THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Haifa's Hard-Working Mayor Arye Gurel
By EMMA KIMOR
catch up with Jerusalem
and Tel Aviv in tourism
but the mayor has at least
set things in motion.
World Zionist
Press Service
HAIFA — He is stockily
built and his complexion is
sallow. He is considered by
some as an uninspiring fig-
ure, by others as over-
bearing.
Yet the 65-year-old
mayor of the beautiful
mountain and port city of
Haifa, Arye Gurel, was re-
elected last November with
an impressive 62.6 percent
of the votes — the highest in
the large cities — while the
48 seats his party Won pro-
vided two more Alignment
members for the city coun-
cil.
Such an electoral success
naturally makes one won-
der how it came about. Even
for his first mayoralty, back
in 1978, Gurel scored an
amazing 51 percent, though
still a dark horse then, run-
ning in the giant footsteps of
two such charismatic lead-
ers as the late Abba
Khoushy and then Yosef
Almogi, who resigned to be-
come chairman of the
Jewish Agency.
True, Haifa had long been
known as a workers' town,
and the dark horse was no
stranger to labor affairs.
For the 10 years preceeding
his election, Gurel had
served as director general of
the Ministry of Labor, fol-
lowing a professional career
as district engineer of the
Post Office Telecommunica-
tions Department in Haifa
and the north.
He had started at the
post office as a 14-year-
old apprentice, newly
immigrated from Poland,
digging trenches and
pole-climbing. A schol-
arship in England
enabled him to study and
become -amember of the
Institute of Electrical
Engineering. Through-
out his career, he was
active in the Labor Party,
the Histadrut Labor Fed-
eration, the Hagana and
the Israel Defense
Forces.
By the time Gurel ran for
mayor at the age of 60, the
once so called "red" Haifa
had become a pale pink, no
longer firmly in the Labor
camp.
Says Mayor Gurel: "I be-
lieve the people have a
sharp sense of discrimina-
tion. They don't vote by
election propaganda alone.
They go for acts and facts.
After all, my nose isn't any
more enhancing than the
noses of my opponents."
If it's not a question of
noses, what then is his
secret?
"They know that I care. I
am concerned with the ad-
vancement of man and
society. This is hard work, a
work of long years but I am
doing it and they see the re-
sults."
Of these he highlights:
• A Day in the
Neighborhood — Per-
sonal contact and direct
spot-checks through
regular visits to each of
the
several
dozen
neighborhoods of Haifa.
• Employment — In an
ARYE GUREL
effort to counter growing
unemployment, jobs are
being created by a rapidly-
expanding park of science-
based industries on
municipality-owned land
and under municipality-
sponsored management.
• Sport — Massive sup-
port is afforded for the pro-
motion of active sports to
make it a popular activity,
particularly for youth. The
new Haifa Tennis Center
already has 10 courts, and
others for table tennis,
squash and bowling are
being set up.
• Jewish-Arab Relations
— The Arabs of Haifa com-
prise about nine percent of
the population. Inter-
relationship has tradi-
tionally been good, with no
serious friction, and is being
maintained. The Arab
slums of Wadi Nisnass have
been rehabilitated the same
say as slums inhabited by
Jews.
• Community Centers
— The city has pioneered
in using school buildings
after school hours for
community activities, in
addition to its five new
community centers, pro-
viding citizens with cul-
ture and entertainment
within walking distance.
• Clubs for the Elderly —
Cultural programs, gym
and entertainment enhance
the lives of those most in
need of leisure activity.
• Promotion of Tourism
— Tourism used to rely on
Haifa's inherent beauty,
which took but a few min-
utes to admire. Now, hotels,
specialty shops, more at-
tractive beach facilities,
places to go to are being
provided. The new Bat
Gahm beach promenade
will house the terminal of
the cable railway being
built to connect it with
Mount Carmel at the Stella
Maris Monastery.
The biblical-historical
Elijah's Cave on the west-
ern slope of Mount Carmel
has been cleaned up, re-
stored and given an easy ac-
cess. The Gan Haem park
on Mount Carmel, with its
educational zoo and prehis-
tory museum has been re-
modeled.
Free open-air public
concerts, fairs, the inter-
national flower show and
the chess tournament are
some of the tourist attrac-
tions that keep in mind
both the local visitor and
the tourist from abroad.
Haifa has a long way to
■
Wedding, Rehearsal and Ceremony Assistance
Sharon Padzensky
honesty and practical
achievements, this is more
important to the voter than
showmanship.
Plans and projects
abound. Gurel is working to
revive the Friends of Haifa
Fund, and he made this one
of the objectives of his re-
cent trip to Europe, during
which he opened in Marse-
ille, Haifa's twin city, an
exhibition of the "Haapala"
(clandestine immigration)
from that port to Haifa, to-
gether with Mayor Gaston
Defferre, who is also the
French Interior Minister
and a good friend of Israel.
As one Haifaite has said,
"I voted again for Gurel. So
did my husband. We are
apolitical. But Haifa has
improved. Its architecture
and landscape have been
enhanced. Little things help
— for instance, maps are
displayed in many spots of
the town. The festival last
summer was excellent.
Streets are clean. And the
playground where I take my
granddaughter is well
kept."
Whereas Jerusalem's
Teddy Kollek and Tel Aviv's
Shlomo Lahat are flam-
boyant characters who are
frequently in the national
news, Arye Gurel is little
known outside Haifa: How-
ever, in local elections it is
the local people who vote.
Gurel may lack charisma
but he has something more
important — the confidence
of his constituents, strongly
reasserted in the recent
elections.
The Gurel model shows
that if you are known as one
who cares, works hard and
builds up a reputation for
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