overview

Introduction Golda Meir lived a wonderful and varied life. Her life started in nineteenth-century Russia from where, having survived pogroms, she immigrated with her family to the United States. She completed her schooling, became a teacher, and got married in the United States. In 1921 she immigrated to with her husband and joined a kibbutz. She became involved in local and national politics and later became Israel’s first and, to date, only female prime minister.

Short Summary of Activity This activity combines research, art, and multimedia. Using the Golda Meir Resource Pack on the National Library website, the group researches one particular part of Golda’s life and its historical context and creates two artworks based on their findings. The artworks are photographed along with the visual resources the students researched and collated into a video. The group then writes a commentary describing the research, which they record and add to the video. The group writes a second commentary on the part of Golda’s life that is represented in the images. All the videos will be collated into a short, creative, and informative video: “The Life of Golda Meir.”

Necessary Equipment  Arts and crafts materials  Computers/books for research  Writing materials  Smartphones with movie-making apps downloaded: o For ioS we recommend Splice o For Android we recommend VideoShow – Video editor

Stage 1 – Researching Golda's Life Students are split into groups. Teachers can assign each group one aspect of Golda’s life to research or students can choose their own. Using the National Library resources from the Golda Meir Resource Pack, students study their topic in depth.

Different parts of Golda’s life

 Early life in Russia  Growing up in the United States  Moving to Israel  Involvement with the Zionist Congress  Minister of Labour  Foreign Minister  How Golda became Israel’s first female prime minister  The  Life after the Yom Kippur War  Golda’s Legacy

Stage 2 – Researching the Historical Context Students expand their research to include the historical context of Golda Meir’s life. From the list of topics below, students choose the research area most suited to the part of Golda’s life they chose in Stage 1. They study the background through the websites cited below and through their own research.  Life in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century (Golda was born in 1898). o Russian Empire, The Yivo Encyclopaedia of Jewish Eastern Europe , http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Russia/Russian_Empire o Jewish Emigration in the 19 th Century, My Jewish Learning , http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-emigration-in-the-19th- century/  Life for Jews in the United States at the start of the twentieth century (Golda’s family moved there in 1905). o The American Jewish Experience in the 20 th Century, National Humanities Centre , http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/jewishexp.ht m o Jewish Immigration to American: Three Waves, My Jewish Learning , http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-immigration-to-america- three-waves/  Israel in the 1920s (Golda made aliya in 1921) o The , History of Israel , http://history-of- israel.org/history/chronological_presentation21.php o The British Mandate 1922-1939, History World , http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=nni0 1  Kibbutz life in the 1920s (Golda and her husband lived on a kibbutz) o The Kibbutz Movement, My Jewish Learning , http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-kibbutz-movement/ o Kibbutz, Wikipedia , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz  The Agranat Commission (the investigations into the circumstances of the Yom Kippur War) o Agranat Commission, , https://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/agranat_eng.htm o Agranat Commission, Zionism and Israel Encyclopaedic Dictionary , http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Agranat_Commission.htm

Stage 3 – Creating Artwork Students create two artworks that represent the period of Golda’s life that they have been studying. (They can use any medium: painting, drawing, modelling using any material, clay, plasticine etc., but designs should not be downloaded from the internet). Simultaneously, other students in the group write a commentary that summarises this part of Golda’s life, using what they have learned from both parts of the research process (Stages One and Two). Teachers may choose to read over the commentary before students record it.

Stage 4 – Creating a Movie Each group should:  Take photographs of their finished products using their smartphones.  Upload these photographs and the resources used to the movie-making app.  Record their commentary using the movie-making app.  Edit the video.  Share the video with the class.

Send your video (and photographs of the work) to [email protected] and we will upload the best examples to this website.