Send Page to a Friend Theodor Kollek, at 95; was Longtime Jerusalem Mayor   By Scott Wilson The Washington Post   JERUSALEM -- Theodor Kollek, the irrepressible champion of this volatile city during a nearly three-decade tenure as mayor that spanned war, uprising, and shifting demographics, died yesterday . He was 95. Mr. Kollek, known universally as Teddy, was elected six times to lead Jerusalem, starting in 1965. Mr. Kollek employed an avuncular populism to promote Jewish-Arab coexistence in a city physically divided until Israel annexed the eastern neighborhoods following the 1967 Middle East War. Although his vision of a united city remains elusive in many ways, Mr. Kollek was hailed yesterday as the driving force behind Jerusalem's evolution from a parochial hilltop town coveted by the world's leading religions and contested by the Palestinian people to a modern metropolis of arts, tourism, and the numerous cultural landmarks he engineered during his decades in office. "Teddy was Jerusalem and Jerusalem was Teddy," Uri Lupolianski, Jerusalem's mayor, said in a statement announcing Mr. Kollek's death. "With his spirit and personality he symbolized the true unified Jerusalem, the capital of Israel." The Jewish Community Relations Council in Boston yesterday described Mr. Kollek as " a giant of a world leader." "Mayor Kollek built Jerusalem into a world-class city which symbolized the best of Israel's culture and democracy. Through times of war and peace, he helped to shape the capital into a place for all of Israel's citizens -- Arabs and Jews -- as well as for the three monotheistic religions -- Christianity, Islam, and Judaism," the groups said in a statement . Named for the chief theorist of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, Mr. Kollek was born in Nagyvaszony near Budapest in 1911 and raised in Vienna. He immigrated to Palestine, then under British authority, in 1934 and helped found Kibbutz Ein Gev on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. During World War II, Mr. Kollek worked to help European Jews escape Nazi persecution, securing the transfer of thousands from concentration camps to Britain. After the war, he organized weapons shipments to the nascent Jewish state's fledgling armed forces before the United Nations partition of Palestine in 1947. He was appointed Israel's envoy to Washington, D.C., following the state's founding in May 1948, and later ran the office of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion for a decade. But Mr. Kollek gained international acclaim in the years following his 1965 election as mayor, a tenure marked by a mix of cheerful globe-trotting to promote Jerusalem and raise money on its behalf and tireless work developing the city itself. After Israeli forces occupied East Jerusalem in June 1967, Mr. Kollek reached out to Arab residents in an effort to bridge religious and cultural divides that persist in this city of 700,000 residents. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, is not recognized internationally. He established an Arab liaison office to address inequalities in education funding, public transit, and other municipal services between the city's Arab and Jewish neighborhoods. He walked the streets daily, and despite his fame, continued to list his home number in telephone directories throughout his tenure. Mr. Kollek once said, "We proved that Jerusalem is a better city united than divided." But after the start of the most recent Palestinian uprising in the fall of 2000, Mr. Kollek suggested that some of the city's Arab neighborhoods be turned over to Palestinian control, saying: "I think we need to give something to them and have part for ourselves. It will never be easy." Mr. Kollek permanently altered the city's landscape, adding world-class cultural institutions that have expanded Jerusalem's draw as a tourist destination. The Israel Museum, which cascades down a prominent ridgeline in the city's center, and the Jerusalem Theater are among his most important cultural legacies. The modern soccer venue, known as Teddy Stadium, was dedicated to him. "This is the most difficult job there is," Mr. Kollek said in an interview with the Washington Post in 1993. "It's not the most important job, but it is a more difficult job than being prime minister and foreign minister." At 82, Mr. Kollek ran reluctantly and unsuccessfully for a seventh term later that year. His defeat to Ehud Olmert, the Likud party candidate, represented the end of the Labor party's domination of Jerusalem politics and reflected the city's demographic shift to a more religious and conservative population. That trend persists today, and Jerusalem's arts advocates say funding has fallen for cultural programs since his departure. "Teddy Kollek was one of the builders of the New Jerusalem after the 1967 Six-Day War," Olmert, now the prime minister, said yesterday in a statement issued by his office. "When he was elected mayor, Jerusalem was a divided city with a status unworthy of itself. When he left the mayor's office in 1993, Jerusalem was a great, modern, and united city. Teddy Kollek sang Jerusalem's praises around the world. He decisively influenced the city's way of life, culture, vistas, institutions, as well as the relationships of its residents." Since leaving office, Mr. Kollek continued his work for the Jerusalem Foundation, an organization he helped found 40 years ago. The foundation said in a statement yesterday that Mr. Kollek died of natural causes. Flags along Safra Square in front of City Hall, another project of Mr. Kollek's, were lowered to half-staff following the announcement of his death. He is to be buried tomorrow in a state funeral. Mr. Kollek leaves his wife, Tamar, a son, Amos, and a daughter, Osnat.