Recipients
To mark the 1998 centennial of Golda Meir’s birth, the Center inaugurated an annual leadership award. In recognition of Meir’s husband Morris, whom she met while living in Denver, the award covers the arts in addition to public affairs.
The award contains a piece of the original floor from the Golda Meir House and these words from Meir:
I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.
The award, to date, has been presented to:
- Director Steven Spielberg (1998)
Choreographer/producer Debbie Allen (1998) - Trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wynton Marsalis (1999)
- United States Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (2000)
- Member of the Little Rock Nine and recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal Carlotta Walls LaNier (2001)
- United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2002)
- Actress Tovah Feldshuh, the star of the Broadway play "Golda's Balcony" (2003)
- United States Senator John McCain (2004)
- Presidential Medal of Honor recipient Paul Rusesabagina, subject of the film Hotel Rwanda (2005)
- Madeleine Albright (2006)