ABSTRACT
Early Life The son of Avigdor and Sheindel (Friedman) Gruen, David Ben-Gurion was born in Plonsk, Poland, on October 16, 1886. His father was a local leader in Hovevai Zion (lovers of Zion), a forerunner of the Zionist movement, and a product of the Haskalah (Jewish enlightenment), which sought to fuse traditional and modern thought and to revive Hebrew as a living language. At the age of fourteen, he and two friends organized the Ezra Society to teach local children to speak and write Hebrew. Despite opposition from religious leaders who regarded Hebrew as too sacred for daily use, the group attracted 150 students.
