DAVID  BEN  GURION

Biography

Ben Gurion was born as David Grüen (Green or Grin) in PLONSK October 16, 1886, when Poland was then part of the Russian Empire. His teacher was Moisés Prochovnik in the little “jeder” institution from traditional jewish studies. (His birth certificate was discovered in Poland in 2003, there was another date from his bithday: February, 1887) Note that it was very common in that time for parents registering the birth of their children a little after birth. His father, Avigdor Grüen was born in Plonsk in Nov.26, 1857 and died in May 13,1942 in Tel Aviv. He was a lawyer and leader in the Hovevei Zion Movement. His mother, Scheindel  Broitman was born in Nov.19,1854 and died in February 7, 1898, she died when David was 11 years old. Their parents were married in April 9, 1876 in Plonsk.

In the Archives of Poland it isn’t clear if the year she was born was 1854, 1855 or 1856, but we know as the cause of death was Childbirth. When his mother died, he studied in the school founded by his father. Avigdor taught him the love for the Hebrew language, and his Zionist and Socialist convictions. He founded, with a group of friends in Plonsk, the Jewish Youth Moviment “Ezra” to prepare young people for the aliá to Palestine. When he was 18 years old, he went to Warsaw and he entered in the Socialist Zionist Political Party “Po’alei Sión” (from hebrew: zionist worker) where he was arrested in the revolt of 1905.

Ben Gurion grew up to be an ardent Zionist and Socialist. He immigrated to Palestine in 1906, shocked by the Pogroms, the most important was the pogrom of Chisináu in 1903 and rampant anti-Semitic movement  in Eastern Europe. (He was part of the second “aliá”) In Palestine, he first worked in agriculture, picking oranges in Pétaj Tikva and as a wine-grower in Zijrón Ya’akov. Then in Séjera Menajamía and Kineret. Later he became a journalist.  In 1906 he entered the Party “Po’slei Sion” from Palestine, during that time he joined the Labor Zionist Party. In 1909 was one of the founders of the hebrew organization “Hashomer” (in hebrew “the guard”). In 1910, he was one of the founders and the first editor of the Newspaper of his party “Ajdut” (in hebrew “union”), and he began to sign his articles with the name of David Ben Gurion, inspired in the leader of the Jewish revolt against Roman, Yosef Ben-Gurion (years 66-73).

After studing law at Istanbul University together with Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, he adopted the name Ben Gurion (Hebrew for “lion cub”). In 1915 he was expelled from Palestine, then under the Ottoman law, for his political activities.

He emigrated to the USA. Settling in New York City in 1915, where he met a russian-born girl, Paula Munweis (Mombesz or Penina Munwess). He married her in 1917. He was active in building an “American wing” of Labor Zionist. He learned Spanish so that he could read Cervante’s novel Don Quixote de la Mancha in the original language. He believed this book was required reading for anyone interested in becoming an effective statesman. David and Paula had three children. Ben Gurion joined the British Army in 1918 as part of the 38th Battalion of the Jewish Legion (following the Balfour Declaration in November 1917).

He and his family returned to Palestine after the  World War I, and there he was captured by the British from the Ottoman Empire.

Simcha AIZIK was one of the founders of the Hovevei Group.

Shlomo NELKIN was a very close friend of David Ben Gurion and went to Palestine with him on the same boat.                

David Ben Gurion and his family in Plonsk  (Sefer Plonsk)

David Ben Gurion in the British Army