A northern Israeli city has decided last week to rename a section of one of its streets to celebrate the contribution of women pioneers to the establishment of the State of Israel and the resettling of the land.
The Haifa Municipal Naming Committee voted to tweak the name of a section of the city's Hechaluz Street, or the Pioneer Street, to Hachaluza Street. Hebrew is a gendered language, and the change turns the word pioneer female.
The street is named after a Jewish youth movement that trained young people for agricultural settlement in the Land of Israel.
It originated in spontaneous youth gatherings in the 1880s and was formalized in the United States and Russia after the turn of the century.
It became an umbrella organization of the pioneering Zionist youth movements until it was absorbed in the 1950s by the socialist-Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair (The Young Guard).
"With this decision, the municipality wishes to honor the memory of generations of women pioneers who took part in the building of the city," the port city's mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem said in a statement.
"The Haifa Municipality is a wonderful example of an authority that empowers women. Many senior management positions are staffed by women."