It’s hard to imagine a Jewish schoolteacher from Milwaukee with the power to plunge the Goldie Myerson, better known as Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel from 1969 “Such, such were the joys,” as George Orwell put it in another context. If he felt, recalling his In the play, Meir puts it in her own, very different words as “the question that won’t die.” But I don’t mean to give the impression that “Golda’s Balcony” is a play of ideas on the order, say, I’ll leave the official reviews to the critics. Whatever they say, though, I’m betting It’s hard to imagine a Jewish schoolteacher from Milwaukee with the power to plunge the world into a nuclear war. But after seeing the William Gibson play “Golda’s Balcony” (opening Wednesday on Broadway, following a successful Off-Broadway run), it’s not only imaginable but credible. Goldie Myerson, better known as Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-6I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nworld into a nuclear war. But after seeing the William Gibson play
\nBroadway, following a successful Off-Broadway run), it’s not only imaginable but
\ncredible.<\/P>
\n
\nto 1974, gave Henry Kissinger conniptions, to say nothing of what she gave her husband Morris.
\nMeir had the will to launch Israel’s then-secret “temple weapons” even if, as the sole means of
\ndefeating the combined Egyptian-Syrian suprise attacks of the Yom Kippur War, it would have
\nmeant the destruction of the temple itself.<\/P>
\n
\nschool days, that they were “peculiar to childhood and not easy to convey,” he was wrong.
\nMeir in her 70s at the moment of her greatest crisis — surrounded by generals fearful that the
\nArabs would make good on their vow to throw the Jewish state into the sea — had the
\nsame “sense of desolate loneliness and helplessness” as Orwell did, “of being
\nlocked up not only in a hostile world but in a world of good and evil where the rules were such
\nthat it was actually not possible for me to keep them.” <\/P>
\n
\nit is the same question that Orwell asked all his life, that any benevolent leader grappling with a
\nhostile world of good and evil must ask: “What happens when idealism becomes power?”<\/P>
\n
\nof “Copenhagen.” Thank God, it’s not — though it doesn’t hesitate to declare wisdom like this:
\n“There will be peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews.” It’s far
\nmore a human tale of confession — a sentimental, occasionally hokey, one-woman show so
\ngripping as a flesh-and-blood Broadway entertainment that it’s almost embarrassing to admit it’s
\nan instance of Holocaust literature which, believe it or not, can make you laugh (not just
\ncry).<\/P>
\n
\nword-of-mouth raves will be unstoppable; “Golda’s Balcony” will be a smash; and when Tony
\ntime comes around next June, Tovah Feldshuh will be nominated
\nfor her portrayal of Golda in a performance made of both steel
\nand chicken soup. <\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"