Image: Ra’anan (“Zulo”) Shapira beside the first authentic historical whaleboat being built in Israel by Israeli Navy veterans and volunteers at Hadassah Neurim.Photo:Rafi Glick.

From the Palyam to Hadassah Neurim: The Whaleboat Returns to Israel.

Quietly, inside the Hadassah Neurim youth village along Israel’s coastal highway, an unusual maritime project is taking shape these days: the first authentic historical whaleboat ever to be built in Israel.

Behind the initiative stand Israeli Navy veterans — some between 75 and 90 years old — who are volunteering their time in order to preserve an important chapter in Israel’s maritime history.

The whaleboat, a large rowing boat originally developed in the world of whale hunting, is known in Israel mainly for its role during the Palyam and the Aliyah Bet immigration operations. In the years following World War II, when the British blocked Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine, these boats were used to transfer Jewish immigrants from clandestine immigration ships to the shore in daring operations carried out by the Haganah and the Palyam naval force.

But the story of the whaleboat began much earlier — in the whaling........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)