By Kathy Amoroso
November 12, 2007

Providence (RI) Mayor David Cicilline, chair of The U.S. Conference of Mayors Committee on Children, Health and Human Services, led a delegation of U.S. Mayors to Israel, October 14-20, to participate in the 25th Annual Jerusalem Conference of Mayors, hosted by Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski. The U.S. delegation was joined by approximately 30 mayors from cities in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia to focus on cities as metropolitan centers of governmental, administrative, economic and cultural significance and influence.

The U.S. delegation also included Madison (WI) Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, Baton Rouge (LA) Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden, Cincinnati (OH) Mayor Mark Mallory, Dayton (OH) Mayor Rhine McLin and Green Bay (WI) Mayor James J. Schmitt.

“It was a tremendous honor to be asked by The U.S. Conference of Mayors to lead this group of mayors from America’s cities to Jerusalem,” said Cicilline. “This provided an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and best practices with other mayors in an international setting as we focused on common issues and challenges affecting urban centers around the world.”

The gathering of colleagues from all around the world is a golden opportunity to expose them to Jerusalem and to learn from their experience,” said Lupolianski. “I’m sure that this conference will be the beginning of future cooperation between the cities.”

The mayors participated in round-table sessions that explored the various challenges facing modern metropolitan areas. Among the topics discussed were the metropolis and capital city as government centers, intercultural and economic challenges facing cities, and the role of mayors in the international arena. During the October 14-18 event, the mayors met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, and Speaker of the Knesset Dalia Itzik.

“There’s a difference between multiculturalism and pluralism,” Cicilline said in his remarks at the session on Intercultural Challenges of the Metropolis and Capital City. “Multiculturalism is living together but maintaining separate cultural identities and customs. Pluralism is living together and sharing the common – having common experiences together. City government should encourage pluralism, but at the same time respect, value and fiercely protect the cultural differences that create the mosaic of a city – the several different cultural pieces that together make a brilliant glass.”

Mayors can play an important part in making peace by creating good relations with their neighbors, Peres told participants at the conference. “In many ways, you represent the changes that are taking place in our time,” he said. “The world is marching from small villages and towns to large cities. Because of all the changes, cities must now have local, national and global agendas. Federal governments will have less to do because they are too small to control the global economy and too large to control the needs of the people. When someone has a problem, he calls the mayor, not the prime minister.”

Touching on his experience as former mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert praised the mayors for their dedication to public service. “The job of mayor is the toughest and in many ways the most interesting job in the world,” he said. “If you can be a mayor, you can be anything.”

He also outlined his views on Jerusalem in light of The Annapolis Conference and recent negotiations and proposals, which were to be discussed at a pending meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. “I think there’s a certain chance the President and Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority are committed to peace,” he said. “They’re divided. Hamas now controls Gaza, but I believe the West Bank leadership is committed to peace. We won’t resolve all the issues, but we can establish a framework for agreement.”

In addition to meetings, the mayors also toured various sights in Jerusalem, both historic and modern. They toured Yad Sarah, a social services facility in Jerusalem founded by Lupolianski. Best known as a medical equipment lending organization for those in need, Yad Sarah also provides personal alarm systems for the elderly, meals to the homebound, and transportation and rehabilitative services for the disabled. During their tour, the mayors were enlisted as on'site volunteers, and helped assemble walkers for the facility.

The mayors visited Yad Vashem Martyrs’ and Heroes Memorial where they participated in a wreath laying ceremony to honor victims of the Holocaust and call for peace around the world; as well as Hadassah Hospital, a high-tech business incubator. The hospital complex includes the Hebrew University of Jerusalem schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, and pharmacology, as well as many modern research laboratories.

The Jerusalem Conference of Mayors was conducted in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and sponsored by the American Jewish Congress-Council for World Jewry, along with The U.S. Conference of Mayors.