Aryeh Gur'el ( he, אריה גוראל, born 20 November 1918, died 28 October 2007) was mayor of

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the 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 metropol ...

from 1978 to 1993. He was affiliated with the

Israeli Labor Party The Israeli Labor Party ( he, מִפְלֶגֶת הָעֲבוֹדָה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית, ), commonly known as HaAvoda ( he, הָעֲבוֹדָה, , The Labor), is a social democratic and Zionist political party in Israel. The p ...

. Gur'el was born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, to parents Moshe and Tzila, and made aliyah in 1935. After arriving in

Mandate Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...

, he joined the Haganah. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he studied electrical engineering and worked in the establishment of telephone networks. From 1959 to 1968, he worked as a radio technician in the Haifa area and in northern Israel. Starting in 1968, he served as the General Director of the Ministry of Labour for ten years. In 1978, Gur'el was elected

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

of Haifa, and was instrumental in establishing the cable car, as well as the promenade in the Bat Galim neighborhood. Also during his time in office, air purification stations were established, and the pedestrian mall on Nordau Street and the Louis Promenade in Merkaz HaCarmel were also built. His reign as mayor of Haifa is remembered by the numerous

promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cl ...

streets and the

funicular A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite e ...

. He won reelection in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

and

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

, before being defeated in the Labor Party primary election for the 1993 mayoral election. Gur'el published a number of articles on the topic of the absorption of electromagnetic rays from above the horizon.

References

Further reading