Shmuel "Shmulik" Greenberg (born 22 December 1975) is an Israeli politician who has served as the mayor of

Beit Shemesh Beit Shemesh () is a city council (Israel), city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District. A center of Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodoxy, Beit Shemesh has a population of 170,683 as of 2024. The city is named afte ...

since March 2024. He was previously the director of the

Haredi Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...

Education Department in the

Jerusalem Municipality The Jerusalem Municipality (), the seat of the Israeli municipal administration, consists of a number of buildings located on Jaffa Road in the city of Jerusalem. History British Mandate town hall (1930) Jerusalem's old town hall was bui ...

, acting and deputy mayor of Beit Shemesh on behalf of the

Degel HaTorah Degel HaTorah () is an Ashkenazi Haredi political party in Israel. For much of its existence, it has been allied with Agudat Yisrael, under the name United Torah Judaism. History Degel HaTorah was founded in 1988, as a splinter from Agudat Isr ...

party.

Biography

Greenberg was born and raised in

Rekhasim Rekhasim ()Marks, Yehudah. "The Torah Empire of the North", ''Hamodia'' Israel News, 19 March 2015, pp. 21-23. is a Haredi town in the Haifa District of Israel. It is located between Kiryat Tiv'on, Kiryat Ata, and Nesher, next to roads 70, 7 ...

. He studied at the Tashbar Rekhasim Elementary School and Talmud Torah Torat Emet in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

and later at the Kfar Hasidim Yeshiva. He served in Unit 995 in the IDF. Greenberg is a graduate of the

Ono Academic College Ono Academic College (''in Hebrew'': הקריה האקדמית אונו) is a private college located in Kiryat Ono, Israel with over 18,000 students.

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

and holds a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. In addition, he holds a teaching certificate, is a graduate of a mediation course, and is a graduate of the Mandel Institute's Management and Leadership Program.

Career

After his marriage, he moved to

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

for about a year for a teaching mission in the country's Jewish community. From there, he moved to the city of Beit Shemesh, where he worked as a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

and director of educational institutions. In 2003, he was appointed director of the Haredi Department in the Beit Shemesh Municipality. Following the decision of then-mayor Danny Vaknin to fire the Haredi employees in the municipality, Greenberg was appointed parliamentary assistant to MK Moshe Gafni. In the 2008 Beit Shemesh Municipal Council elections, the

party received 4 seats and Greenberg entered the council and was appointed deputy mayor and head of the

community centre A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a sp ...

, positions he held until 2018. In January 2020, Greenberg resigned from the Beit Shemesh City Council and was appointed Director of the Haredi Education Department in the Jerusalem Municipality. He also won the tender to appoint the

Ministry of Transport and Road Safety Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

's advisor to the Haredi sector, but was rejected by the tenders committee.

Mayor of Beit Shemesh

On 25 June 2023, the Degel Hatorah party announced that Greenberg would run on its behalf for mayor of Beit Shemesh. Running against Greenberg were incumbent Aliza Bloch, from the Beit Shemesh United Party, and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Moshe Abutbul, from the Shas Party. In the elections held on 27 February 2024, Greenberg won the most votes, garnering 35.7% of the vote, but did not cross the threshold required for victory, which was 40%. He faced Aliza Bloch in the second round of elections held on 10 March. Ahead of this round of elections, all of the city's ultra-Orthodox parties announced their support for his candidacy. He won the election with 57.92% of the vote and took office on 31 March. On 20 March 2025, Greenberg and his family was attacked by Haredi extremists. One of his sons was injured during the attack.

Personal life

Greenberg is married and has five children. He lives in Beit Shemesh.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenberg, Shmuel Living people Israeli politicians 1975 births Mayors of places in Israel