Israel's offspring
By Gil Hoffman

David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973)
Born David Green in Plonsk, Russia (now Poland), David Ben-Gurion was Israel's first prime minister and defense minister, founded the Mapai Party and helped create the Histadrut Labor Union. He regarded Zionism as a practical doctrine to be implemented through immigration to Palestine and conquest of the land by Jewish labor.

Ben-Gurion immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1906, was secretary-general of the Histadrut from 1921 to 1935 and chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine from 1935 to 1948.

He set the course of Zionist history and molded the character of the Jewish state. In 1948, as head of the provisional government, he proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel and the beginning of the "ingathering of the exiles."

As prime minister from 1948 to 1953 and 1955 to 1963, he presided over the Sinai Campaign and national projects such as Operation Magic Carpet (the airlift of Jews from Yemen), the construction of the National Water Carrier and innovative regional development projects.

He retired from public life in 1970, died in 1973 at the age of 87, and was buried in Kibbutz Sde Boker.

Ben-Gurion had three children and seven grandchildren
David Ben-Gurion has one son, Amos, and two daughters, Geula Ben-Eliezer and Renana Ben-Gurion.

Amos was the deputy director of the state police department and director-general of a textile factory. He is now retired and lives in Haifa. Amos married a gentile Irish woman named Mary who converted, with whom he had two daughters and a son. Both of his daughters, Galia and Ruth, are married and living in Ra'anana. They each have two children. The son, Alon Ben-Gurion, is the manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. He is married to a non-Jewish Greek woman and has two daughters.

The late Geula Ben-Eliezer has two sons and a daughter. Both sons obtained doctorates in mass media in New York. Yariv is a professor of mass communication at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center and has worked as a consultant for many political campaigns. He has a daughter and two sons. Moshe is the co-director of the Bureau of Insurance Agents. He has two children and lives in Tel Aviv. Ben-Eliezer's daughter, Orit, is a teacher in Ra'anana and has three children.

Renana Ben-Gurion was a professor of microbiology in Tel-Aviv University. Her son Uri is a student.

Ben-Eliezer said he remembers that his grandfather would buy him many books every year for his birthday.

"I loved him because he was Grandpa David, not because he was prime minister," Ben-Eliezer said. "As a citizen, I miss him because since he left us, there have not been any leaders of his caliber."

None of Ben-Gurion's descendants ran for public office. "We couldn't compete with his greatness, so we decided not to get involved in politics and tried to excel in other things," Ben-Eliezer said.

David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973)
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904)
Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952)
Menachem Begin (1913-1992)
Rabbi Isaac Halevy Herzog (1888-1959)