Aryeh Gur'el

Aryeh Gur'el
6th Mayor of Haifa
In office 1978–1993
Preceded by	Yeruham Zeisel
Succeeded by	Amram Mitzna
Personal details
Born	(1918-11-20)20 November 1918 Warsaw, Poland
Died	28 October 2007(2007-10-28) (aged 88) Haifa, Israel
Political party	Israeli Labor Party

Aryeh Gur'el (Hebrew: אריה גוראל, born 20 November 1918, died 28 October 2007) was mayor of Haifa from 1978 to 1993. He was affiliated with the Israeli Labor Party.

Gur'el was born in Warsaw, Poland, to parents Moshe and Tzila, and made aliyah in 1935. After arriving in Mandate Palestine, 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 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 streets and the funicular. He won reelection in 1983 and 1989, 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.

Further reading

• Sarah and Meir Aharoni (1993), The people and the events of Haifa and the surrounding area