While Jerusalem’s Israel Museum, as well as the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, are both still closed, and offer mainly online activities and relief activities for displaced families, some museums around the country have begun opening their gates, and many offer free admission. Check out these smaller yet very interesting museums.
Visit new interactive exhibitions at the Haifa Museum of Art, the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, the National Maritime Museum, the Haifa City Museum, and the Hermann Struck Museum. The museum’s staff also provides relief activities in community centers around the city.
Opening hours for all Haifa museums are Sunday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Closed on Monday. Thursday, 10 a.m- 6 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. All of Haifa’s museums are free of charge.
Online reservations are required before arriving. For more information, see www.hma.org.il.
Anu, Museum on the Jewish people, opened its gates free of charge, and offers visitors a chance to join the fascinating journey that portrays the story of our people through the generations. The museum represents the entire Jewish people and highlights the creative works and cultural riches of a variety of communities in different periods of history.
The Codex Sassoon is now on display at ANU. Over 1,100 years old, the Codex Sassoon is the oldest, most complete Bible, and is one of the most important and unique manuscripts in the world.
In May 2023, the Codex Sassoon became the most expensive Jewish manuscript in history. With the help of the generous donation by Alfred H. Moses, chairman of the museum’s International Board of Governors, the Codex was purchased for approximately $38 million at a public auction held in Sotheby’s New York, and donated to the Anu – Museum of the Jewish People’s collection.
Alongside the physical opening of the museum, the free online activities include Zoom meetings, movie screenings, gallery talks, and multi-lingual tours. For more information, go to anumuseum.org.il
In Jerusalem, the Bible Lands Museum is open to the public (free entrance), Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
The museum also offers free activities for children and adults, meetings with artists, concerts, and workshops. For more information go to blmj.org or call (02) 561-1066.
THE MISHKAN Heritage Museum of Art in Ein Harod is one of the best art museums in Israel, which you probably don’t know about. If you happen to be in the area, do not miss the opportunity to visit (free admission). The museum started out in 1937 as an “art corner” in a small wooden shack used as the atelier of a Kibbutz Ein Harod member, the painter Haim Atar (1902-1953) – the museum’s visionary and founder.
In 1940, the museum moved to its new home in a relatively large shack, previously used as the kibbutz school. In 1948, the first section of the permanent building, now called Mishkan, or Home for Art, was opened.
Israeli art is represented in the Mishkan collection with works of the finest artists that represent the various currents and multiple groups active throughout the history of Israeli art.
The Mishkan’s painting and graphics collection includes works by Jewish painters from the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Mauricio Gottlieb, Shmuel Hirschenberg, Leopold Horowitz, Mauricio Minkowski, Artur Markowicz, Isidor Kaufmann, and others have depicted Jewish life in Eastern Europe, be it in a romantic or realistic style.
The impressionists are represented by Max Liebermann, Lesser Ury, and Yitzhak Levitan. The group of expressionists and cubists from Russia and Central Europe, as well as those belonging to the Paris School, is particularly prominent in the collection, with works by Jankel Adler, Issachar Ber Ryback, Jules Pascin, Mané-Katz, Moise Kisling, Leopold Gottlieb, and many others.
The Judaica collection houses ritual objects from scores of Jewish communities, from the 18th century to the present day, from Eastern and Central Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East.
The museum also offers many activities for the whole family, including art workshops. Opening hours: daily between 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
If you can’t get there, try their online virtual visits and workshops. For information, go to bit.ly/ZoomMishkanMov2023; mus-edu@ehm.co.il, or call 054-680-7788.
The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, in Or Yehuda, tells the story of the Jewry in Babylon since biblical times, presenting their lifestyle, tradition, and culture. Opening hours are Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. For more information, call (03) 533-9278.
Online activities
The Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv continues to offer online interactive Zoom meetings for children and adults, free of charge. Among the planned activities is “Glass” with Enrietta Eliezer Brunner, the glass pavilion’s curator (Sunday, October 29 at 9 p.m.). On Tuesday, October 31 at 9 p.m., there will be a practical workshop teaching photomontage using your smartphone, with artist Merav Heiman. For more information, go to www.eretzmuseum.org.il.
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art closed its doors and all of its activities are online. Daily digital content is placed on the museum’s Internet site, including virtual guided tours, workshops, art meetings, gallery talks, visits to current exhibitions, and much more. Visit www.tamuseum.org.il
The Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art is closed but invites children and adults for a digital visit, focusing on their new Tell Me More series of exhibitions, which presents diverse, unexpected aspects of the local illustration scene. See herzliyamuseum.co.il/exhibition.
The Yaacov Agam Museum of Art, in Rishon Lezion, offers a new online workshop every day. Among the workshops offered to kids at the museum are “Geometric Flowers” and “Following Jacob’s Ladder,” after Agam’s work by the same name. There is also a virtual guided tour and many activities. For more information, go to yama.co.il.
The Mediatheque, the Design Museum Holon, also offers many online activities for the whole family, available on their website. To participate, go to dmh.org.il
