Ship Fragments | Yechiel Shemi

Yechiel Shemi, Israeli, 1922–2003
Ship Fragments, 1966

Iron
On loan from Atelier Shemi, Kibbutz Cabri

Shemi courtyard, Floor 2-

“The children look at me as if to say that I am the only one they could still trust. Suddenly I realize what Aliyah Bet is all about. It is all that is left of the six million, and it is your responsibility, your task, to bring them to the Land of Israel alive and well. I saw this role as something sacred, and there was nothing I would not do for them.” from: Yossi Harel, Commander of the immigrant ship “Exodus 1947” – The Commander’s Report.

The sculpture was created from the remains of clandestine immigrant ships that sank in Haifa Port, among them Exodus 1947 and Patria. At the end of World War II, they carried Holocaust survivors, who endured an agonizing journey to reach a haven; the ships became a symbol of the immigrant operation.

This work of Yechiel Shemi, transforming salvage scraps into art, is an echo of the story of the National Library itself, which has collected Jewish writings from their wanderings around the world and saved them from extinction.

Yechiel Shemi was one of Israel’s leading sculptors, and a pioneer in abstract iron sculpture. He was awarded the Israel Prize in 1986.