ONE MAN’S DREAM TO MAKE JERUSALEM JEWISH AGAIN!

TO   Every

Aryeh King, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem shares how he plans to make all of Jerusalem Jewish and how we can help him do it.

Aryeh King and Rabbi Ben Packer were in Los Angeles last week and the Hillygramhad the opportunity to sit down with them and talk about the interesting and extraordinary work they are doing to make and keep Jerusalem ‘Jewish’ in every way.

Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Aryeh King and Rabbi Ben Packer Chairman of the Israel Land Fund.

Aryeh King founded the Jerusalem Land Fund back in 2007. All the years and experience working for the Israel Land Fund helped inform him for the position he holds now as Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem. He realized that when certain things needed to get done, they could only be achieved through the system, the bureaucracy. To ensure legislation gets passed the mayor delegates responsibilities to his deputies.

When he became Deputy Mayor, he had to step down from the Israel Land Fund, and Rabbi Ben Packer became the Chairman.

Aryeh King is now Deputy Mayor and has absolute sovereignty over the municipality of Jerusalem – the largest in Israel with almost 1 million citizens – more than Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheva combined.  Jerusalem is a sensitive hot spot of religious and historical significance. 11% of Israel’s citizens reside in Jerusalem.

As Deputy Mayor, King’s goals are to; #1. Keep Jerusalem united as a Jewish city, promising that the majority of citizens are Jewish, and #2. That when you walk, visit, or live in Jerusalem that you will feel you are in a JEWISH city, not a multicultural, multireligious conglomerate that the leftists and progressives are pushing to the politicians of Israel-  As they say in Hebrew: ‘sumayrahb’asar tov’ to stop and to avoid these ideas and to bring good ideas and influences to the lives of the people in Jerusalem. The Deputy Mayor is responsible for restoring and keeping the Jewish heritage of Jerusalem and that is what he has been working on for the past two years.

The first goal of the trip to the States is to introduce Rabbi Ben Packer, new Chairman of the Israel Land Fund to American Jews. He is also the Director of the Jerusalem Heritage House, and Israeli tour guide extraordinaire, whose tours of Jerusalem and Chevron have become legendary. It’s in fact the first trip they have made since COVID so the first place they visited was Los Angeles. They feel it’s important to start in LA because they have had good ties to people here who are involved in what the Israel LandFund is doing. From here they are continuing to Dallas and then to Miami. The second goal of this trip is to reconnect and also to reach a wider audience in the diaspora and spread the message of the goals we are trying to achieve so that more people will become inspired and get involved.

Aryeh King states, “I’m here to help bring more awareness of what’s happening in Jerusalem in general, and also regarding the results of the elections and how it might affect positively the opportunities that are now open because of this new government.”To get more people involved, each one in his own way. This can be achieved by just visiting the right places on their next trip to Israel on Pesach or a wedding or bar mitzvah.”

Aryeh explains, “For instance, people know their way, without even thinking, to the Kotel, but many don’t realize that they can make another 2- or 3-minute walk and see other important significant sites that are not as popular. They don’t realize the impact their visit makes. People are already coming to Jerusalem from all over the world, so without changing or adding new cities to their itinerary they can visit such important places as the Mount of Olives, City of David, or the Kever of Shimon HaTzadik and gain knowledge and experience of visiting Jerusalem.”Chairman Rabbi Packer and Deputy Mayor Aryeh King both agree that support of Israel starts just from visiting the right places!

The Israel Land Fund, besides helping people invest in real estate in Jerusalem, has the goal of helping Jews from all over the world to visit lesser-known, but also very significant places in Jerusalem.“The Jerusalem Land Fund wants to take you to these places in Jerusalem that will make a difference,” says King. Other important sites that are not so well known to visit are the little Kotel, which is a continuation of the Western Wall, exactly opposite and in a straight line to the KodeshHaKadishim, the underground tunnel tours, walk along the Old City wall, the great cave where many people come to daven, just to name a few, right in the ring of the Jewish Quarter.  Then there is the Kidron Valley where a Kohanim family is buried.  The cave of King David in Mount Zion, and many more.  And in Jerusalem, we need more Jews to visit a very strategic place that has a mosque over it, the kever of Shmuel HaNavi which overlooks all of Jerusalem, but very few Jews go there.

Shimon HaTzadik was of the remnants (last members) of the Great Assembly. He used to say: On three things the world stands. On Torah, on Service of G-d, and on deeds of kindness.” (Avot chap 1)

GUSH ETZION

Speaking of mosques built over Holy Jewish sites, recently, a Jewish American tourist came to King and expressed his frustration that many of the major Jewish Holy sites, including the Kotel and MaravHaMachpelahave mosques built on top of them and seem to be under the control of the Muslims even though they are in Israel. Further, even in some places like kever Rachel, visitors need to drive into a heavily guarded compound to be protected from sniper attacks.  How can this be in our own homeland?  King explains that throughout history when the Muslims conquered a country they built their prayer places directly on top of other religious sites –especially Jewish sites to show they were in power.  Correspondingly, when in other countries, when they pray to their holy sites, their backs are to our holy sites in disrespect. Their goal is to rule the entire world, as written in their Koran. 

