It has to be Barkat

J'lem is not the haredi capital but capital of the modern State of Israel.

By PAUL GROSS
barkat 63 (photo credit: )
barkat 63
(photo credit: )
Last weekend, I was a guest at a friend's wedding. Like me she was a recent immigrant from the UK, and like me, her Zionism led her not just to Israel, but to Zion itself - to Jerusalem. The huppa was at a venue overlooking the Old City and, even allowing for the emotion of the moment, the backdrop of the sun setting on the golden stone of those ancient walls made it a truly incredible occasion. I felt then, as I have felt many times in my 10 months as an oleh, that I was living in a city touched by both holiness and history. The capital of both the modern State of Israel and the millennia-old Jewish people. Sadly, beneath the veneer of this Jerusalem of Gold lies a somewhat uglier reality. The capital is Israel's poorest city; the average salary of its residents is two-thirds that of those living in the center of the country; and the management of municipal services - from street cleaning to transport - is little short of a disgrace. Large numbers of the new friends I made at the Jerusalem ulpan I attended for the first five months of my aliya have left the city for Tel Aviv. What is worse is I don't blame them. My own emotional attachment to the city has not blinded me to the problems and the terrible consequences of neglect and mismanagement. Neither do I have any doubts as to where the blame lies. The buck stops with the mayor. Uri Lupoliansky's five years as the city's most senior public official have, by any measure, seen a deterioration of living standards for its residents and a concomitant decline in the national and international standing of a city that should be thought of as one of the world's great metropolises. Mayor Lupoliansky spent just NIS 5 million on cultural activities per year for his first four years (which intriguingly jumped to NIS 10 million this past year - election year), compared to the NIS 80 million per year that Tel Aviv residents see. The exodus of young people from Jerusalem can be directly linked to both the unfavorable job opportunities and the feeling that the city is, increasingly, turning its back on the rest of modern, progressive Israel. Lupoliansky's term is almost up and, though he is not running again, victory for his haredi replacement Meir Porush would sentence Jerusalem to another five years of sectarian, inefficient municipal administration. Indeed, Porush could be even worse than the incumbent. Even his own campaign team seems concerned that his image is not exactly a vote-winner. How else to explain the ludicrous cartoon depiction of him that appears all over Jerusalem. (When I first saw it I thought it was an advertisement for some Jewish-themed episode of South Park.) JERUSALEM NEEDS a mayor with a strategic vision, a genuine attachment to the city and a track record of getting things done. The good news is that Nir Barkat, who is ahead in the opinion polls, more than meets these criteria. Born in Jerusalem, he raised his family there and - bucking the trend of many - stayed in the city to build his business. He is clearly motivated, above all, by a love of the city and a wish to turn things around. He is a strategic thinker, with thought-through, long-term plans for addressing Jerusalem's many problems. He believes that the city should be there for all its residents - haredi, modern Orthodox, secular and all shades in between. I have been impressed also by his determination to address the long-standing neglect of east Jerusalem. Like most Jerusalemites, Barkat is opposed to the redivision of the city, but unlike so many outspoken commentators on this issue, he acknowledges that in too many ways it is divided already. He understands that Jerusalem's Arab residents need to be able to feel more a part of the unified city, while also understanding that with rights come responsibilities. The bad news is that, despite his frontrunner status, Barkat's election as mayor could yet be thwarted by low voter turnout. What is certain is that the minority of voters who want another haredi mayor will flock to the polls. In the simple arithmetic of democracy, minorities can win power if the majority does not exercise its right to vote. I believe it is vital for those of us that care about the future of Jerusalem to use our vote and use it wisely. Jerusalem is not the haredi capital but the capital of the modern State of Israel. It is not the capital of one sect within Judaism but the capital of the entire Jewish people. We need to reclaim it. Vote for Nir Barkat on November 11. The writer lives in Jerusalem. Before making aliya from the UK he was a speechwriter and public affairs official at the Embassy of Israel in London.