Uri Lupoliansky

Uri Lupoliansky was born in 1951 in Haifa

Lupolianski was born in Haifa on 29 August 1951. His father Yaakov came from Poland on the eve of World War II. He studied at the Yavne religious high school in Haifa and was a member of Bnei Akiva.

After high school he studied at Yeshivat Torah Ore in Jerusalem and Yeshivat Hanegev in Netivot. He served in the IDF as a combat medic in the Paratroopers Brigade and then worked as a teacher.

In 1976 he founded Yad Sarah, which lends medical equipment and was named after his grandmother, who was killed in the Holocaust. In 1994 he accepted the Israel Prize on behalf of the organization. He joined the Jerusalem City Council in 1989 and served as deputy mayor from 1993 to 2003.

He became acting mayor in February 2003 for United Torah Judaism and won the election that June against Nir Barkat. He was the first Haredi mayor of a mixed city. His attempt to prevent the 2005 Jerusalem pride parade drew criticism, and a court ordered the city to fund the event.

In 2014 he was convicted of taking bribes in the Holyland case, with the money given as donations to Yad Sarah. In 2015 the Supreme Court upheld the conviction and reduced his sentence to 6 months of community service. He was married to Michal, had 12 children, and died on 7 January 2026.