Who says you can’t fight city hall? Deputy Mayor Yosef (Yosi) Havilio battled against Mayor Moshe Lion – even though the liberal-minded lawyer is a member of the coalition – and won, but only a partial victory.
The fate of the capital’s oldest Jewish hospital, Bikur Cholim – opened on Straus Street in 1925 after moving from the Old City and closed in 2020 – will determine whether downtown Jerusalem is accessible to all its residents.
So said Havilio, the longtime community activist and politician who, for decades, has represented the voice of the secular, pluralistic, and traditional community in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox)-dominated municipality and is a deputy mayor heading the Ha’ihud Ha’Yerushalmi faction.
The municipality had approved plans to allocate the historic and much more beautiful eastern building for a seminary for 1,000 haredi teenage girls run by the Slonim Hassidic community, triggering an uproar among liberal Jerusalemites. Havilio said the mayor’s plan was illegal, and various opponents threatened a lawsuit.
“This is a historic mistake,” Havilio told In Jerusalem. “At present, the border between haredi residents and institutions and non-haredi ones is on Hanevi’im Street. A haredi seminary would move the border by a few meters south to Jaffa Road. The city center will then not be allowed to have places of entertainment, cafés, or stores that could remain open on Shabbat or any liberal projects.
“Now, the hassidim have gotten permission from Lion to move 250 or 300 teenage haredi girls to the western building facing the historic edifice instead of 1,000, with strict separation between them and the boys who already study there. But at least they won’t control both sides of the street. Our achievement is far from complete.”
'The gate will be locked'
Regarding the magnificent eastern building, which has been listed as one of the 100 most beautiful structures in the city, Havilio declared: “There are other places in Jerusalem where the seminary could be located.
“If the hassidim take control of the eastern building, it will no longer be open to the public, and the gate will be locked,” Havilio warned. “It should serve the broader public.”