Jerusalem Mayor-Elect Moshe Leon on Tuesday entered his new post in Safra Square, Jerusalem City Hall. During the official inauguration ceremony, they also took leave of outgoing Mayor Nir Barkat, who served two terms, ten years.

Leon addressed the event. He explained that while the yearning traces back throughout the generations, for him, “the journey really began in 83 years ago, in 1935, when my grandfather Moshe arrived from Salonika with a one-and-a-half-year-old in his arms, carrying my father Shlomo. However, life brought us to Tel Aviv and Givatayim, but for this moment, the journey to Jerusalem, which was always present in the home, our tefilos, songs, our hearts and every moment of simcha and sorrow.

“Dear Father,” the mayor turned to his father: “See, the journey is over, and here we stand at the gates of Jerusalem, and it is a great privilege for me to make a bracha בשם ומלכות, using Hashem’s name and reciting Shehechiyanu…”

“On the other hand, I have merited sitting in the seat of David HaMelech, as the first Jewish mayor, David Auster said. On the other side, I have to get up every morning and clean the streets, build neighborhoods to develop businesses and raise budgets. There are many challenges ahead, but the first and most important one for me is the unification of the residents, all under a positive and good spirit.”

“But perhaps in a heavenly way I sit on the throne of King David,” Leon concluded his first speech as mayor: “But all the residents of Jerusalem are before me in a long line; Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, veterans and immigrants, young and old. They all demand that which they are entitled to, and I remain committed to all of them and also promise that I will dedicate all my energy to their service.”

Note: Daniel Auster was Mayor of Jerusalem in the final years of Mandatory Palestine, the first Jewish mayor of the city, and the first mayor of Jerusalem after Israeli independence.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)