Jerusalem then and now Native son Rivlin talks to ‘Post’ for Jerusalem Day • By GREER FAY CASHMAN blow the shofar by the West- ern Wall, even though such By definition, the role of the an act was frowned on by the president of Israel is apolit- British Mandate authorities ical and largely ceremonial, who did not want to sanction but that does not prevent him any activity that would an tag- (or her) from defending the onize the Arab population. integrity and legitimacy of After the reunification of the state and its capital Jerusa- Jerusalem in June 1967, Segal lem when talking to represen- was the first former resident tatives of foreign countries, of the Old City to return there especially heads of state and to live. government. At that time much of the President Reuven Rivlin was Old City was rubble, but for not yet nine years old when REUVEN RIVLIN (Marc Israel Sellem/The jerusalem Post) the state came into being, but See NOW, Page 7 young as he was, he could understand the significance NOW___________ ary of the Jewish state. of that momentous turn of Continued from Page 1 “It was a mystic Zionism,” he the tide in Jewish history - said, referring to a book, Vision from a people almost exter- Segal who had been exiled of Zion, which was written by minated during the Second from his home for 19 years, the Rabbi Eliahu Ben Solomon Zal- World War to a nation reborn rubble was a matter of little con- man, better known as the Gaon only three years after that war ofVilna. ended. sequence. Rivlin served with the Intel- A movement established by His mother, Rachel, had ligence Corps in the Israel followers of the Gaon of Vilna been an active member of the Defense Forces, and during the in 1771 came to Jerusalem in Irgun, one of the Jewish resis- Six Day War, fought as a reserv- 1809 hoping to greet the Mes- tance movements that fought ist with the Jerusalem Brigade siah. The Hebrew calendar year the British, and it was almost and was also an intelligence was Tav Kuf Ayin, which the impossible for him and his officer in the Paratroop Brigade. Gaon ofVilna interpreted as the siblings not to know some- He also escorted convoys travel- blowing of the shofar to hail the thing of her activities, and ing to Mount Scopus. arrival of the Messiah. why she was involved. For as long as he can remem- The Rivlin family was among Before the establishment of ber, Rivlin has been an unoffi- those who came at that time. the state, Rivlin frequently cial spokesman for Jerusalem. When the Messiah didn’t come accompanied his father, Prof. Long before he became presi- in 1809, it was thought that he Yosef Yoel Rivlin, to meetings dent, when he served as a mem- might come in 1840, but again with academics - both Jewish ber of the Jerusalem City Coun- he failed to do so. Rivlin jokes and Arab, and from time to cil, when he was the manager that the descendants of the time they went to the Old of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer followers of the Gaon of Vilna City, especially for the con- team and later as a member of have been going to bed with eluding prayers on Yom Kip- Knesset, communications min- their shoes on ever since, so that pur, so that they could hear ister and Knesset speaker, he if the Messiah does arrive they Rabbi Moshe Halevi Segal unfailingly introduced Jerusa- can run out to greet him. lem into his conversations. At that time all the Jews in Even before he became the Jerusalem lived in the Old City. country’s No. 1 citizen, Rivlin The Ashkenazim who came was a walking symbol of Jeru- from Europe, said Rivlin, had salem, always responding to long been preceded by Sep- greetings by radio or television hardim who came from Spain, interviewers with “Shalom Morocco and the Balkans as from Jerusalem, the capital of much as three centuries earlier. Israel.” Although initially under Turk- Since becoming president ish rule, and then under British in July 2014, Rivlin appears to rule, the Jewish population ere- be saying this more frequent- ated a community infrastruc- ly than ever before, mainly ture of hospitals, schools, syn- because of his packed work day. agogues, housing for the poor After nearly four years in and even a facility for the men- office in which he had given tally ill, long before the First only one interview to The Jeru- Aliya that took place between salem Post, at the start of his sev- en-year-term, he finally agreed ALMOST EVERY Jew is aware to be interviewed for Jerusalem of the aspiration “Next year Day. The time that was set was in Jerusalem” that is part and half an hour. parcel of Jewish liturgy. Rivlin The conversation was almost noted that this attachment to entirely about Jerusalem then Jerusalem was a form of Zion- and now, and the interview ism that preceded the political went on for an hour and