David Ben-Gurion — 1st prime minister with roots in the Russian Empire
He was born David Grun at Plonsk in October 1886, in Congress Poland - the part of the former Polish lands held directly by the Russian Empire, and not to be confused with Austrian Galicia to the south. His birth certificate was found in Polish archives in 2003.
His father Avigdor Grun worked as a pokatny doradca, an unlicensed legal adviser who steered clients through the imperial courts, and was a leader of the Hovevei Zion society in the town; the family house was where the Zionists of Plonsk met. His mother Scheindel, née Friedman, died when he was eleven. He was taught in a Hebrew-language cheder his father had founded and took secular subjects from private tutors.
At fourteen he was among the founders of a Hebrew-language youth group in Plonsk called Ezra, which taught the language to poor and orphaned children in the synagogue between the afternoon and evening prayers. By his own account they went further and got the adults speaking it, to the point where the town council conducted business in Hebrew. At eighteen he was teaching at a Jewish school in Warsaw.
He joined the Poalei Zion movement in 1903 and founded its Plonsk branch, travelling and speaking for it around the province. During the revolution of 1905-06 he was arrested twice by the imperial authorities and released both times through his father's intervention.
In September 1906, aged twenty, he left for Ottoman Palestine as part of the Second Aliyah and landed at Jaffa on the seventh of that month. He worked for several years as an agricultural labourer in the coastal plain and in Galilee, through malaria and hunger, and took the Hebrew name Ben-Gurion in 1909.
During the First World War he argued for Ottoman citizenship and loyalty to the empire; when the Ottoman administration turned against the Zionists he was arrested and, in March 1915, exiled to Egypt. He went on to New York, where he worked on founding He-Halutz to prepare young Jews for settlement.
From 1935 he headed the Jewish Agency and was the effective leader of the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine. He read the declaration of independence on 14 May 1948 and chaired the provisional state council. He was Prime Minister of Israel from May 1948 to December 1953 and again from November 1955 to June 1963, Minister of Defence for most of the same years, and a member of the Knesset from 1949 to 1970.
He died at Ramat Gan in December 1973, aged eighty-seven.
"Left Plonsk for Ottoman Palestine, September 1906, in the Second Aliyah"
Migration storyTracing the roots — Plonsk, Congress Poland (now Poland)
He founded the Plonsk branch of Poalei Zion in 1903 and was arrested twice by the imperial authorities during the revolution of 1905-06, released on both occasions through his father's intervention. He left for Ottoman Palestine in September 1906 and took the name Ben-Gurion in 1909.
Born David Grun at Plonsk in Congress Poland - Russian Empire territory, distinct from Austrian Galicia - to Avigdor Grun, an unlicensed legal adviser and a leader of the local Hovevei Zion society, and Scheindel Friedman, who died when he was eleven. His birth certificate was located in Polish archives in 2003.
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Plonsk, Congress Poland (now Poland). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.
A career defined by ambition
"In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."