The official ceremony was held on Wednesday, with outgoing Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky presenting the key to the city to incoming Mayor Nir Barkat. Aides to Rabbi Lupoliansky report the mayor will be heading back to his fulltime job, the running of Yad Sarah.

Lupoliansky boasted his accomplishments, headed by the city’s eradication of its deficit, stating “If only the books would have been balanced when I took office”.

Barkat stated that when he was born, his parents relocated from the center of the country to Jerusalem because of the city’s attractiveness and he hopes to close the circle and stop the negative migration rate.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)