The following open letter to Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon was sent by a long-time Har Nof resident who is among the many who object to the mayor’s recently-announced decision to change the name of Har Nof to Neot Yosef.

Mayor Moshe Leon
Jerusalem Municipality

Dear Mayor Leon:

I am a Jerusalem resident having lived in Har Nof since September 1985, some two years after I made Aliyah with my family from London.

Last Thursday the press was flooded with the news that you personally had decided to rename Har Nof, “Naot Yosef”, which frankly sounds more appropriate to an old age home than a Jerusalem neighborhood. The comments from the Municipality were careful to stress that this was a considered process and the decision was a unanimous consensus arrived at after consultation with many different groups [although the Minhelet of Har Nof was not one of them]. That “unanimous consensus” suggestion is to put it very politely, in the words of the UK Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, used during the Australian ‘Spycatcher’ trial in 1986 “economical with the truth”. What’s the meaning of the phrase ‘Economical with the truth’? Let’s politely say conveying a “nuanced” version of events by leaving out the important facts.

On November 3, 2019, ה’ חשון you invited members of the Street Names Committee to attend a meeting of the committee on November 5, 2019 ז’חשון.

The first item on the agenda is: To change the name of Har Nof to “Naot Yosef” which is based on a request from Deputy Mayor Ruchberger dated 3/11/2019 and an undated and unsigned similar request from Council Member Zvika Assulin.

The Jerusalem Municipality website has a section about street names. Clearly naming a neighborhood, and how much more so changing the name of a long-established neighborhood, is an even more serious process than naming a new street. The website includes the following sentences: “The choice of names to commemorate the streets of Jerusalem is not a simple task. With our election, we led a significant reform in the municipality, whose uniqueness is the careful, sensitive and binding process in which names are chosen for commemoration in the streets of Jerusalem. We worked to streamline the commemoration procedures and made the process professional, transparent and practical. We have established two independent committees, including a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court justice. The reform reflects the selection process, which is free of all extraneous considerations and political interests.” The bolding is mine.

Jerusalem Municipality Procedural document 41.5028-4 speaks of requests to name streets etc. coming to the Street Names Committee after the request has been considered by two committees: ועדת האישים וועדת מייעצת. There is no indication that those committees have sat and considered the requests from Deputy Mayor Rucberger and Council Member Assulin. Getting a request four days after a decision is announced with great fanfare and then inviting members of a Municipal committee to a meeting to consider the already decided change of name, is not the professional, transparent process you promised. It is also difficult to see how it can be said to fulfill your promise that naming in Jerusalem would henceforth be free of all extraneous considerations and political interests. It is worth noting that the next item on the agenda deals with a request first made in December 2017.

Please take renaming Har Nof off the agenda as there is no pressing urgency that requires it to be considered with such haste, especially as the request has not passed through the וועדות האישים ומייעצת, i.e. there has been no due process.

If this request meets with no positive response an urgent ex-parte application to Court may be considered, requesting a declaration that Item 1 on the Street Names Committee meeting fixed for 5/11/2019 cannot be discussed due to lack of due process. The State of Israel is not a banana republic and the city of Jerusalem is not a personal fiefdom.

It would certainly be nice to have a new neighborhood in Jerusalem named after Rabbis Elyashiv and Yosef, and also Rabbi Yosef Burg as well representing the Dati Leumi community, although their collective memory would be far better served by the Municipality supporting Torah observance in our holy City not encouraging the various forms of abomination the Municipality actively supports. The memory of the Har Nof Kedoshim brutally slain in the terrorist massacre on 25 Cheshvan 5775 is intimately entwined with the name of the neighborhood of Har Nof. Why take Har Nof away from them?

I look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency. Despite my many years here I feel better able to express myself in English and the Municipality clearly accepts the use of English as a language of communication given that its own website is also in English.

Nesanel Peterman
Har Nof
[email protected]

cc:- מנכ”ל העירייה מר איציק לארי
מר עידו רוזנברג – מזכיר מועצת העיר
גב’ מלכה דרור – מבקרת העירייה
עו”ד שמואל שפט – ראש צוות חקיקה
מר משה מרגליות – ראש הסגל
מר ישראל טל-סרנגה – דובר העירייה
גב’ יונה – מזכירה ועדת שמות לרחובות
מר אליעזר ראוכברגר – סגן ומ”מ ראש העיר
מר צביקה אסולין – חבר הנהלה
מר יוסי דייטש – סגן ראש העיר
מר אלי וייזר – מנהל מינהל קהילתי הר נוף
גב’ שולמית דותן – יו”ר ועדת מייעצת לשמות רחובות
מר שמעון ניר – יו”ר ועדת אישים לשמות רחובות

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(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)