Exhibitions
Blood - Money - Ships | The Reparations Agreement with Germany as a Catalyst for the Growth of the Israeli Merchant Fleet
A new exhibition
The exhibition displays models of several ZIM shipping vessels, designed for various purposes. The first ship received under the agreement, Dagan, was used for cargo, as was the Ampa'al. The ships Israel and Zion were intended for mixed use of passengers and cargo, while Jerusalem served as a passenger ship. The ship Har Gilad, owned by El-Yam company, was used for general cargo and refrigerated transport. The exhibition also features historical moments in the ships' stories, documented in sources including news diaries, photographs, and promotional leaflets.
In the Shade of the Date Palm: Contemporary Print with a Haifa Perspective
Now in the museum
This exhibition - “In the Shade of the Date Palm” - invites the visitor to contemplate two points in time: Haifa as viewed by the artist Hermann Struck a century ago, and modern Haifa as it appears in the works of artists striving to answer these questions in their contemporary prints.
Pirates - Between truth and legend
The phenomenon of piracy - piracy - has evolved since man began trading in ships, and it has flourished mainly in areas of loose rule. Piracy existed in ancient times in the Mediterranean and the Sea of China and reached its peak in the seventeenth century in the Atlantic Ocean, with the rise of European colonialism and the development of trade routes with the "New World".
The Space For Community Art: Gevere Ribka | Belay
Now at the museum
The works in the exhibition record male figures who have struggled for decades with an unabated will to adjust to a new place. Ribka chose to document them here, understanding that they have built a place that allows them to work at something they are good at, a place where they are able to create something new and reap the fruits of their success.
The Age of the Maritime Discoveries
During the 15th-16th centuries maritime exploration and colonization reached a peak. It was a decisive phase between the Middle Ages and the beginning of Modern Times.
Gods, Goddesses, and Marine Superheroes
This exhibition presents emblematic figures of gods, goddesses, heroes, and mythical marine creatures from ancient times to the modern era. Maritime trade and seafaring have played a crucial role in shaping cultural exchanges, through which sea-related beliefs and myths evolved and transformed. The vastness of the sea has been an endless source of human imagination - from the mighty gods of the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, through the protective saints of Christianity, to the superheroes of the modern age.
The Athlit Ram
One of the most important and rare discoveries of underwater archaeology in Israel is that of the Athlit ram. It was discovered by the late Yehoshua Ramon in 1980, in the northern bay of Athlit, and was retrieved from the sea by the staff and students of the Maritime Civilizations Department at the Centre for Marine Studies at Haifa University.
Anchors
One of the concerns of seafarers of all times has been how to halt their vessel in mid-ocean when necessary. The first sailors solved the problem by lowering a rock tied to a rope onto the sea-bed.
Scientific Instruments
Mathematical instruments are intended for measuring angles and distances, and are applied to astronomy, topography and navigation. Some have wider uses as drawing instruments or to measure time. Very few have been left from ancient times. Some Chinese jades, some Greek terra-cottas, some bronze fragments are all that remain from those early periods.
SHIPS TELL THEIR STORIES | EARLY HEBREW SEAMANSHIP DURING THE BRITISH MANDATE
The model ships in this display reflect a dramatic and stormy chapter in Jewish marine history during the years before the establishment of the State, and the first few years after its establishment. They demonstrate the progression from sailing ships to modern, motorized ships, and narrate the story of the development of Hebrew seafaring from private and civilian initiatives up to the national projects of Ha’apala, Aliya, and the establishment of an Israeli merchant fleet.