Shock waves erupted in Jerusalem on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as news spread that Shai Doron, the charismatic and hard-working president of the Jerusalem Foundation, had died while on a working visit to London. He was 64.
Prior to his appointment six years ago, Doron spent just over a quarter of a century as the director of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, where the diversity of the inhabitants of the zoo and the people who visited were, in a sense, a preparation for his role at the Jerusalem Foundation. The organization was co-founded in 1966 by mayor Teddy Kollek and Ruth Cheshin to play a fundamental role in the social, cultural, and economic development of the city.
Doron, whose whole career was in the public sector and never in the private sector, began working with the Scouts in Neveh Ya’acov, which was then an isolated neighborhood in the capital.
The population at that time was largely of North African background and was generally treated as inferior. Doron, who was a strong believer in equality, mentored the scouts and helped to give them direction and motivation in their lives.
His efforts came to Kollek’s attention, and in 1988, the mayor plucked him out of Neveh Ya’acov and appointed him as his bureau chief, a position that he held for five years.
What Doron loved about Kollek, he said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, was that he didn’t play politics but hired people on the basis of their abilities to do their jobs and how effective they could be for Jerusalem.
Doron always credited his own success to what he learned from Kollek, who, though not easy as a boss, was nonetheless a master in community and local government leadership.
“In the five years that I worked with him, I learned more than when I went to the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard,” Doron told his Post interviewer. “The time I spent with Teddy was the best school ever.”
From City Hall, Doron went to the Jerusalem Zoo in the capital’s Romema neighborhood, which at the time was much smaller than its current location in Malha. It was the zoo’s third home after having previously been in downtown Shmuel Hanavi Street, where it was founded in 1941 by Prof. Aharon Shulov. Then, it moved to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem campus on Mount Scopus. After the War of Independence, it moved to Romema, where it remained until 1992.
Under Doron’s leadership and his talent for big-time fundraising, the zoo developed enormously.
Had he not been offered the presidency of the Jerusalem Foundation, he might have stayed at the zoo until reaching retirement age. But when confronted with the opportunity to be president of the Jerusalem Foundation, it was something that he simply could not refuse. To take on that responsibility, he said, made him feel like a link in the chain of Kollek’s legacy.
Over the years, the Jerusalem Foundation, working closely with the Jerusalem Municipality, has founded and/or supported literally thousands of projects and programs in the capital in almost every field of endeavor.
In one of his interviews with the Post, Doron said he worked well with Mayor Moshe Lion, who he considered to be someone who was willing to join any initiative that would benefit Jerusalem and was also a genius at raising funds.
Shai Doron: A true Jerusalemite
In eulogizing Doron, Lion said he was a Jerusalemite in every fiber of his being.
Many memorial and condolence messages by leaders of organizations and institutions associated in one way or another with the Jerusalem Foundation have been pouring into its offices and to Doron’s family.
A very social creature with an endless fund of anecdotes, he was a born storyteller who captivated the people with whom he worked and those whom he persuaded to donate to projects in the city.
Fania Oz-Salzberger, a historian, writer, and professor emerita of the University of Haifa School of Law and the Haifa Center for German and European Studies, who is one of the daughters of iconic novelist and political activist Amos Oz, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Shai Doron, our oldest and dearest personal friend, died of sudden heart failure during a work visit to London.
“Shai was president of the Jerusalem Foundation and the former legendary CEO of the city’s zoo. He did more than any living Jerusalemite for peace, coexistence, and minority groups. Among thousands of projects, he founded the Amos Oz Grant for Humanism.
“A mensch, a worrier with the best dark sense of humor, an excellent swimmer, a wonderful family man and incredibly devoted friend. Together with his beloved wife, Orly, and his children, Tal, Illy, and Ira, we shall miss him for the rest of our lives.”