Sallai Meridor has dedicated his life to Israel and to Jerusalem.

Sallai Meridor

He’s been an adviser to two Israeli cabinet ministers – the defence minister and and the minister of foreign affairs – and he was the chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. Then he went on to become Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

For the past year, Meridor has been the international chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation, a volunteer position he assumed in 2009.

“I am proud to have the opportunity to join other [volunteers] in strengthening Jerusalem. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction,” says Meridor, 55, who was born and raised in Rehavia and now lives with his wife and three daughters in Kfar Adumim.

“For me, it’s a combination between a great privilege and a great responsibility. Jerusalem is the most wonderful city on earth, in my humble opinion, and I feel Jerusalemite in every bit of my soul.”

Meridor, whose family came to Israel in the 1930s from Vienna, can remember a time when the city was divided. “Jerusalem was every day in our upbringing – it was every day in our hearts. My father would take us to different spots and look toward the Old City. We could not even see the Wall, but we lived with the dream of seeing the city reunited,” he recalls. “We lived to see that dream come true.”

Nowadays, the city faces different challenges – from maintaining positive relations between the various disparate factions of Jerusalem’s population to strengthening the economic viability of the city.

Meridor says the population of tax-contributing, Zionist Jews in Jerusalem is shrinking relative to the Arab and haredi populations, a trend that doesn’t bode well, either for the city’s economic future or its global Jewish status.

“If the percentage of those working in the city is shrinking and those in need of social welfare is widening, in the end the economy could collapse,” says Meridor. “We want to keep Jerusalem relevant and meaningful and strong, not only for its inhabitants, but for all Israelis and all Jewish people.”

The biggest current issue, he says, is the negative migration from the city of young people and families. “We have to work hard to keep young families, to create conditions for those people to choose to stay in the city. It’s a major challenge.”

The Jerusalem Foundation, which works in conjunction with the municipality, aims to improve Jerusalem’s elementary-level education options. “We want to make the Jerusalem [grade] school experience the best in Israel so that young families, whose number 1 criteria for choosing where to settle is their children’s education, will choose Jerusalem,” says Meridor. “We want to create a community environment that is supportive, that people will like to join rather than leave.”

The foundation is working with students at the city’s academic institutions. According to Meridor, thanks to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and other colleges, Jerusalem is home to some 40,000 students every year. The question is, how to get them to stay in Jerusalem and create a life for themselves in the city after they graduate.

“We need to create opportunities for them to stay in the city after they’ve completed their studies,” says Meridor. “This focus on young people is extremely important. They are the future and the most important asset for us to develop.”

Besides working directly with students, the foundation has its sights set on improving the city and making it more appealing to this population by encouraging the development of leisure opportunities in the city centre.

“We want to create more opportunities for enjoying leisure time in the city – museums, sports, culture – so that while people feel that Jerusalem, with all its sacred holiness must be preserved, they also feel they can live modern lives that are no different from anywhere else in Israel,” says Meridor. “We want to help people enjoy life in Jerusalem in a significant way and at the same time strengthen the positioning of the city, so that it will be a cool place to live.”

On this score, Meridor says the Canadian Jewish community has been instrumental. “The Canadian community has been outstanding in its support of Jerusalem’s city centre,” he says.

For example, it’s thanks in large part to funding from the Canadian community that the city’s central open market, Mahane Yehuda, is the tourist attraction it is today. “It used to be a place that people would stay away from, and now people from Tel Aviv come to stroll there,” says Meridor.

Currently, the Canadian community is helping to achieve similar results in the city’s Musrara neighbourhood. “We are taking a neighbourhood that has been very challenging and turning it around to become a centre, a magnet, for young people,” says Meridor.

“We are very proud of the significant partnership of Jews in Canada in Jerusalem, and Jews in Canada should be very proud of their share in our Jerusalem. I mean that in the largest sense possible,” says Meridor. “After 2,000 years that we could only pray for Jerusalem, now we have the opportunity to take part in building the city and making it what we were dreaming of.”