It is no surprise that former Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky is planning to appeal his six-year prison term handed down last week by the Tel Aviv District Court. According to Justice David Rosen, not all of the bribe money taken by Lupoliansky was given to Yad Sarah, and this is why Rosen opted for the harsh sentence despite Lupoliansky’s failing health.
The court stated Lupoliansky received almost 1 million shekels from late state witness, Shmuel Dechner, and that money was not given to Yad Sara. The money was used for building a shul and shul furniture including an aron kodesh, once again not taken personally by the former mayor but in the court’s eyes it was not given to Yad Sara and that seems to have made a difference. The court explained that money was not to assist those in need as is Yad Sara’s mission.
Dechner also passed 40,000 shekels to a yeshiva run by Lupoliansky’s son and the court viewed this in a different eye since it assisted his son’s enterprise.
Regarding the former mayor’s battle with cancer, Justice Rosen accepted the opinion of the Israel Prison Authority chief medical officer, that the system can accommodate the defendant’s medical needs while serving his sentence.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
14 Responses
One needs to remember that in the eyes of most Israelis (who are, after all, secular zionists), the fact that the “bribe” went to a frum tsadakah is an aggravating circumstance. By supporting hareidi civil society structures he was undermining the medinah – which is far more serious than his secular colleagues who were just out to make a dishonest buck. Consider in the US what would happen to a politician who encouraged someone doing business with the government to donate money to a group such as Al Queda or the Ku Klux Klan — to an Israel, hareidim are the enemies of society and anyone support them must be put down.
So we will have a government in exile , a president a prime minister, a mayor , some other officials who were dumped, not bad ,and the world shall respect them ?????
“in the eyes of most Israelis (who are, after all, secular zionists), the fact that the “bribe” went to a frum tsadakah is an aggravating circumstance.”
Let akuperma and TheYeshivaWorld.com step up to the plate and prove the above.
I assert that akuperma’s statement is a lie and slander.
Akuperma,when one reads your comments on YW one gets the impression that you are a Netura Karte ,which on it’s own bad enough.When one reads your comments on the anti frum web ,one must wonder when are you going to to teshuava?
To Dovid2
#1 is right!
We are talking about Israelies that matter to the people’s daily living, I.e the courts, police, government …..
These people’s action speak for them selves. Chareidim are aecond class to them and they are achzorim to them!!!!!
akuperma #1: Well said. Yasher koach. The truth needs to be stated every now and then and thank you for being the one to stand up and say what we all know in our hearts.
verizon49: I assume you are a Dati Leumi (nothing inherently wrong with that, a bit misguided on politics, but you guys are great at publishing useful books even if they need a grain of salt now and them – stick to publishing, give up on politics). The Dati Leumi thought they could take over the zionist movement, even though that movement, from the “get go” was devoted to taking Torah out of Judaism, and turning the Jewish people from the Am Kodesh to a goy like all the other goyim. Maybe you should admit you can’t take over the zionist movement, and in fact they are taking you over. I hate to paraphrase Niemöller’s famous line, but given the way things are going, you Religious Zionists should start to worry that some day you are going to be saying “First they came from the Hareidim … “
Aka pooka you have revealed yourself once again. What you care about is politics and what ones view on politics is. Not torah, yiras shamayim or emes. Look at the words you wrote.
That being said all torah observant Jews want all other Jews to do teshuvah. We have come a long way since the state was started. Although we have some bumps in the road we continue in this direction. And if it makes you politically wrong to think that goods for politics and the momzerim behind it. The hareidi communities yesivos and kollelim are thriving here walk into any one of them. There are hareidim in the kenesset in the states rabinate to make sure Jewish peoples yichus are ok before marrying (one of the fight that is going on right now), hashgochos, dayanim.
By the way you’re American political system was the basis if all the toeva rights campaign something that many liberal anti zionist Jews are part of.
You might realize that if you wouldn’t be so blinded by your faith in the American government.
dovid2 i assert that you are a shanda and a cherpah. Akuperma is 100 percent correct buiding chareidi civil society is anti medinah thats what most secular think and judge rosen as well. the fact that yad sarah was built up with those funds is being held against mr lupionski your asking theyeshivaworld.com to prove the secular hate charedidim?? its obvious all over israeli society
What is wrong with some people? Elected Officials who take bribes, no matter what they do with the money, is violating the very foundation and responsibility of their job and the fiduciary responsibility they have to the public.
For someone who portends to be a Torah Jew, it is even worse because we hold ourselves out to be morally superior because of our Torah based belief system. There is no justification, no legitimate excuse that is acceptable for unethical or immoral behaviors.
No one is perfect, people make mistakes and do wrong, however, don’t make excuses for bad behaviors.
Because of his illness, I do hope his sentence is reduced, but he does deserve to be punished.
And you have to be downright stupid to compare mesiras nefesh of shmiras hamitsvos in Israel today to that of Soviet Russia or Germany our any where else we have been in golus.
Now we finally have achdus amongst us since the tragedy had happened.
You in the other only care about making a yom tov every time a secular Israeli does something wrong like this you get to politic about it.
Do you actually care about Lopuliansky do you have him in mind in your tefilos
To #7,you wrote “I assume you are a Dati Leumi “NO I AM NOT Dati Leumi (a good lesson in life DO NOT assume anything). I am B”h orthodox Jew,who happens to have respect to ALL JEWS as long as they DO NOT make chillul Hashem and do not hate other Jews.Did you start doing Teshuva?
Seven hours after my first post, neither akuperma, nor TheYeshivaWorld.com have come up with evidence that
“in the eyes of most Israelis (who are, after all, secular zionists), the fact that the “bribe” went to a frum tsadakah is an aggravating circumstance.”
I am an Israeli. I love my fellow Yiden, frum, less frum, or frei. They are all Hashem’s kinderlach. A father has good children and less good children. But here we have akuperma pontificating about a large section of the Yiden in Eretz Israel about what’s right or wrong. The judge was wrong for equating Reb Uri who devoted his life for the k’lal with that of Olmert, a selfish, arrogant, egomaniac politician and giving them comparable sentences. Israelis know full well who Olmert is and what he stands for. But equally wrong is (1) akuperma for slandering fellow Yiden in a public forum, and (2) TheYeshivaWorld.com for giving akuperma a platform to spread his slander.
Lupoliansky got arrested for sure due to Midah kneged Midah. He is getting divine retribution for being instrumental in allowing the first Toevah parade in Jerusalem (R’l).