David and Paula Ben-Gurion were married in New York City’s town hall in 1917…

36 years later they would be living in their small desert home in southern Israel.

“She was a remarkable woman. She was not a Zionist, she had very little Jewish feeling, she was an American, she was an anarchist. At that time, all the progressive youth were anarchists. And her hero was an anarchist woman, (Emma) Goldman. This was the greatest (person) she knew. She had no interest in Israel, she didn’t know what for. ‘America is better, why do we need the land of Israel?’ But when we decided to marry each other I told her, ‘you will have to go to Israel,’ and I told her what Israel is, then. And she agreed. And so in November 1919 she came to Israel with the child.

Then, suddenly, 15 years ago, I told her: ‘I’m going to the desert.’ She thought I am mad that I am resigning (from) the government and going to live in the desert, but she followed me. Not many women would do that. So she was very much devoted, and this is a great thing. And now I am alone but I can’t help it. I’m now a half-man but I must do what I can.”

David Ben-Gurion made these comments four months after his wife Paula’s passing, during an interview with Clinton Bailey in April, 1968.

Photo: David and Paula Ben-Gurion at their desert home in Sde Boker,

by Eddie Hirschbein (Nadav Mann, Bitmuna). Collection source: Tamar levy, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel

Naveed Anjum