This Wednesday, 6 Kislev, is the 52nd Yahrzeit of David Ben-Gurion (born David Grün in 1886). The leading founder of the State of Israel, he later served as its Minister of Defense and first Prime Minister. He had led the Jewish People in Eretz Yisrael as head of the Jewish Agency beginning in 1935. It was Ben-Gurion who read Israel’s Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, formally establishing the Jewish State.
A consummate pragmatist, Ben-Gurion urged Jews to serve in the British Army… while he defiantly facilitated illegal Jewish immigration to British Mandate Palestine. A savvy Ben-Gurion similarly assured traditionalists that Shabbat would be the nation’s official day of rest and that Kashrut would be observed at official State functions… though he was the Prime Minister perhaps least personally committed to religious observance. In later life, however, he described himself as a believer.
Ben-Gurion modeled both statesmanship and citizenship. Upon retirement, he returned to his beloved Kibbutz Sde Boker, where he lived modestly and worked on a seminal history of Israel’s founding.
Upon his passing, Ben-Gurion lay in state in the Knesset, where he was honored by a grateful nation (and global Jewish community). His body was then flown by helicopter for burial at Sde Boker.
His memory has already long been a blessing.
Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey and the editor of “Masorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism.” The latest edition of Masorti was published online in December of 2024. A subscription is $18 per annum.
A consummate pragmatist, Ben-Gurion urged Jews to serve in the British Army… while he defiantly facilitated illegal Jewish immigration to British Mandate Palestine. A savvy Ben-Gurion similarly assured traditionalists that Shabbat would be the nation’s official day of rest and that Kashrut would be observed at official State functions… though he was the Prime Minister perhaps least personally committed to religious observance. In later life, however, he described himself as a believer.