Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky joined over 100,000
participants at the Salute to Israel Parade in Manhattan,
including Jewish activists and communal heads, and thousands
of students from schools throughout New York and
elsewhere.
Marching alongside Mayor Lupoliansky were New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Yaakov Edri,
Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman, Israel's
Consul General in New York Aryeh Mekel, rabbonim and
community leaders. Mayor Bloomberg named Mayor Lupoliansky
the Grand Marshall of the parade in recognition of his work
for the sake of Jerusalem, making him the first non-US
citizen to receive the honor.
"Yerushalayim, oro shel olom, knows how to recognize
and show appreciation to its millions of supporters around
the world who make its development and thriving possible,"
said Rabbi Lupoliansky, who thanked Bloomberg for his
contribution to Jerusalem and also for the development of
Torah institutions in New York. "Jerusalem has no sister
cities, yet I'm happy to have something in common with Mayor
Bloomberg, who is a warm Jew and the mayor of the biggest
Jewish community in the world, and whose efforts for the
Torah world remind everyone that our strength is in the merit
of those who sit and learn in Jerusalem, in New York and
everywhere Jews live."
He invited Bloomberg to visit Eretz Yisroel, and Bloomberg
responded affirmatively, saying he would come to Jerusalem
for a visit three months from now.
Rabbi Lupoliansky spent the Shabbos before the parade in
Brooklyn, where he gave shiurim and spoke in several
botei knesses in Boro Park and Flatbush. On Motzei
Shabbos over 1,000 people turned out for a gathering of the
heads of Israel Bonds and other Jewish communities. Mayor
Lupoliansky praised the participants for the Torah and
chessed programs they built and called on them to make
aliya, bringing their programs with them and buying
apartments in Jerusalem.
At the beginning of the week he hosted US business leaders
who arrived from across the country. Many of the participants
pledged to assist programs in Jerusalem and called on Mayor
Lupoliansky to open Yad Sarah branches in the US as well,
which is just as badly in need of the organization's
services.
During his visit Mayor Lupoliansky was also contacted by
presidential hopefuls Rudy Giuliani and Hilary Clinton, who
asked him to call on Jews to support them in the elections.
The Mayor praised the candidates and thanked them —
both privately and publicly — for their contributions
to Jerusalem.
