(JTA) — Mayor Marcello Crivella of Rio de Janeiro has told the O Globo newspaper that his city’s residents must be inspired by the memory of Israel’s late former president and prime minister, Shimon Peres. Crivella described Peres as “A leader who has never betrayed his principles, his values. At 93, he carried the same flag.” Referring to Rio’s longtime urban violence nightmare, he said, “We can never give up our city. Let’s fight until the last day to see our city in peace.”
On Friday, a city square named after Peres was dedicated in the heart of Copacabana, Rio’s most Jewish-populated neighborhood with some 3,500 families. Israel’s honorary consul, Osias Wurman, told those in attendance, “Peres was an icon, he was Israel’s last living fathers of the generation who founded the State. He dedicated his 93 years to one single word: peace.” He added, “Shimon Peres left a great legacy for all peace lovers in the world. His dream was to see Arabs and Jews living as cousins. This was the dream he did not realize, but it is our mission.”