 Haifa has over a dozen museums . The most popular museum is the Israel National Museum of Science , Technology , and Space , which recorded almost 150 @,@ 000 visitors in 2004 . The museum is located in the historic Technion building in the Hadar neighborhood . The Haifa Museum of Art houses a collection of modern and classical art , as well as displays on the history of Haifa . The Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art is the only museum in the Middle East dedicated solely to Japanese art . Other museums in Haifa include the Museum of Prehistory , the National Maritime Museum and Haifa City Museum , the Hecht Museum , the Dagon Archaeological Museum of Grain Handling , the Railway Museum , the Clandestine Immigration and Navy Museum , the Israeli Oil Industry Museum , and Chagall Artists ' House . As part of his campaign to bring culture to Haifa , Mayor Abba Hushi provided the artist Mane @-@ Katz with a building on Mount Carmel to house his collection of Judaica , which is now a museum . The Haifa Educational Zoo at Gan HaEm park houses a small animal collection including Syrian brown bears , now extinct from Israel . Wןthin the zoo is the Pinhas House biology institute . In the close vicinity of Haifa , on the Carmel , the Northern " Hai @-@ Bar " ( " wild life " ) operated by Israel 's Parks and Reserves Authority for the purpose of breeding and reintroduction of species now extinct from Israel , such as Persian Fallow Deer . 