a quar- Zionist movement that was ini- ter. Rivlin was in his element hated by Theodor Herzl, who is talking about the city that he credited with being the vision- loves so much, and would have happily continued but for the fact that members of his staff were knocking at his door with urgent matters to which he had to attend. The character of Jerusalem changed with its demographic growth, said Rivlin. There were many neighbor- hoods that, in the immediate aftermath of the Six Day War, were not under Israeli rule. He remembers sitting with Teddy Kollek, Moshe Dayan and Uzi Narkiss to determine how far reaching Israeli rule should be. Someone else at the meeting commented that Jerusalem is a cul-de-sac surrounded by a sea of Arab neighborhoods, with an isolated Jewish community, and that it should become a sea of Jewish neighborhoods. These areas include Gilo, French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, Pis- gat Ze'ev and Ramot, and the PRESIDENT REUVEN RIVLIN speaks at the Western Wall. (Facebook) Jewish population in these areas now numbers in excess of 300,000. 1882 and 1903. own quarter, of which very little The Gymnasia Rehavia high MANY PEOPLE ask why Jeru- Dayan wanted to include Many of the people of the is left today. The North African school was attended by many salem is so important, he said. Kalandiya and a-Ram, but First Aliya were from North Afri- Jewish Heritage Center, hidden well-known figures such as Aside from its historic and Rivlin had disagreed at the ca and Yemen, although there behind King David and Agron author A.B. Yehoshua, who was religious significance for Jews, time, saying that there were were also some who had fled streets, the main thoroughfares Rivlin's scout leader, Rivlin him- Christians and Muslims, it has too many Arabs living in those the Russian pogroms, he added. that border it, is virtually all that self, future minister Dan Meri- to be remembered that the villages to turn them into Jew- For them, and others who remains of the community that dor and future MK Nachman United Nations tried to declare ish neighborhoods. Aside from came after them, it was Jerusa- Shai, to name but a few. Jerusalem as an international once was. which, Kalandiya and a-Ram lem more than the Land of Isra- In the 1860s, Yosef Rivlin Although Rehavia is and city in order to neutralize the lead to Ramallah, and should el that they envisaged as their and Yoel Moshe Salomon, who was an upscale neighborhood, Arab contention that sovereign- therefore not be under Israeli destination. according to the president were Rivlin said that most of the Ash- ty can be only under an Islamic sovereignty. The Second Aliya, from 1904 soul mates, built Nahlat Shiva, kenazim who lived there did administration. But Kalandiya had an airport to 1914, was made up for the and to this day their descen- not own their apartments, but “In the early years of the state, that Dayan wanted to put at most part of socialist Zionists dants are arguing as to which of paid key money. However, afflu- immigrants wanted to come the disposal of Jerusalem. At from Eastern Europe, many of the two built the first house in ent Sephardim such as the Kuki- only to Jerusalem, and when that time, Dayan was already them well educated, who want- the neighborhood. ya, Eliachar and Valero families the boat or the truck brought speaking of a two-state solu- ed to return to their ancestral After that, other neighbor- who also lived there did own them to transit camps and tion, and Rivlin had told him calling and work the land. hoods such as Mea She’arim, their houses. development towns, they pro- that you can’t have an airport Rivlin cited as an example Batei Ungarim and Even Israel While the Jewish intellectu- tested and asked where they with two international borders. Josef Trumpeldor, who though - all of them haredi quarters, als lived primarily in Rehavia, had been taken to.” famed for his military activities sprang up. There is a common the Arab elite built an upscale When Herzl proposed the EVERY FOREIGN DIGNITARY was actually a law graduate who belief that the first word in the neighborhood in Katamon, Uganda Scheme as an alterna- who comes to the President’s wanted to be a farmer. Even Israel neighborhood is an said Rivlin. tive to the Holy Land at the Residence is told by Rivlin that Up until the time of Moses acronym for Av Ben Neched, During the period in which Sixth Zionist Congress in Basel UNESCO cannot issue political Montefiore, who built Mish- which translates as father son Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selas- in August 1903, said Rivlin, decrees about Jerusalem that kenot Sha’ananim - regarded grandson - and a sign of the sie lived in exile, he also lived many people walked out of the defy history or today’s reality.