During the 19th century, important private collections of Asian  art were created, especially in the United States. These collection served as the basis for the establishment of Asian art departments in the greamtest useums in the world. The ancient cultures of Asia also captured the heart of Wilfrid Israel, a Jewish merchant and philanthropist, who bravely  saved  Jews in Europe during the Nazi regime.

Israel, an esthetician with a deep knowledge of art, carefully chose for his collection items from different areas of the art of the ancient Near East and Asia. Sculptures, decorative and religious objects from China, Thailand, Cambodia, India and Nepal adorned his home in Berlin. Israel planned to move to Kibbutz Hazora and set up a residence there for his art collection. This idea reflects the worldview that characterized many of his generation, which combines Zionism and pioneering with the love of culture. When the Wilfrid Israel Museum of Asian Art andS tudies opened in 1951 in Kibbutz Hazora, it was the first museum in Israel to exhibit art from East Asia. The selected collection of items, which Wilfrid Israel collected in the 20s and 30s of the last century, served as the basis for the museum's collection. Over the years, various objects were added to the collection, and including entire collections donated by collectors from Israel and abroad.

The collection represents major currents in the various cultures of East Asia: ritual bronze vessels from China - the earliest vessels - intended for use in the worship of the ancient ancestors who were given the status of gods in ancient China; Buddha statues from the Gandhara region on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which were created under the influence of classical Greek sculpture; Ceramic vessels representing different styles in the history of ceramics and porcelain in China; Stone sculptures, relics from the Cambodian Khmer Kingdom; As well as stone and bronze sculptures from different regions of China, India, Nepal and Thailand.

Most of the items, with the exception of the ceramics and the Chinese paintings, have a religious connection. The various religions were closely integrated into the fabric of life of Asian cultures, until there was almost no room left for essentially secular artistic work. The next two main religions reflected in the exhibits are Hinduism and Buddhism. Both had a decisive influence on the culture in East Asia, although Hinduism did not reach China at all and Buddhism also gained a hegemonic status there for only a short period. In the early sculptures from India you can see Buddhist figures, while the later ones are all Hindu, an expression of the disappearance of Buddhism from India, except in a few centers in the north. The sculptures from the Cambodian kingdom of Khmer represent Buddhist figures, although Hinduism was the dominant religion in the kingdom for most of its existence. At certain periods, Buddhism replaced Hinduism as the state religion, and the sculptures in the collection were probably created during these periods.

Each item in the collection tells the story of the period and culture in which it was created. The historical, cultural and religious background of the exhibits contributes to their understanding, but our value and aesthetic standards are different from those that were customary at the time of their creation. The distance of time and the cultural gap leaves us only the tools of modern observation, but even in this view, the beauty and charm of the objects remains for our enjoynment.