After years of neglect and complaints from worshippers and visitors, the Jerusalem Municipality is carrying out a real transformation in the infrastructure on Mount of Rest.
As part of the mountain upgrade, parking areas will be prepared, shaded areas will be established, infrastructure upgrades, sewage, road improvements, concrete wall cladding, and cold drink stations will be established.
The transformation on the Mount is being led by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, along with his deputy, the finance portfolio holder in the municipality, Rabbi Zvika Cohen, and Rabbi Moshe Gura, the public buildings portfolio holder.
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Yesterday (Wednesday), the mayor arrived with the municipality's CEO, Itzik Lari, and the director of the Religious Buildings Department, Rabbi Yitzhak Hanau, who serves as the municipality's project manager for the cemetery renovation, for a tour of the site to examine the progress of the work toward completing the first phase and embarking on the second and third phases of the renovation work.
Rabbi Hanau led the tour and presented the significant upgrade of the cemetery in the past year.
The large parking lot was renovated beyond recognition, sheds were erected, and the roads were renovated.
At the request of the mayor, it was decided to accelerate the continuation of renovations on the mountain and transform the cemetery, which had suffered from prolonged neglect, for the benefit of worshippers.
""There is no reason in the world that the largest cemetery in the country should not be of the highest standard. We will mobilize all the necessary resources and make the cemetery the best maintained in the country," Leon said during the tour.
The mayor also asked to increase the cleanliness and lighting of the place and to invest resources in maintaining the place, both in terms of public transportation accessibility and in the physical conditions of the place.
At the end of the tour, Acting Mayor Rabbi Zvika Cohen announced that he would work to bring budgets to upgrade the cemetery to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Rabbi Yaakov Avitan, who is also interested in renovating the cemetery and is responsible by virtue of his position for maintaining the place.
""We'll be here in a few months, and I want them to see the transformation here," the mayor told the professionals who participated in the tour.
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