Israel's Kollek, a friend to BYU, dies

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lost a good friend with the death of former Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek on Tuesday, according to a Utah political scientist who worked closely with him in the Middle East.

Brigham Young University's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, now located on the Mount of Olives, would probably not exist "in its present form or place without his help and encouragement," according to David Galbraith, former director of the center.

Kollek, who served six terms as mayor and became known as "Mr. Jerusalem," died of natural causes Tuesday morning at age 95.

As mayor, he supported location of a BYU center on the Mount of Olives, though the proposal came under heavy fire from several political and religious leaders in Israel. Kollek managed to help convince most that the LDS Church would not use the center to proselytize, Galbraith said.

"One time he said to me, 'You won't let me down or back out,' when we were in middle of great controversy. He was fighting a very unpopular fight, and we should have been concerned about whether he would withdraw, but he worried about whether we would. I was impressed that he was willing to see it through to the end."

Widely known as a coalition builder, Kollek didn't let the fact that he was a staunch Jew undermine his determination to try to broker peaceful co-existence between Palestinians and Jews, Galbraith said. "He would sign each letter with 'let there be more tolerance.' It was almost a motto he had that would allow him to encourage different faiths and different organizations to come and be part of Jerusalem."

In the 1970s, top LDS leaders were looking for a place to build a meeting house in Jerusalem, Galbraith said. At the same time, Kollek was looking for money to help beautify the city and expand its cultural arts and educational offerings.

Earlier, Kollek had gotten to know LDS statesman David Kennedy, who had given him a copy of a dedicatory prayer that early LDS apostle Orson Hyde offered in Palestine.

"He appreciated our interest in the Jewish people," Galbraith said. "We had been looking for a number of years for a site on the Mount of Olives to honor Orson Hyde. It was a First Presidency project, and nothing seemed quite appropriate or available."

Galbraith, who at the time was directing BYU's Study Abroad program on a kibbutz near Jerusalem, received a call from Kollek one day "asking if the church would be interested in 5.5-acre plot of land on the Mount of Olives."