(JNS) Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote in 1923 that the Jew is a prince, regardless of circumstances—that Jewish dignity does not depend on the world’s recognition and that Jewish sovereignty does not require the world’s permission. A century later, the State of Israel proves his point.

In January 1948, with independence weeks away and war with five Arab armies inevitable, Israeli founding father (and several months later, its first prime minister) David Ben-Gurion sent Golda Meir (who eventually went on to become prime minister herself) to the United States to raise funds. She arrived in New York with $10 in her purse. Officials hoped that she might secure $7 million or $8 million from the American Jewish community.

She aimed for $25 million.

Meir returned to Israel with $50 million after speaking in Chicago and touring 19 cities—without notes, without preparation, carrying nothing but the moral weight of what was about to happen. Ben-Gurion later wrote: “Someday when history will be written, it will be said that there was a Jewish...

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