Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived to Bnei Brak to participate in the wedding of the daughter of the late Shmuel (Shmulik) Meir.
Meir served as a member of the Jerusalem City Council and Olmert’s Deputy during Olmert’s service as Mayor of Jerusalem. The two were very close friends.
Meir, a rising star in the National Religious Party, was hit by a car driven by an Arab and killed near the community of Adam in the Binyamin region in1996. He left a wife and eight children. From then on, Olmert would visit the family almost weekly on Friday at their home in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem, even bringing them fresh challah for Shabbat, and maintained a continuous connection with them.
Israel Prize winner Yehoram Gaon described in the past the great assistance that Olmert provided to Meir’s family. “Ehud and his family adopted the Meir family, they didn’t abandon them for even a day, a widow and many orphans, I saw them, I heard them, I was there, I was amazed by the great kindness, how Ehud cared for their every need. He would bring them food himself every Shabbat, accompanied the children with great love until they joined the army and afterward, their weddings and afterward until the present day...and, it seems, for as long as he is around.”
Yehiel Greenberg, the manager of the band which performed at the wedding, wrote afterward on his Facebook page, “Here is a good word that must be said about Ehud Olmert. When his Deputy in the Jerusalem municipality Shmulik Meir was killed in a car accident, Olmert adopted the family. Simple as that. They were very small children, and he became their second father. He came every week and accompanied them through the years at happy occasions and day-by-day. Whoever saw it up-close knows that this is something rare - and we’re talking about over 20 years. This is the third wedding at which I am privileged to play for the Meir family, and Olmert said at the chuppah [wedding canopy] that he promised to bring all of them to the chuppah. Today their daughter Tal is getting married, the last wedding. Congratulations to the Meir family, and to Olmert as well.”