retirement home apartment at the age of 95. The Jerusalem Foundation, the fund-raising organization he established, announced his death, saying it was of natural causes.
Kollek was re-elected five times, serving as the city’s longest-running mayor until he was ousted in 1993 by Ehud Olmert, who went on to become prime minister.
Olmert described his former political archrival on Tuesday, January 2, as the man whose "name will always be an inseparable part of Jerusalem’s glory." The late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin reportedly called Kollek "the greatest builder of Jerusalem since Herod the Great."
WEST JERUSALEM
Kollek became mayor in what was Jewish West Jerusalem in 1965 and soon became a champion of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, commentators said.
His service as mayor during the unification of Jerusalem after the 1967 war boosted his profile and made him one of the country’s most popular public figures, Israeli media commented. Kollek was quoted as saying that he envisioned the city as a "beautiful mosaic" where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side in peace.
"Teddy was Jerusalem and Jerusalem was Teddy. He embodied in his spirit and his personality the true unification of Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Israel," said Uri Lupolianski, the city’s current mayor.
Born Theodor Kollek in 1911, he immigrated to British-run Palestine from Vienna at the age of 24. Observers say he launched more ambitious building and restoration projects in Jerusalem than any other city leader since the 16th century.
MANY PROJECTS
Turing his tenure as mayor Kollek participated in the creation of the Israel Museum, the Jerusalem Theater, the Jerusalem Cinematheque, Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Teddy Stadium and many other institutions in the city.
A close friend of the famous Jewish violinist Isaac Stern, Kollek also had a passion for art and architecture, people who knew him said.
Kollek was to be buried on Thursday, January 4, in a state funeral in a section of Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery reserved for Israel’s leaders. (With BosNewsife Research and reports from Israel).
