With his huge smile and heart, Rabbi Uri Lupolianski left us his chesed playbook
Those words by MK Rabbi Meir Porush basically sum up what everyone was feeling last week with the heartbreaking passing of Rabbi Uri Lupolianski a”h, quintessential public servant, Jerusalem’s first and only chareidi mayor, and most notably, the founder and longtime head of the massive chesed organization Yad Sarah.
Despite almost 20 years in which he was also steeped in the aggressive, often ruthless environment of Jerusalem municipal politics — he served on the Jerusalem City Council for 14 years before becoming mayor from 2003 to 2008 — this sweet man with the broadest smile and biggest heart became media shy in the last decade of his life and rarely spoke to the press.
That’s because three years after leaving his mayoral post, he was dragged through the political swamp as part of an indictment (with 17 others) for allegedly helping advance various real estate ventures in the capital, back in the 1990s when he served on the city council. Unlike the other defendants, however, Lupolianski never put a shekel into his own pocket — those monies became unwitting tzedakah, helping to buy crutches, wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, and myriad other supplies that alleviated the burden of the government health funds. In the end, his six-year sentence was commuted to six months of community service — even the strictest judges couldn’t see this selfless communal advocate actually doing jail time.
Since extricating himself from the legal quicksand, he has avoided publicity, preferring to retreat behind the scenes to do what he knew best: helping other people. Sitting in his office at Yad Sarah, the chesed empire he single-handedly built almost 50 years ago out of his own home that now has over 100 branches around the country, it was clear that Uri Lupolianski didn’t miss the years of cutthroat politics.
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