Ron Huldai

Ron Huldai
רון חולדאי
File:Centennial IMG 3742.JPG Ron Huldai
Mayor of Tel Aviv
Incumbent
Assumed office 1998
Preceded by	Roni Milo
Personal details
Born	(1944-08-26) 26 August 1944 Hulda, Mandate Palestine
Political party	Labor
Military service
Allegiance	Israel
Service/branch	Israeli Air Force
Years of service	1963–1989
Rank	Brigadier General (Tat Aluf)

Ron Huldai (Hebrew: רון חולדאי‎; born 26 August 1944) is an Israeli politician, academic administrator, former fighter pilot, general, and current mayor of Tel Aviv.

Biography

He was born in 1944 in Hulda (his surname is taken from the name of the kibbutz) to Polish parents from Łódź. He is a history graduate of Tel Aviv University, Auburn University at Montgomery, the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

File:Ron Huldai - Tel Aviv Mayor.jpg

Ron Huldai Tel Aviv Mayor

Military service and politics

In the course of his twenty-six years of military service in the Israeli Air Force (1963–1989), he served as a combat pilot and held several key senior command positions. As Brigadier General, he was in charge of the Air Force Pilots Training School. He also served as a coordinator of the government authorities and supervisor of civilian construction projects for the IAF.

Following his retirement from active duty in 1989, he entered the private sector. Three years later, he became headmaster of the prestigious Herzliya Hebrew High School and remained in office for six years.

A member of the Labour Party, Huldai was first elected mayor of Tel Aviv in 1998, was re-elected in 2003 with 62% of the vote, again in 2008 with 50.6%, and yet again in 2013 with 53%.

2008 Elections

Huldai ran for mayor in 2008 municipal elections as part of the One Tel Aviv list, a partnership between Labor and Kadima. He was supported by the Pensioners, the city council's largest faction.