For most visitors, Israel appears through the lens of geopolitics and ongoing tensions. For Orce Gjorgjievski, however, it functions as a classroom.

The mayor of Skopje, North Macedonia's capital, traveled to Israel this week for the global municipal leaders' gathering at MUNI EXPO 2026 in Tel Aviv. His aim was to examine how Israeli cities tackle some of the toughest tests any municipality encounters. Emergency readiness, crisis handling, traffic flow, water systems, and digital services all drew his attention, as Gjorgjievski sees Israeli local government providing insights that reach past the nation's distinct security context.

"I arrived in Israel with deep respect and a focused purpose - to absorb lessons born not from theory alone but from genuine, demanding situations," Gjorgjievski shared with The Jerusalem Post.

MUNI EXPO, Israel's premier municipal event, gathers mayors, local officials, policymakers, and innovators to discuss city planning, sustainability, resilience, and governance trends. For Gjorgjievski, who took office as Skopje mayor late last year after heading the Kisela Voda suburb, the trip offered a chance to observe Israeli municipalities maintaining operations amid heavy demands while still providing daily resident services.

His focus centers on the hands-on aspects of city administration.

Skopje, like many European capitals, faces familiar urban challenges

Skopje encounters typical European capital issues: traffic jams, pollution, outdated infrastructure, housing strains, and rising demands for swift, effective city responses. Gjorgjievski notes that Israel's track record supplies useful guidance, stemming not just from tech advances but from municipalities adapting under intense conditions.

"Israeli cities highlight a key point: local government needs preparation ahead of any crisis rather than scrambling once events unfold," he stated.

What stood out most was the organization, swift action, and teamwork among local bodies, emergency teams, health services, and volunteers.

"From Israel we see that city resilience grows through infrastructure plus discipline, trust, readiness, and open communication," he said. "A city must operate as a responsive system that protects residents and sustains its functions."

These insights apply equally to natural disasters, cyber threats, and infrastructure breakdowns as to security events.

Conversations with Gjorgjievski reveal his view of local government through residents' daily lives rather than political angles.

Overseeing greater Skopje, home to more than 500,000 people, marks a big step up, yet Gjorgjievski credits his Kisela Voda tenure with forming his style. Leading that southern suburb showed him that no public service matter counts as minor.

"There I saw that no issue is small for citizens," he told the Post. "One person may care about a street, another about a sidewalk or park, and others about waste or traffic. To the office it is a file, yet to the citizen it is daily life."

This outlook guides his early months leading the capital.

Skopje forms a living system of municipalities, districts, and communities, each holding distinct needs. Right after taking office, the priority became restoring order, trust, and the sense that someone watches over the city, with Gjorgjievski favoring direct involvement.

"I reject office-bound politics," he said. "I favor fieldwork, conversations with residents, and steady problem solving."

This mindset also drew him to MUNI EXPO.

Instead of broad urban theories, he sought practical ideas for home application.

Key targets include better crisis coordination, municipal tech, traffic control, waste handling, water resources, and public safety.

"Such visits hold value only when they yield real steps that improve citizen lives," he said. "Skopje merits modern answers."

Concrete benefits for citizens

When asked to describe his city to first-time visitors, Gjorgjievski starts with its character rather than projects or numbers.

He calls Skopje a place of diversity, cultures, history, hospitality, and warm welcomes.

This spirit shows in the Old Bazaar, Stone Bridge, Matka Canyon, and Mount Vodno above the capital. Ottoman, Byzantine, and contemporary European elements blend throughout.

Gjorgjievski also notes substantial work remains.

He seeks cleaner streets, better public areas, smoother transit, more green zones, and stronger infrastructure.

"My aim is for Skopje to function as its citizens deserve, beyond just scenic spots," he said.

European urban issues connect, he argues. Traffic fuels pollution. Infrastructure shapes daily quality. Planning affects housing, parks, and movement. The core question is whether a city runs well enough to earn resident confidence.

"If I pick one priority, it is city functionality," he said. "When operations falter, citizens lose time, energy, health, and faith in institutions."

This view heightens his interest in Israeli innovation.

Israel's Start-Up Nation image is familiar, yet Gjorgjievski focuses on innovation improving city services rather than only boosting economies.

He highlights digital traffic tools, smart waste systems, water management, energy savings, quick-response setups, and online public services as areas where Israeli know-how could aid Skopje's modernization.

"Citizens should avoid long waits at counters or delays for information," he said. "Institutions should not lag when technology enables faster options."

Technology should serve as a routine tool making local government more structured, open, and accessible.

This outlook supports his push for stronger North Macedonia-Israel ties.

Gjorgjievski sees city-to-city links growing through shared expertise in water management, tourism, digital services, energy efficiency, innovation, and security. He welcomes the idea of Skopje twinning with an Israeli city.

These ties should deliver real exchanges, projects, knowledge, and citizen gains, he said, noting that Macedonia-Israel friendship should deepen locally since cities stay closest to people.

An attack on the values of Skopje

Gjorgjievski's Israel visit followed weeks after an event testing one of his city's core values.

In April, two men spread accelerant at the entrance of Skopje's synagogue and Jewish Community Center, then threw a firebomb. The fire damaged the entrance and courtyard, yet firefighters stopped it from reaching inside. Authorities arrested suspects and charged two with terrorism.

For North Macedonia's small Jewish community, already reduced by the Holocaust, the event carried weight beyond physical harm.

Leaders called it the first such attack on Jewish life in modern national history. An alleged Iranian-linked group later claimed responsibility, labeling the center a symbol of local Jewish ties to Israel.

Gjorgjievski responded at once.

"My reaction was clear and human: shock, worry, and firm condemnation," he said. "This act targeted more than one building or group. It struck at Skopje's values of peace, coexistence, and citizen dignity."

He described the Jewish community as a respected element of city and national history, adding that antisemitism, hatred, and violence have no place in Skopje.

The incident recalled a painful national chapter.

In March 1943, over 7,000 Jews from present-day North Macedonia were sent to Treblinka under Bulgarian occupation. Almost none survived.

That past lives on at the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia, opened in central Skopje in 2011 on the former Jewish quarter site. North Macedonia's restitution laws returned heirless Jewish property to the community, funding the center and broader life. The museum holds ashes of Macedonian Jews killed at Treblinka.

Gjorgjievski believes this history imposes duties on current leaders.

"It is a wound that must stay remembered," he told the Post. "The memory of our Jewish citizens forms part of Macedonia's shared past and our duty to recall, honor, and prevent hatred, antisemitism, and evil from returning."

He noted the country's largest Jewish community resides in Skopje and called its members respected citizens whose culture enriches society, including Jewish MP and former minister Rashela Mizrahi.

Asked for his message after the arson attempt, Gjorgjievski kept it direct.

"My message is simple and sincere: you are not alone. The Jewish community in Skopje belongs to our city, our history, and our shared future. As mayor, I must ensure every citizen feels safe, respected, and welcome. No one should fear for their faith, tradition, origin, or identity."

Combating antisemitism also needs education, he said. The Holocaust Memorial Center should act as more than a memorial site.

"When young people study the Holocaust, they learn not only one tragedy," he said. "They learn how far hatred reaches when normalized, why silence harms, and why human dignity always needs defense."

He wants the museum to remain a living site of education, dialogue, and caution, adding that modern antisemitism falls not only to condemnation but to knowledge, learning, respect, and firm institutional action.

These themes of readiness, trust, and duty ran through Gjorgjievski's Israel visit.