Interior Minister Aryeh Deri declared Jerusalem mayoral candidate Moshe Lion the victor in Tuesday’s runoff overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, as the local ballot count ended with the ultra-Orthodox-backed candidate ahead of his rival, Ofer Berkovitch, by over 6,000 votes.
Lion claimed victory about two hours later.
Deri — a longtime supporter and friend of Lion — posted a video on Twitter of his phone call congratulating the Jerusalem council member on his ostensible win. “I congratulated my friend, Moshe Lion, the elected mayor of the Jerusalem municipality,” he said.
רגע הניצחון בלשכת השר דרעי pic.twitter.com/e2lqyWCPia
— ישי כהן (@ishaycoen) November 13, 2018
Lion, who has a warm relationship with many Shluchim and is a friend of Chabad in Israel, declared victory around 2:15 a.m.
“Jerusalem tonight chose unity, the sense of togetherness, the good,” Lion told a packed hall of supporters, many of whom were enthusiastically chanting “Aryeh Deri.”
“I intend to be the mayor of all of Jerusalem’s residents, whomever they may be. Those that voted for me, and those that didn’t,” said Lion.
The nail-biting tallying since the polls closed at 10 p.m. saw some preemptively cheering Berkovitch as the capital’s next mayor.
At midnight the 35-year-old secular activist-turned city council member found himself way ahead of Lion, widening his lead by as much as 10,000 votes with 50 percent of the ballots counted.
But Berkovitch’s advantage was gradually whittled down, with Lion gliding ahead by 6,000 votes as the tally topped the 90 percent mark. He then held 51% to Berkovitch’s 48%, according to initial results.
Chabad campaigned for Deisch, the candidate of Agudas Yisroel (led by chassidei Gur) who was eliminated in the first round. In the second round campaign Chabad stayed silent while Aguda messaged chassidei Gur not to vote. In the last hours of the vote, Litzmann, the leader of Aguda, led many chassudei Gur to vote, apoarently for the secularist candidate Berkovitch who lost to Leon. It seems the animosity between Aguda & the other religious parties which supported Leon was more pursuasive than religious issues in Jerusalem
MHM is very happy and all of us who worked hard to get the vote out bringing us moments closer to the 3rd Beis Hamikdash….👍👍👍👏👏👏 #2 lol funny beyond belief
We need a mayor who develops Jerusalem as Ir Hakodesh and the religious centre of the world. The other candidates, and the present mayor have been trying to secularize the city instead of enhancing its uniqueness. Hope Lion understands this
Even though Barkat preferred Elkin, he said there is no comparison between Lion and Berkovich on management experience…Berkovich was only good on facebook
“From my close acquaintance with the two candidates and my work with the pair, I have no doubt that Moshe Lion is the best pick for Jerusalem,” said Barkat in a statement on Wednesday night.
Moshe Lion has been a frequent guest at Chabad of Midtown for many years. This is great news. B”H.
Berkowitz, the other mayoral candidate, is secular and wanted to make secular residents feel more comfortable. Sadly, Lion is corrupt, and probably won’t be a great mayor. Plus, we may see secular residents flee Jerusalem, which won’t be great for Jerusalem, as proportionally they pay most of the municipal taxes. The city certainly can’t survive with a majority non-working Kollel population. Plus, our last frum mayor, Lupulianski, ended up in jail for corruption. So frum doesn’t equal great. Conversely, Barkat, who is secular, was a very good mayor. Neither of these candidates (in the runoff election) were my choice, so… Read more »
Mazeltov!