Lou Keidar

Lou Kaddar was Golda Meir's private secretary and confidante from 1948 to 1978.

1913 to 2006Secretary to Golda MeirFrench interpreter in Moscow, 1948Arms smuggling in the Haganah

Born: 23 June 1913, Paris
Died: 10 April 2006
Occupation: personal assistant

Lou Keidar was born in 1913 in Paris

Lou Kaddar was born in Paris in 1913 to a Jewish family that had come from Russia. In Paris she worked as a social worker for poor Jewish families. She later moved to Mandatory Palestine.

Before Israel was founded, she served in the Haganah and helped smuggle arms. She worked for the Jewish Agency and lectured at a school for diplomats. She was injured in the 1948 bombing of the National Institutions House.

She joined the Foreign Ministry when the state was founded. In 1948 she went with Meir to Moscow as her French interpreter, and the two visited the Moscow Choral Synagogue. She worked with Meir as Minister of Labor, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister.

When Meir became prime minister in 1969, Kaddar became her personal assistant. In 1973 she attended Meir's meeting with King Hussein before the Yom Kippur War. She was with Meir's family when Meir died in 1978.

In later life she contributed to the Golda Meir Archive at the Israel State Archive. She was divorced and had no children. She died in Israel in 2006.