Council concerns

Shas council member Pini Ezra, who in private life is an entrepreneur and real estate developer, resigned even before Lion’s inaugural council meeting on Thursday of last week.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Moshe Lion receives gravel and key to Jerusalem, 2018. (photo credit: EHUD AMITON/TPS)
Moshe Lion receives gravel and key to Jerusalem, 2018.
(photo credit: EHUD AMITON/TPS)
■ AS IF he didn’t have enough problems in trying to form a coalition, Mayor Moshe Lion is also facing discord on the city council itself. Shas council member Pini Ezra, who in private life is an entrepreneur and real estate developer, resigned even before Lion’s inaugural council meeting on Thursday of last week. The official reason was that Ezra wanted to devote more time to his business interests, but political pundits say that it’s because Shas leader Arye Deri removed Ezra from the No. 2 slot on the Shas list and brought forward Haim Cohen. Ezra did not voice any public complaint, but his resignation is seen as a direct reaction to his being downgraded, despite the fact that he was an active and effective member of the previous council.
Deri subsequently wrote that it was with great regret that he accepted Ezra’s resignation, and stated that Ezra had done much for the general public. Whether Deri’s words were a politically correct form of crocodile tears remains between him and his conscience.
In addition to Ezra’s resignation, there are rumblings in the Meuhadim faction because Yoni Yosef, who prior to the elections had a rotation agreement with former deputy mayor Dov Kalmanovich, has decided not to honor it, and will not step aside half way into the council’s period of tenure so that Kalmanovich can take over. Yosef, who is a grandson of former Shas spiritual mentor and former Sephardi chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef, claims that Kalmanovich was ineffective in the previous council and should therefore not serve on the current council. Leading rabbis have attempted to get the young Yosef to change his mind, but at press time, to no avail.
Degel HaTorah Council Member David Zohar, a novice in the local political arena, is concerned that he will not be judged on his own merits. The 33-year-old father of five is the son of former filmmaker, actor and television star Uri Zohar, who some 40 years ago turned to religion, gradually becoming immersed to the extent of practicing an ultra-Orthodox life style. The family lived in Romema, but after David, a teacher by profession, married his wife Sara, the young couple moved to Gilo. Given his father’s past and the fact that he himself lives in a mixed secular-Orthodox neighborhood, one of his key ambitions as council member is to encourage dialogue between religious and secular individuals and communities with the aim of breaking down barriers of hostility and misunderstanding. He has been active in this sphere for several years.
■ FEW THINGS could be more appropriate to honor the memory of the late Toby Willig than a memorial lecture series in her name. Raised in New York, Willig early in her adult life became a member of Emunah, the Religious Zionist Women’s Organization, and was national president of Emunah of America before making aliyah in 1986 with her late husband Herbie.
She was also active in several other Jewish organizations and her name was well known to readers of The Jerusalem Post and other publications because she was a prolific letter writer, whose opinions on any number of Jewish world and specifically Israel-related subjects appealed to many editors. In addition to the letters, she would frequently call editors and reporters to express her anguish, her disappointment and even her delight over some event.
In Jerusalem, she ran a regular lecture series for Emunah and attended lectures hosted by numerous other organizations. She often arrived late, but always managed to find a front seat, and regardless of how many hands shot up at question time, she was almost always given the opportunity to ask the first question, including by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Following her death, the Emunah lecture series continued under her name.
She was one of those rare creatures who saw only the good in others, and would publicly praise people, almost to the point of embarrassment.
A few weeks prior to her death, she was honored at Emunah’s annual concert for devoting the major part of her life to the organization, and the proceeds of the concert were donated in her name to Emunah’s Neve Landy Children’s Village.
When she died in January at age 92, the Shamgar funeral parlor was full to overflowing with people whose lives she had touched.
To mark the first anniversary of her passing Emunah is organizing a day trip to Neve Landy and Moshav Even Shmuel near Kiryat Gat on January 15. A plaque in Willig’s memory will be unveiled at Neve Landy, where there will be a lecture and a musical performance.