23 Responses

1. Are you sure he was “the most”? I seem to recall some doozies in Haifa and Tel Aviv, although I don’t remember details.

2. kollak was not mayer of yerushalayim , but of jerushalim:. some years ago(12-15) it was reported that he was no jewish , that his mothers mother was an arab that his father was ‘mezaneh’ & his father wife raised him &he was ‘modeh’ & said it dosnot mater becouse he was raised a jew. any info.??

3. Good riddance

4. there in yrushalayim g.argun that made mix swiming & died 3mo. after a pulsha denurah from badaz

5. yemach shemo v’zichro

6. Kollek’s mother was a European Xian, not an Arab. He was born in Vienna.
   She never converted; indeed he was not Jewish.

7. He will be burried in Mt Herzl, which will be one of the quietest places when Techyas Hameisim occurs.

8. gut gezukt eman

9. Itzik: if so is the case that he was not a jew we can say ‘yemach shemo vzichro’ becouse ‘ saem risoim yercov’ they are not to be remembered

10. I just heard a tape from R. Amnon Yitzhak, with a great roshei teivos: “Ki Dvar Hashem Boza (BZH)” = Binyamin Ze’ev Herzel. I guess Teddi Kollek was Totally Krum.

11. In case anyone is interested, “Teddy Kollek” B’gematria equals “Vayovo Amolek”

12. Can’t anyone say a good word about him? Here’s a few. In l938, Kollek met Adolf Eichmann and was able to persuade him to release 3000 Jewish youths from concentration camps in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, and allow them to leave Vienna and emigrate to England.
    He decided, partly under the influence of the rabbonim, to give the Arabs access to the Temple Mount, bowing to da’as Torah, as it is forbidden for a Jew to go up there.” He also oversaw the rebuilding of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, where mostly haredi Jews live today.

    Regarding missionaries, Kollek said: ‘Missionaries are here and they are working. But we dislike their presence.

    FYI, he did have redeeming qualities.

13. Yasher Koach, Mordy. It is much better to find good things to say about people – especially when they deserve some Hakoras Hatov.

    FYI, look at Arutz Sheva – Meir Porush also provides a balanced assessment – and some praise – of Teddy.

14. bugnot:
    There is a story said over from the Chazon Ish where he corrected an individual for saying yemach shemo on Ben Gurion. He said “if upon dying without children his wife would be zukuk to Yibum, the the chiyuv of hakomas sheim precludes you from saying yemach shemo”.
    While there is a sofeik of the roots of his yidishkeit, I still think we should reserve yemach shemo for far more deserving people.
    Trust me, it’s tempting to add yemach shemo to Achmend Weiss and Mohammad Beck, but we then make the saying less powerful.

15. Anyone remember the graffiti on the garbage cans during the Mammila and Givat Hatzarfatet hafganos “Tizaher Teddi Be’Fnim.”

16. Thank you MORDY, for bringing some sanity to the logins.
    EMAN-The soldiers who died al kiddush hashem to allow us to visit, learn and pray at the mekomos hakedoshim are buried at Mt. Herzl, so dont count on the quiet at ahrias hayamim.

17. To Mordy:
    Teddy Kolek was one of two messangers of Ben Guryon (‘Y.S.V.’ or ‘S.R.Y.’ – whatever you want) to stop Joel Brand from trading mony for Jews with Eichman (…). They eventually handed him over to the British for giving money to Nazis (see Min HaMeitzar and more). The only “youths” he saved were a few leftist zionists from his party.

18. It is easy to smash people, but Teddy was not in the category of real Sonei Yisroel. Whether Jewish or not, we can have hakaros hatov for the good he did and be happy that today we have come full circle and have a frum mayor!

19. There is no mitzva to be nice to r’shoim. you get no ‘brownie points’ in olam ha’emes for it.

    Rabbenu Yonah writes in Shaar Shlishi, under the “Kat HaCHanofim”, that saying Shevach on Reshoim places one in the Kat HaCHanofim. He states that it is tantamount to saying that you are smarter than G-d, more merciful than G-d, more of a “mentsch” than G-d. G-d has no room for him, but YOUR heart IS big enough.

    You may fairly state that it ‘is not for us to judge” who is a Rosho or not; and to some degree you may be correct. Justice Felix Frankfurter of the U.S. Supreme court, when asked in an obscenity case to define obscenity, stated that ‘he can’t define it’, but he would know it when he saw it. Take a look in the world around you to see how low that vague, ‘goody two-shoes” attitude caused the moral decline of society.

    There are many Reshoim that are hard to define; Teddy’s not one of them. Maybe one needn’t ‘dance on his grave, but he should most certainly be defined correctly.

    Chazal told us that Kul Hamiracheim al ha’achzor… sofo l’hisachzer al harachmon. Next time that you full of venom at some Yeshiva-man that cut you off in traffic, remember what a mah yofisnik you were forTeddy Kollek.

20. good point, Nu nu

21. Isn’t there something like “ain midabrim al shochnei afar”? I heard this from an Odom Gadol once I think it was Rabbi Keller at an Aguda convention (back in the days when they taped his speeches)

22. באבוד‮ ‬רשעים‮ ‬רינה
    he hated religius jews we in jerusalem suferd in yidishkyt

23. all with u “nu nu”!.just look at ‘yyy’ frum yeden that whant to be frum had 2 suffer. there is no teriz for chillel non at all not ina 1,000,000 years