Musical chairs

What will happen to the Yerushalmim party after Rachel Azaria goes to the Knesset?

By PEGGY CIDOR
City councillors Tamir Nir, Rachel Azaria and Aaron Leibowitz. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
City councillors Tamir Nir, Rachel Azaria and Aaron Leibowitz.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
What could be better for a relatively recent political movement created by a group of residents to improve their lives in their own neighborhood and its environs than to climb the political ladder to the national scene within less than a decade? Probably nothing, apart from the concern that this remarkable change might end up causing a tear in the fabric of the movement that heralded a significant change in the attitude of many young couples and families toward the municipality as a service provider.
Rachel Azaria is, by all accounts, a great success story.
After years of serving as director of Mavoi Satum, the NGO for the rights and support of agunot (women whose husbands refuse them a divorce), she decided to take a big step forward and play in the “grown-up” playground – politics. On the local level, of course, but still – this local playground is Jerusalem, the capital, and a place renowned for its conservatism in politics.
A religious woman and feminist, Azaria did a lot of homework about what she should be prepared for.
Equipped with tenacity, a certain amount of boldness and the capacity to play by the rules of politics – i.e., capable of being almost rude at times and developing a good relationship with the press – she made it big time.
And yes, she also had a secret weapon, having learned a good lesson from Anat Hoffman, another pioneer in women’s representation on the city council. Azaria made sure that she could rely on that secret weapon called a very supportive partner named Eliashiv Frankel, Azaria’s husband.
In her seven years on the city council, Azaria played by the book. She worked hard, participated in all the “right” struggles (especially the summer 2011 protest, representing parents for young children’s interests) and quite a few feminist campaigns, very careful not to forget to keep the media informed. Her boldness almost took a heavy toll when she dragged the municipality to court on the issue of gender segregation in the streets of Mea She’arim in 2012 (and caused Mayor Nir Barkat to oust her from his coalition). But here again, she managed to turn this “breach of etiquette” around and garner a major victory, overnight becoming the heroine of the feminist struggle against zealotry in the city.
At least one observer of all these achievements came to a conclusion about Azaria. Kobi Kahlon (brother of Moshe Kahlon and his campaign manager) thought she could be a perfect candidate for his brother’s party Kulanu, putting her in the realistic spot of No. 5 on the list. And so less than a decade after entering the political scene, Azaria is on her way to the Knesset. Behind her remains a relatively young and not so structured movement.
Yerushalmim still doesn’t have the institutional political organization it should have, and even the issue of who would replace her as deputy mayor was not so clear when Azaria decided to leave Safra Square for the Knesset.
The question of who will replace her is a significant one.
The position comes with a nice salary, which is a welcome compensation for many hours of work.
And then another issue was raised. As long as Azaria was here, no one questioned her leadership. But now that she is leaving, the position of deputy mayor will be divided between two, in rotation until the end of this council’s term (2018.) One of the reasons invoked for all this bargaining is the fact that neither Azaria nor her peers in Yerushalmim want to give up one of the symbols of the group – being led by a woman. So immediately after the March 17 elections, assuming Azaria wins a seat, Tamir Nir will step into the position of deputy mayor, but he will not be head of the movement, a position that for the moment Azaria intends to keep for herself. Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz, chairman of the Lev Ha’ir neighborhood council and leader of an alternative kosher certification service, will become the party’s No. 2 on the council.
And what about the female factor? Fleur Hassan Nahum, No. 4 on the council list, will replace Nir as deputy mayor in the middle of his tenure (in September 2016).