Their Love for Jerusalem

JERUSALEM—Last week, my wife and I attended a special screening of Teddy’s Museum, a new film about former Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek’s dream to establish a museum that would rival the leading cultural institutions of the world. Today, that dream is known as the Israel Museum. Some have called this the “Holy Temple of Israeli culture.”

Israel’s former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin once said Teddy Kollek was the greatest builder of Jerusalem since Herod the Great. In the movie that I watched last week, Kollek was described as a man of visionand action.

In learning more about Teddy Kollek’s love for Jerusalem and his tireless work to upbuild and beautify Israel’s capital city, it’s easy now to see why he became such close friends with Herbert W. Armstrong—a visionary who shared Teddy’s love for Jerusalem, fine culture and a diligent work ethic.

On Wednesday, July 11, I posted a podcast edition revolving around the relationship between Jerusalem’s greatest mayor, Teddy Kollek, and Herbert W. Armstrong, one of the best-known, most prominent religious leaders in the 20th century. Their relationship was founded on the city of Jerusalem.

In 1971, six years after becoming mayor, Kollek visited Mr. Armstrong at the Ambassador College campus in Pasadena, California. Just two weeks after that meeting, the mayor hosted Mr. Armstrong here in Jerusalem, at Hebrew University.

These two meetings centered around the city of Jerusalem and planning for its future! Even to this day, it seems incredible to me that Mr. Armstrong—a theologian from California—actually took part in discussions about Jerusalem’s future!

Mr. Armstrong’s contributions did not go unnoticed by those who sat in the gates of Jerusalem. Beginning with his first meeting in the Knesset in 1968 to his death in 1986, Mr. Armstrong was welcomed by every prime minister and president of Israel, including prime ministers Golda Meir, Yitzak Rabin, Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres. Mayor Kollek was not the only one who valued the work, the counsel and the friendship of Herbert Armstrong.

But among them all, I think it’s safe to say that Mayor Kollek valued his friendship with Mr. Armstrong the most. In response to Mr. Armstrong’s death in 1986, Mayor Kollek said, “There have been very few people that I have known that I so enjoyed speaking with and so greatly admired and valued their counsel.”

For more about this unique relationship between a mayor of Jerusalem and a servant of God from Pasadena, download our free booklet A Warm Friend of Israel. In many ways, the present-day work of the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation is built on the foundation of that relationship Mr. Armstrong had with Mayor Kollek and this city of Jerusalem.