Manhole in the context of "Sanitary manhole"

The Russian language is spoken natively by a considerable proportion of the population of Israel, mostly by immigrants who came from the former Soviet Union from 1989 onwards. It is a major foreign language in the country, and is used in many aspects of life. Russian is the third most common native language in Israel after Modern Hebrew and Arabic. Government institutions and businesses often also provide information and services in Russian, and has effectively become semi-official in some areas with high concentration of Russian-speaking immigrants. The Russian-speaking population of Israel is the world's third-largest population of Russian native-speakers living outside the former Soviet Union territories after Germany and the United States, and the highest as a proportion of the population. As of 2013, 1,231,003 residents of the Post-Soviet states have immigrated to Israel since the fall of the Soviet Union. As of 2017, there are up to 1.5 million Russian-speaking Israelis out of total population of 8,700,000 (17.25%).

In Israel, Arabic is spoken natively by over 20 percent of the Israeli population, predominantly by Arab citizens of Israel, but also by Jews who arrived in Israel from Arab countries. Some refer to the modern Hebrew-influenced Levantine Arabic vernacular as the "Israeli Arabic dialect" or colloquially as Aravrit, a portmanteau of the Hebrew words Ivrit (lit. 'Hebrew') and Aravit (lit. 'Arabic').

Among Israeli Arabs in central Israel, the vernacular spoken is similar to Palestinian Arabic, while the Negev Bedouin traditionally speak their own dialect of Arabic. The dialects in the northern part of the country merge with southern Lebanese Arabic. Many first-generation Mizrahi Jews and Maghrebi Jews (i.e. those who made aliyah to Israel from the Arab world) can still speak Judeo-Arabic dialects, while their Israel-born descendants have overwhelmingly adopted Hebrew as their first (or sole) language.

In civil engineering a shaft is an underground vertical or inclined passageway. Shafts are often entered through a manhole and closed by a manhole cover. They are constructed for a number of reasons including:

• For the construction of a tunnel
• For ventilation of a tunnel or underground structure, aka ventilation shaft
• As a drop shaft for a sewerage or water tunnel
• For access to a tunnel or underground structure, also as an escape route