Bridging or Bonding: Community Leadership in Jerusalem

What are the forces that drive Jerusalem? How do individuals and groups operate and advance their interests in such a large and complex city? And is there anything distinctive about community leadership in Jerusalem specifically? This article by the Jerusalem Institute seeks to shine a spotlight on the work of community and neighborhood leaders across the city.

The article examines roughly 80 success stories of leaders from neighborhoods in East and West Jerusalem alike. Through interpretive analysis and concrete evidence drawn from these stories, it presents the range of goals these leaders pursue and the successes they achieve – as well as the tactics through which they achieve them. Given the substantial gaps between East and West Jerusalem in trust toward Israeli institutions, neighborhood infrastructure, and access to centers of power, the article draws a comparison between the Arab and Jewish sectors. This comparison reveals that these gaps push leadership in East Jerusalem to rely on a wider and more varied set of tactics than leadership in the West of the city. At the same time, both sides display resourcefulness, a willingness to confront the municipality, and creativity.

In conclusion, the article identifies the distinctive character of community leadership in Jerusalem as a leadership of connections – leadership built on ties both between and within groups. Leadership that unites, and also mediates. Leadership that moves Jerusalem from below.