By Helga Abraham
When 40-year-old Rami Greenberg defeated the incumbent mayor of Petach Tikva in last December’s local elections, few people were surprised. For over a decade, the super-energetic Greenberg had been an almost permanent figure in Petach Tikva’s City Hall, working as assistant to a former mayor and, in recent years, as a member of the city council. But his meteoric rise to the mayoralty of Petach Tikva began much earlier—politics and social involvement have long flowed in Greenberg’s veins.
“From 1st grade, I felt a calling to help others and contribute to society,” he said. At the unbelievable age of 6, little Rami Greenberg decided to join the Likud party. When he turned up at the office of the local party branch, he recalled being sent away with a few chuckles and a gentle pat on the back. But the little boy persisted. He managed to get a hold of the party’s logo, printed it himself on a T-shirt, and began standing on street corners distributing flyers. The local branch had no choice but to take him seriously.
So how did a 6-year-old child know what party to join? Did he come from a family of Likud supporters? “No,” he said. “My parents were more affiliated with religious parties. I simply liked the ideology of the Likud and wanted to be part of a big party that had influence.” When asked who his idols were, he unhesitatingly answered: “Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and, now, Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Rami Greenberg was born close to Petach Tikva, in a small moshav called Neve Yarak, which his father helped found together with other immigrants from Romania. Greenberg’s father had escaped the clutches of the Nazis by jumping off a deportation train and joining the partisans at the age of 8. In Israel, with hardly any training, he helped build many of the country’s major roads. Greenberg’s mother came from Morocco and worked as a nurse. For his high school studies, his parents chose AMIT Ginsburg Bar Ilan Gush Dan, in Ramat Gan, because of its high academic reputation and the fact that it was a religious school. As an above-average student, he also attended after-school enrichment classes three times a week in science subjects – first at Tel Aviv University during elementary school, then at Bar Ilan University during high school. Living in an outlying rural area, where there was little public transport, Greenberg often had to travel on foot or hitch rides to his places of study.
At AMIT, he chose to major in biotechnology. “I loved the school, the teachers, the atmosphere, and the emphasis on community work,” he recalled. He credits AMIT with instilling in him the values that have been his credo ever since: “love of ones’ country, love your neighbor as yourself, give to others, strive for excellence.” While at school, Greenberg continued to pursue his political activities. At 14, he was elected head of the local Likud youth branch and, at 16, he became head of the national Likud youth organization.
During his military service, he served as a commander in the elite Duvdevan unit, which is renowned for its high-risk undercover operations. After the army, he joined the Tel Aviv police, where he served in a special force tasked with eradicating criminal gangs. He then pursued law studies, but law was never more than a means to enable him to achieve his political ambitions.
When asked why he preferred to focus on local politics rather than become a member of Knesset, Greenberg replies: “I wanted to work on the ground and I knew that I would be able to achieve more in local politics than in the Knesset. City Hall is a very professional place. I have enormous influence, more than an MK and even more than a minister.”
As Greenberg sits in his office, a flow of assistants stream in and out with papers to sign and projects to approve. There is buzz and excitement in the air, for the young new mayor is busy overseeing a massive transformation of one of Israel’s oldest cities. Known as em hamoshavot (the mother of the moshavot), Petach Tikva was the first modern Jewish agricultural settlement in Eretz Yisrael.
Founded in 1878 by religious pioneers from
Europe, it went on to absorb every wave of immigrants in the history of Israel, from the very first aliyah in 1882 to the waves of immigrants who arrived from Yemen, Morocco, Iraq, the Former Soviet Union, and Ethiopia.
“Petach Tikva is a real microcosm of Israel,” he said. Signs of the traditional character of the city are still apparent in the old downtown’s narrow streets, but on the outskirts huge high-rises dot the skyline and construction cranes can be seen everywhere. There is a sense that, with Greenberg at its helm, this 140-year-old city is jumping headlong into the 21st century.
“I want to turn Petach Tikva into Israel’s No. 1 city for industry and trade, and I want to see it grow from a city of 260,00 to a city of 400,000,” he said confidently. In addition to attracting industry and high-tech, Greenberg has plans for a huge new park covering 2.7 sq. miles, a light-rail system, and entertainment hubs.
Greenberg also has plans to bring a branch of his alma mater, AMIT Ginsburg Bar Ilan, to Petach Tikva. The school will serve the growing number of students who wish to pursue religious studies while also acquiring a high level of technological and scientific proficiency.
These responsibilities and the demanding hours of his job do not frazzle the young mayor. “From an early age, I believed I had a mission in life,” he said, “and where I can be of influence, that is where I want to be.”
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Rami Greenberg’s mother, Varda, is also an AMIT alumna. Her family immigrated to Israel in 1948 and lived for several years in a ma’abara (transit camp). She received a scholarship to study at AMIT’s Kfar Blatt Youth Village, then known as a mossad aliyah (an “aliyah institution”) where she was able to graduate with a high school certificate.
“I received an excellent education at AMIT. I boarded there and sang in a choir and I was able to go on from there to study nursing,” she said.
Varda had four children before becoming pregnant with Rami. “It was a very difficult pregnancy,” she recalled, “so much so that the doctors recommended I abort. But I adamantly refused. I had to be on bed rest during the entire pregnancy but, in the end, I gave birth to a healthy baby.” One could even say a super-baby, for from the time he was a toddler Rami stood out as highly gifted and ambitious. “I am very proud that he is now mayor of Petach Tikva,” said Varda. “I always knew he would go far.”
