David Ben-Gurion: A Pictorial Record.

DAVID AND PAULA BEN-GURION,.

Item Number: 73060

Tel Aviv: Ayanot Publishing House, 1953.

First edition of this pictorial record of David Ben-Gurion. Quarto, original cloth, illustrated throughout. Boldly signed and dated in Hebrew on the front free endpaper by Paula Ben-Gurion in 1962. Edited by Yehuda Erez. Layout by Shmuel Zur. English text by I.M. Lask. In near fine condition. Books signed by Paula Ben-Gurion are rare.

David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces. Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father."