Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable arm of the former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, hosted a conference in Jaffa, Israel, in late June bringing together mayors and city leaders from across the country.  

The conference, called Hazira, or “the scene,” held at the Peres Centre for Peace in late July, looked to find solutions to common problems facing cities in Israel and ways to address them. 

Bloomberg Philanthropies began working with Israeli cities in 2015, first with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and then a year later with Beersheva.  

In 2019, it expanded further into smaller municipalities and cities. Israel’s Interior Ministry gives its all municipalities a socio-economic rating below six, on a 1-10 scale.  

The programme works with a total of 16 municipalities, most predominantly Jewish, some Arab community cities and some mixed cities, like Lod and Acre. 

Bloomberg Philanthropies also opened a separate programme last year through Tel Aviv University to train local mayors into becoming better administrators and know how run a city.  

In a video address to the conference, Michael Bloomberg stressed his and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ belief in the significance and power of local governments.  

“At Bloomberg Philanthropies, we are big believers in helping innovative local leaders develop and implement bold new ideas, whether it’s early childhood education, infrastructure, climate change, gender equality, or other critical issues,” he said.  

James Anderson, the head of government innovation programmes at Bloomberg Philanthropies, told online publication eJewishPhilanthropy that he intends to see a ‘flourishing ecosystem of local government innovators who are speaking with each other across cities and sharing ideas’.

Shafi Musaddique is a news editor at Alliance magazine.