July-August. Twin City Challenge #1—a multi-day art festival based on the twin city relations between Bremen & Haifa—took place from July 29 to August 1.
Odessa is a twin city of Haifa since September 13, 1992. The cooperation proved fruitful, with activities along the years including a joint cartoon exhibition held in Haifa (April 2009)
September. A delegation from Marseille, Haifa's Sister City, headed by Vice Mayor Mr. Daniel Sperling has arrived in Haifa to promote and deepen the cooperation between the two cities. Delegation members visited the Technion and met with representatives from the Economic society.
May. The Mayor of Shenzhen, Mr. Chen Rugui and Mayor of Haifa, Dr. Einat Kalisch Rotem, held a meeting aimed at promoting and strengthening the cooperation between the two cities in the topics of education, culture, medicine and technology.
April. A delegation from Hongkou District, Shanghai, headed by Ms. Gao Xiang, District Deputy Governor, came to discuss possible collaborations between Haifa and Kiryat Haim and Hongkou District.
April. Mr. Rodney Mazinter, Vice-chairman of the South African Zionist Federation in the Western Cape, delivered a warm letter from Mr. Plato Daniel, Mayor of Cape Town to Dr. Einat Kalisch Rotem, Mayor of Haifa. The letter conveyed Mayor Daniel's wish to re-establish the ties between Cape town and its Twin City since 1975 - Haifa
Mayor Kalisch Rotem made her first official trip to Bremen, Germany where, among other things, she visited Überseestadt, Bremen's former docklands that are currently being transformed into a vibrant quarter for the 21st century.
As part of the fruitful cooperation between Haifa and its twin city Düsseldorf, Rolf Sander, a German expert in paving asphalt roads visited the city in order to exchange information and share his experience with the local Construction Department. The main topic which was discussed was maintenance of urban roads. After a tour of several location and meetings with the professional staff of the municipality, the expert send a report with insights and suggested methods of action.
Haifa marks 40 years of twin cities relations with Germany
Currently, Haifa has five German twin cities—Bremen, Mainz, Erfurt, Düsseldorf and Mannheim—the relations with which are steadfast and bustling. The last agreement was signed with Mannheim in 2009, but the first one was already signed with Bremen forty years ago, merely three years after the first visit of an Israeli Prime Minister—Yitzhak Rabin—in Germany.
