Mordechai Ish-Shalom

Mordechai Ish-Shalom was born in 1901 in Varėna

Ish-Shalom was born Mordechai Friedman in Varėna, Lithuania, in 1901. His father was a Zionist who taught at a reformed heder, where his son also studied. He later studied at yeshivas until World War I broke out in 1914.

He moved to the Land of Israel in 1923 and joined the Labor Battalion at Tel Yosef, where he drained swamps. He then moved to the battalion's unit in Jerusalem and led a group of builders. His labor career began in the Stonecutters' Union in 1935, and he rose in the Histadrut.

In 1950 he joined the Jerusalem city council for Mapai, and in 1955 he became deputy to Mayor Gershon Agron. After Agron died just before the 1959 election, Ish-Shalom was elected mayor in December 1959. As mayor he built the city hall, promoted the international book fair and helped found Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.

In the 1965 election Teddy Kollek formed a coalition and Ish-Shalom went into opposition. In 1967 he joined an emergency coalition and became Kollek's deputy. In 1970 he chaired an Interior Ministry inquiry committee on the Beit She'an council.

In the 1970s he was involved in developing Kiryat Wolfson, a high-rise project near Sacher Park. He died on 21 February 1991 and was buried on Har HaMenuchot.