That is how Sarit Arieli Ben Simchon describes the city she has spent seven years overseeing as chair of the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Appeals Committee, capping a 22-year career in public service. To her role she sat at the intersection of nearly every major planning decision the city faced: towers versus preservation, urban renewal versus reinforcement, individual residents versus the public interest. Her central argument is that Jerusalem’s greatest challenge is to adapt to contemporary pressures without surrendering its historical identity – while finding answers for a wildly diverse population on scarce land. Arieli Ben Simchon will now join the law firm S. Horowitz, where she will lead its planning and construction practice.
Published in
