Urban

Jerusalem has long had a creative spirit, and is home to the country’s most renowned art school, the Bezalel Academy of Art of Design, now part of Hebrew University. Even the Biblical tradition highlights the role of design, with much text dedicated to describing how the Isralites should build their tabernacle, temple and altar. In […]

The courtyard gardens of homes; the rooftops of churches and winding alleyways. These are some of the scenes only possible from the Ramparts Walk along the tops of Jerusalem’s Old City walls. With two routes, one beginning near Jaffa Gate and one starting from the Tower of David, this walk is one of the most […]

When tour guide Yael Goodman leads a group of runners over the bridge by Jerusalem’s Cinematheque, they often stop to gaze out at the scenery and catch their breath. Goodman then usually briefly talks about how this area was once the border between Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem and Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem before the 1967 Six Day […]

In recent years, the word has spread about Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market turning into a center of nightlife, with a unique collection of bars and pubs. Even long after the last produce stalls have closed, the market is filled with people out for food, drink or dancing. One of the best ways to truly experience […]

Beginning on the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, many Jewish communities wake up before sunrise to recite selichot, prayers asking for the atonement of sins.  They continue this ritual for 40 days, through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. “It is a really intense and special atmosphere on the streets at this time […]

As darkness falls over Jerusalem each Thursday evening during the Hebrew month of Elul, groups of visitors will make their way to Mount Zion. Among the ancient ruins, a tour guide begins to talk about King David, who, according to Jewish tradition, conquered the city and built its first temple.

When Ruth Wexler started working as a nurse at Jerusalem’s Hansen Hospital in 1983, it was still a place that many people feared. Just a short walk from the Inbal Hotel, this complex behind stone walls was where people were treated for leprosy.

In the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, a small shop called Elia Photo Service, offers a window to the city’s past. The glass cupboards, walls and countertops are covered with black-and-white photos that Elia Kahvedjian took in and around Jerusalem and other parts of Israel for more than six decades, beginning in the 1920s. There are photos of camels in the desert, horse-drawn carts on Jaffa Road, and the interior of the Old City’s Hurva Synagogue before it was destroyed in the 1948-49 war.

A red-headed boy leads his sheep across a grassy field, interspersed with trees. The music of a flute plays and the rolling, rocky hills of Judea rise in the background. These are the opening scenes of the new evening sound and light show King David, which transforms the 1,000-year old stone walls of the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem’s Old City into a surround-sound movie theater five nights a week. Once the sun sets, David and his story come to life in this Crusader-era citadel via 18 laser projectors and 20 speakers.

A Place for Art and Culture; old and new

Before the state of Israel was established, botanist Baruch Chizik and artist Aharon HaLevy traveled around rural Palestine, cataloguing all of the plants they encountered. Chizik studied and identified the various flowers and cacti while HaLevy painted them.
It was part of a larger cooperative scene of scientists, artists and linguists who worked together to find, document, and even create modern Hebrew names for the plants growing in the Holy Land.