So, the goal of the Israel Land Fund, according to Rabbi Packer, is to bring as many Jews as possible to these places. Aryeh King says, “The more people that visit and make a presence all over Jerusalem and become educated as to what the situation is, the more power and influence we can have.”

When Jewish Israeli citizens who live on the front line and in other challenging places where living is not easy, see their brothers and sisters from America come and visit them, they get strength. One has no idea the positive impact it makes on the people there and how much the support of just visiting means to them.

According to King, the first step in the battle for the future of Jerusalem is waged by just supporting the people who live there. Not financial support per se, just by showing appreciation to the Jews who live in the outlying areas, who are sometimes actually putting their lives in danger.A simple thing one can do is to visit these areas, patronize local businesses, and thank the people who are living there for their service and simply to write letters and emails to people living there telling them ‘thank you!’Thank you for representing us in the mount of Olives or in Shimon HaTzadik or in the Yemenite villages- all kinds of places that people hear about in the news, especially when people are being attacked there. Again, to the people living in these places knowing they are being supported gives them a lot of chizuk, and strength, to continue.

There are many other things one can do to support Jerusalem, such as sending their children to yeshiva and seminary to learn and connect to the Holy Land, and of course, making Aliyah. For those thinking of making Aliyah consider East Jerusalem. There are many opportunities of buying land or apartments for oneself or invest in real estate in outlying areas of Jerusalem that can be as much as half of what it might cost to buy in the heart of the city. Maybe not as comfortable, but much more affordable. There are a lot of ways for any Jew to participate in this activity of redeeming the land and bringing people back to East Jerusalem.

King continues, “There has also been trouble with Christians in East Jerusalem wanting to keep the Jews out. There were all kinds of decisions that were given by leftist politicians years ago that weakened the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem. By bringing more Jewish investment and infrastructure to East Jerusalem and the surrounding areas and by building new Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem we can fight the influence of Muslim and Christian culture on the images of Israel.”

“Before we can go to the big organizations in the United States, the EU, and the UN, we need to have the support of the American Jewish Community,” says King.  He goes on to say, “We need to spread the word to American Jews and beyond.”

King has been Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem for two years and until the next election, 10 months from now in October 2023.  There is so much to get done, and he hopes to be re-elected for another five-year term. Mayor King reports, “I think we have had a lot of success thus far, this by being just two city Councilors out of thirty-one members!  I hope in the next election we will get three or four Councilors and then I’m sure we will have much more influence than when we were just two. My second member in the party in Jerusalem is the grandson of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.  I can say we have already had a lot of success in stopping bad things from happening and pushing forward good things.”

Hillygram asked Deputy King, “What would you say is the number one threat for Jerusalem today that needs to be overcome?” King answered, “The number one threat is right-wing politicians pushing to divide the city.” “Believe it or not, right-wing politicians are responsible for giving Sinai to Egypt, and the right-wing decided to give Chevron to the PLO.” “It was the right wing that decided to throw out the Jews from the Gaza Strip, and the right-wing that gave up Jericho.”  “The right-wing is responsible for the building freeze for Jews in East Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.” “But we are also the right wing!”, says King. “The politicians are talking that it’s good for the Jewish people to divide the city–This is our biggest threat.”And this is why the Israel Land Fund is so important because it is fighting this idea of dividing the city. The Israel Land Fund is bringing people right to the areas where the so-called right-wing politicians want to give it to our enemies.

According to Rabbi Ben Packer, “In order to invest in Jerusalem, one needs to have the financial means for investment, however, if you are already in Israel, it costs nothing more to visit these important strategic sites.”“The job of every Jew is securing and strengthening the Jewish presence in Jerusalem so that people from all over the world can come there and experience it”.  We all say “BoneiYerushalayim” numerous times a day whether it’s in davening or after we eat, something we’re all saying, but we should also be doing.

Aryeh King says, “As Deputy Mayor, I’m calling to all Jews to find their way to Jerusalem, to make Aliyah is the best way, but it’s important to the municipality of Jerusalem for every Jew to come and learn and visit”. “My goal in the municipality is to serve every Jew.” “I represent the Jewish interest in this city and not just the Israeli Jews, but every Jew wherever they are in our only holy city in the world.”

For more information on these important sites to visit that many tour guides may neglect to take you, contact the Israel Land Fund and you can learn where to visit.

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