Solo

: Running through History in Jerusalem

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 […]

Exploring Bars in the Market After Dark

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 […]

A Time of Repentance: Experience the Holy Months of Elul and Tishrei

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 […]

Walking in the footsteps of repentance

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.

Behind the walls of the Hansen hospital

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.

Jerusalem through my father’s eyes

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.

Bringing king david to life

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.

The Anna Ticho house

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.

Pottery at Altogether 8

Along the shop-lined cobblestone pedestrian Yoel Solomon Street in the city’s Nahalat Shiva neighborhood, one store stands out among the others because it has two names. The door reads Cadim, but the sign on the building says Altogether 8. While it can be confusing, the shop does indeed have have two names because two different ceramic art cooperatives–among the oldest businesses on the popular street– recently joined forces.

Hearing Jewish history through music

In one corner of Jerusalem’s Hebrew Music Museum, a group of visiting children and adults are sitting in a circle, playing drums. All the drums and other instruments they are using are from Yemen and Ethiopia and other lands in the region which have been home to Jewish communities throughout the centuries. Nearby, in the sprawling museum built inside ancient stone buildings in the city’s central Nahalat Shiva neighborhood, other rooms are filled with instruments from Europe, Morocco and Central Asia, also home to historic Jewish communities..

A book cafe for lovers

So many married and long-term couples have visited the cozy Tmol Shilshom cafe while they were dating that the cafe published a book about some of those who met their life-partners here. That book, Stories of Love, features ten couples, and is just a glimpse of the important role this place has played in the lives of so many people in Jerusalem

Jerusalem’s secret garden

From Jerusalem’s bustling King David Street, the tiny Elimelech Admoni Street leads down hill to reveal a sprawling green park, shaded with palm, pine and olive trees. Rather than city traffic and honking car horns, here it is quiet, with birds chirping in the background. This magical hidden park in the center of Jerusalem is called Bloomfield Garden, and is tucked between King David Street and the Old City. In addition to a quiet atmosphere, filled with stone paths and benches, there are also sweeping views of the Old City Walls.

Bird Observatory Jerusalem

Every morning Alen Kacal arrives just after sunrise to the Jerusalem Bird Observatory, near the Knesset, to see if any birds were trapped overnight in the large nets that cover many of the trees and bushes here. On a recent March morning she found a blue and orange kingfisher, a bright yellow warbler and an owl that usually lives in Siberia.

Scents of Jerusalem

Hundreds of bottles filled with lavender, saffron, vanilla, frankincense and other essential oil fill the shelves inside Perfuniq, a tiny shop on Ben Sira street in the center of Jerusalem. Owner Shahar Schwartz, a trained chemist, estimates his shop offers about 1,200 different scented oils. And it is from this huge collection that customers can create their own unique perfumes.

Jerusalem by the light of the moon: segway tours

As the sun sets in Jerusalem, a small group of people glide along the city’s sidewalks on Segways, exploring the city by the light of the moon. Leaving from the First Station complex, these nighttime segway tours explore the picturesque Yemin Moshe neighborhood with its sweeping views of the illuminated Old City Walls, as well as the vibrant Mamilla outdoor shopping corridor, and several alleyways inside the Old City itself.

Sweet Ein Kerem chocolate-making

Along the street up to Ein Kerem’s famous St John the Baptist Monastery is a small shop with a glass case full of handmade chocolates and gourmet ice cream. Called Sweet Ein Kerem, this little space is what owner Ofer Amsalem calls the “window” to his business’s larger location, which includes a chocolate factory and cafe, another 100 meters up the street.

Discover Jerusalem’s stories through food

Do you want to meet the artists, designers and other creative people who have been changing downtown Jerusalem in recent years, and enjoy food along the way? For a unique look into life at the galleries and artsy cafes, as well as at the street graffiti, just download the Bitemojo app, and sign up for the Creative Tour of Jerusalem. Like Bitemojo’s other smartphone-based tours, the Creative Tour includes several pre-paid stops to taste food, using the various restaurants, cafes and bars as a way to learn about the past and present of Jerusalem. Guided by the smartphone app, participants can also go at their own pace, without worrying about keeping up with a group.

Out of the blue

Inside a glass case at Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum, a stone tablet from the 13th century BCE reveals how some people in the lands of ancient Canaan paid their taxes not with gold or silver, but with bundles of wool dyed in blue.

Wine-tasting and Romantic tours

Wine-tasting and tours add to famous romantic landmark For more than a century the blades of the towering windmill in Mishkanot Sha’ananim did not rotate. But that didn’t stop this historic neighborhood from becoming one of the most romantic places in the city, a site where hundreds of couples got engaged or posed for wedding photos each year.

Rooms Filtering