In farewell speech, outgoing Beit Shemesh mayor stresses compromise on religious issues
Cnaan Lidor is The Times of Israel's Jewish World reporter

In one of her last speeches in office, outgoing Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch, speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, urges dozens of city council members from across the country to compromise with political rivals on religious matters, despite their commitment to hardline constituents.
“All statements that violate agreements that had already been reached are destructive, and uncaring in a way,” Bloch says during the Religion and the City 2024 conference at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
“Your political rival has a worldview that annoys you no end, but you need to remember it’s legitimate,” adds Bloch, an observant religious woman who since 2018 has served as the mayor of a predominantly Haredi city.
People on opposite sides of the debate on the role of religion in society “are not enemies, and the October 7 onslaught of Hamas reminded us of this,” adds Bloch, who is viewed by many Haredi and secular constituents as a moderate and a facilitator of successful coexistence.
Hod Hasharon Mayor Amir Kochavi disagrees with her appeal for compromise. “Sorry, but, unlike Aliza, I regard whoever tries to impose their beliefs on me as an enemy,” says Kochavi, who was elected on a platform of opposing perceived religious coercion.
Bloch, who last month lost her reelection bid to a Haredi candidate, Shmuel Greenberg, acknowledges that translating this vision into politics at the city council can be difficult. “Your base expects you to take things to the extreme. But resist, be true to your conscience,” says Bloch. “Our own self-destructive capacity is far more dangerous than any Iranian nuclear project.”