Uri Lupolianski

Lupolianski was born in Haifa in August 1951. He attended the Yavne School in Haifa and Yeshivat Hanegev, served in the Israel Defense Forces as a medic, and later taught at a religious school in Jerusalem. He moved with his family to Jerusalem in the 1970s, studied public administration, and was ordained as a rabbi by chief rabbinical court judges in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.[1][2]

He was married to Michal, née Schneller, and they had 12 children. A later obituary reported that they also had more than 50 grandchildren.[1][2]

Lupolianski entered Jerusalem municipal politics in 1989, winning a City Council seat as a representative of Degel HaTorah. He later served as lead deputy mayor, chaired the Planning and Building Committee, and held responsibility for family services and community affairs. He also served on the National Building and Planning Committee and the Committee for the Development of Holy Places.[1][2]

By 2002 he was Senior Deputy Mayor and Acting Mayor. After Ehud Olmert resigned in early 2003, Lupolianski became acting mayor; in June that year he won election as the United Torah Judaism candidate. He received 90,090 votes, or 51.39% of votes cast, against Nir Barkat’s 74,550 votes, or 42.49%, in an election with 38.02% turnout. The result made him Jerusalem’s first Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, mayor.[5][2]

Lupolianski served from 2003 to 2008 and did not seek a second term. He succeeded Olmert and was succeeded by Barkat, who defeated the Haredi candidate Meir Porush in 2008. The election ended five years of ultra-Orthodox control of City Hall.[2][6] In his victory speech, Lupolianski promised to maintain the status quo and said he viewed himself as representing all parts of the city’s population.[5]

His administration addressed planning and religious-site questions. During his mayoralty, he requested permission to enlarge the women’s section at Robinson’s Arch to match the men’s section by changing the route of the Mughrabi Path leading to the Temple Mount.[7] He also participated in the development of a Jerusalem master plan over the decade spanning the administrations of Olmert, Lupolianski, and Barkat. Barkat later said the plan had been discussed for five years in local and district planning committees and was being used in practice, although it was not yet official.[8]

In 2007, Lupolianski announced that residents could examine plans for a proposed walkway near the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary and submit objections. The consultation could delay construction but would not stop preparatory work already underway. The project followed the partial collapse of an ancient earthen ramp during a snowstorm three years earlier. The mayor’s spokesman said the consultation was intended to address Muslim concerns and make the process transparent.[9]

The walkway project was politically and religiously contentious. Palestinians and Arab countries accused Israel of intending to damage Muslim holy sites; Israel denied the accusation and said the work was about 50 yards from the complex. The consultation was presented by the mayor’s office as a way to clarify the process and address concerns.[9]

Lupolianski’s mayoralty also involved disputes over the Jerusalem Pride March. In 2005 he said he could not interfere with plans for an international World Gay Pride festival because police, rather than City Hall, licensed public events. Police had received requests not to issue a permit but had not yet decided. A later account said that, despite his personal position, he was required to support the march following a court instruction.[10][2]

Lupolianski founded Yad Sarah in 1976. The organization’s name honors his paternal grandmother Sarah, who was murdered in the Holocaust. A Jerusalem Post profile traced the initiative to a difficulty Lupolianski and his family faced in obtaining a steam vaporizer for a sick child. After neighbors asked to borrow the vaporizer, he bought more equipment; his father contributed 30,000 old lira in Sarah’s memory, helping the family lend items such as wheelchairs, walkers, and oxygen supplies.[11]

Yad Sarah grew from a home-based equipment-lending service into a nationwide nonprofit providing home-care equipment and services.[11][12] Its activities expanded to include emergency alarms for people confined to their homes, wheelchair-accessible transportation, laundry services for people with incontinence, legal aid for older adults, medical information, and rehabilitation. Lupolianski said the organization’s emphasis on home care could help people receive services at home rather than remain in hospital.[11]

Reported measures of the organization’s reach vary by source and reporting snapshot. A 2006 profile described 103 branches, more than 6,000 volunteers, and assistance to 380,000 people in the preceding year.[11] A Jewish Virtual Library account gave a different snapshot of 4,000 volunteers at 72 branches helping more than 200,000 families annually.[12] A separate account reported about 6,000 volunteers at 96 branches.[13] These figures describe the organization at different points or in different accounts, rather than a single fixed total.

Yad Sarah’s services were described as serving Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze.[13] The organization received the Israel Prize in 1994, as well as the Knesset Speaker’s Award in 1988 and the Kaplan Efficiency Prize in 1990.[11][12] Lupolianski also received honors for his work, including the President’s Award for Volunteerism and the Knesset Speaker’s Prize.[13][3]

Lupolianski’s public legacy rests in part on his status as Jerusalem’s first ultra-Orthodox mayor and in part on the growth of Yad Sarah from a household lending service into a broad volunteer organization. The city’s political leadership changed with his 2003 election, and his tenure was associated with efforts to maintain Jerusalem’s religious-secular status quo.[2][6]

Yad Sarah’s work brought Lupolianski a range of civic honors. The reported awards include the Israel Prize, the President’s Volunteer Prize, the Knesset Speaker’s Award, the Kaplan Prize for Efficiency, and several additional volunteerism and gerontology honors. He received the Israel Prize on Yad Sarah’s behalf.[3]

Lupolianski died during the night of January 7–8, 2026, aged 74, after an illness. He was survived by his wife and 12 children.[1][14]

In April 2010 police arrested Lupolianski, by then a former mayor, on suspicion of accepting NIS 3 million in bribes. Police later recommended indicting him and others on bribery-related offenses and breach of trust connected with Jerusalem’s Holyland residential construction project. At the end of 2010, prosecutors had not yet decided whether to indict those recommended by police; these were reported suspicions and recommendations, not a court finding.[15]

In March 2014 Lupolianski was convicted on three bribery counts. The case concerned funds transferred to Yad Sarah and religious institutions rather than to him personally.[2] A sentencing account listed transfers including NIS 1.25 million to Yad Sarah, NIS 785,000 for synagogue construction, and other payments for synagogue items and services, wheelchairs, an event, and a yeshiva.[16] The court found that the funds had enhanced Lupolianski’s power and influence, while acknowledging his charitable work.[2][16]

The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced him in June 2014 to six years’ imprisonment, a fine, and an additional suspended prison term.[2] In December 2015 the Supreme Court left the bribery conviction in place but replaced the prison sentence with six months of community service, citing his serious medical condition. Lupolianski had appealed seeking acquittal; the change in sentence did not overturn the conviction.[4]