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OCTOBER 29,| The 2015Jewish | The Jewish JULY 8, 2021 Home Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
“It’s the Capital City of the Jewish People” TJH Speaks with Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem BY SUSAN SCHWAMM
Fleur, it’s a pleasure speaking with you. Although you’ve been living in Israel for many years, you grew up in Gibraltar. That’s right. I come from a traditional Sephardi family. My father, actually, was the chief minister, which is like the prime minister, of Gibraltar, for many years. He was the first chief minister of Gibraltar, and so I grew up in a political family. My father was a very humble man and tried to keep everything very simple for us. But I did learn from him, and my mother, of course, about public service. I studied in England – I’m a lawyer by profession – and I made aliyah 20 years ago with my husband. Our children were born here. I was always a bit of a Zionist, and I’m so thrilled that I’ve spent most of my career serving the Jewish people. I worked in nonprofit for many years.
I was a Jerusalem city councilwoman for two-and-a-half years, and now, for two-and-ahalf years, I’ve been one of the deputy mayors of Jerusalem. I’m in charge of foreign relations, economic development, and tourism. Those are interesting portfolios to hold, especially during a pandemic. Absolutely. It’s not only that tourism was affected during the pandemic. I would think foreign relations is so important now as well, along with economic development. Agreed – especially in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is an international city. It’s a city that many people around the world love. Of course, it’s also the capital city of the Jewish peo-
ple, not just the state of Israel, and I’m very, very cognizant of that. During the Corona, for example, there were many moments when we actually did a very good job at combatting the virus, and so it was a privilege to be able to share those best practices and experiences with lots of different cities around the world to see how we could help them. And so yes, it’s been an interesting year. The last month [during the Gaza conflict] has been a very negative part of the year with conflict and with the terrible, terrible attacks in the press. We are watching from here all the anti-Semitic attacks in the United States and in Europe very helplessly. It’s very frustrating. You’re involved in foreign relations for Jerusalem. Did the Gaza conflict and the situation in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbor-
