Amal Mourns the Passing of Former Mayor of Jerusalem

Amal Educational Network is mourning the passing of Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky, who left this world last week and leaves behind a city, a country, and countless hearts shaped by his quiet, determined kindness. His story began far from ceremonies and titles, in a modest home where a worried father searched for a simple medical device for his sick child and discovered how alone a person can feel when the system has no answer. From that moment of helplessness grew a decision that would change Israeli society: to open his door, to lend what he had, and to invite others to join, until a few items on a shelf became Yad Sarah, a nationwide network of volunteers, branches, and acts of help offered to anyone in need, without asking who they are or where they come from.​

When he later entered Jerusalem’s City Hall as the city’s first ultra-Orthodox mayor, he brought with him the same inner compass that said leadership is, first and foremost, service to people. In a city marked by tension, diversity, and deep disagreements, he sought to be a mayor who listened, who could see the elderly resident needing a ramp, the child needing a safe route to school, the family needing a hand at the hardest moment. His public path was not free of controversy, and the Holyland affair cast a painful shadow that demanded serious reflection about ethics, power, and the danger of believing that important goals can justify compromised means. Yet even within this complexity, many chose to remember a man whose instinct was to ask “How can I help?” and who, over decades, built one of Israel’s most significant infrastructures of volunteerism and mutual responsibility.​

For the Amal community, mourning Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky also means turning his life story into a living educational text for students, teachers, and staff. His path reminds that good citizenship is not only about rights and duties, but about seeing the invisible, taking responsibility, and transforming empathy into organized, sustainable action that serves all parts of society. In Amal schools, his legacy can inspire each learner and educator to ask: What need do we see that no one is yet addressing, and how can we, with humility, integrity, and perseverance, build something that will make another person’s life easier, kinder, and more dignified so that the values of giving and doing good that Amal teaches will continue, in his spirit, to become deeds in the world outside.​