On Friday, May 10, 1974, at the American Mothers Committee Annual Conference, Waldorf Astoria, New York City, the following Citation of World Mother was conferred on Golda Meir, Prime Minister of the State of Israel;
Golda Meir, founding mother of the State of Israel, world-renowned stateswoman who has devoted her full spirit to the quest for international understanding so that the children of all lands might live in peace and amity; who in the public schools of the United States learned to cherish the American concepts of democratic freedom and independence; and who, reared in the tradition of her faith, was early embed with the vision of social justice of the Hebrew prophets – ideals she sought to fulfill for her people and mankind; who, as a young pioneer, tilled the fields of Palestine so that barren soil might bloom; who as her country’s first Minister of Labor, built homes for the survivors of the cruelest oppression history has recorded; who, as Foreign Minister, created ties of friendship to only with powerful nations but strove to cooperate with the new, struggling countries of Africa and Asia; and who, finally, as Prime Minister, never despaired of the search for peace but steadfastly held high the goal of fruitful collaboration with all peoples of the Middle East. Having herself known both the joy of creative labor and the anguish of sterile war she has never stopped striving for conditions in which all young lives – Israeli and Arab, Jew, Christian and Muslim – would flourish in dignity and well being.
For her great work for peace, the American Mothers Committee, representing 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, is proud to confer on Golda Meir the citation of World Mother of the Decade.
