Jerusalemite blog

The top five underground performance spaces in Jerusalem

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:48:16 +0300

Much is made of the youth exodus plaguing Jerusalem, a cascade of bright young people squeezed out every year by skyrocketing rents, poor municipal management and sometime intolerance by more conservative sectors of the population, but were a Jerusalem visitor to situate themselves in the slice of downtown between the Ha-Nevi'im Street and Hillel Street, they would find a youth culture more culturally vibrant, artistically engaged and politically aware than any in a city three times the size of Jerusalem...

Beating the summer heat

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:43:18 +0300

Sure, the relative height of the Judean Hills and the occasional mountain breeze means that during the hot months Jerusalem residents suffer less than their compatriots in the Levantine bayou that is summertime Tel Aviv - but when it's 90 degrees and there hasn't been a cloud in the sky since March and the desert sun is glaring fiercely off the glowing white Jerusalem stone, the difference can seem at times to be mostly academic....

Boom Pam brings tuba to the Bass

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:12:27 +0300

On June 23, celebrated low-fi jammers Boom Pam, who are signed to Frankfurt's Essay Recordings and often traverse Europe with their concert tours, are scheduled to play downtown Jerusalem party venue Bass....

People from the fringes on display

Mon, 04 May 2009 10:31:04 +0300

Also known as the Musrara school, The Naggar School of Photography is beloved among Jerusalemites for its edgy cultural endeavors. The school's social issues-themed exhibition room is currently hosting All of Israel Are Friends, an appropriately provocative collection of photographs from 13 different artists, as curated by Daphna Ichilov, showing through June 26.

What to do this Independence Day in Jerusalem....

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:28:03 +0300

Just because this year's Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) celebrates 61 years of the Zionist state - as opposed to last year's number, which had the advantage of ending with a zero - doesn't mean the celebrations will be meager....

Meir Ariel to be remembered at the Submarine some ten years later

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:20:13 +0300

Jerusalem is made of many things. Most famously, it's made of gold, but here at Jerusalemite, we've written about a few other ingredients to the city (see the "Related" links below). Beloved, gloriously Jew-fro-ed Seventies singer-songwriter Meir Ariel (pictured), however, had a different vision of the city, writing his own "Jerusalem of Iron," as an iconic rebuttal to the Nami Shemer hit. Ariel's version was written from the perspective of a paratrooper who had actually liberated the Old City in 1967....

It's pretty much Passover time in Jerusalem

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:17:48 +0300

Hundreds and thousands of pilgrims are ascending to the City of Gold, where the feeling that big things are happening is palpable. Schools are on vacation, tourist season is gaining momentum, and virtually every cultural institution is gearing up to offer the best in springtime high art and lowbrow entertainment....

Join us at Jerusalem.com

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:56:40 +0200

We have been promising change for months, and the time has finally arrived to deliver. We are happy to announce that the same team that has brought you Jerusalemite is now managing the culture and tourism channel of Jerusalem.com.

Change is gonna come

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:14:15 +0200

You might be wondering why things look a little slow on the Jerusalemite blog lately. There is good reason for it: Big things are in the works. Really big things. Unfortunately at this time we can't throw all of our cards on the table but rest assured it benefits everyone who cares deeply about Jerusalem and allows us to continue to pursue our agenda of promoting Jerusalem as a cultural destination in Israel to an even bigger audience.

Lighting the candles

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:31:23 +0200

With many solstice celebrations afoot in Jerusalem and all over the world, Jerusalemite would like to bless us all with peace and successes. Here at Jerusalemite, we're still hard at work on our latest developments, which we believe will bring much pleasure to lovers of Jerusalem the world over...

A conversation with Bracha Din, jeweler

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:28:33 +0200

Bracha Din first visited Israel in 1968, and she came by ship. A true child of the '60s, Bracha traveled the country, spending the requisite time on an authentic kibbutz, before ferrying off to Athens, the first stop on an extended European tour which took her to 22 countries in three years. Back in the United States, Din tried out college but left after a semester to hitch-hike across Canada and the western United States. This journey eventually brought her to San Francisco.....

Please be Jerusalemite's friend

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:54:47 +0200

That's the thing about the Internet these days: you can never be in only one place at a time. You have to keep a Facebook account so you can keep track of the birthdays, interests and innermost feelings of people you fuzzily met during a previous night of heavy drinking. You have to be on Myspace to stay hip to whatever the teenagers are up to these days, and also to fulfill your daily quota of glitter fonts. You have to update your Twitter feed so all your friends, whether real or Internet-imaginary...

This week in Jerusalem

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:20:24 +0200

It's been a good week for Jerusalem. Sure, it's cold, but Hamshushalaim is in full swing, and in its wake have come 120,000 visitors, 90% occupancy in city hotels, and a 30% increase in weekly takings of restaurants and coffeeshops. The festivities continue this weekend, and as always, there's plenty of other stuff to do as...

The top five Jerusalem soup joints

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:27:08 +0300

You look a little damp. Come inside or you'll catch a cold. Here, sit down. You know what'll make you feel better? A nice steaming hot bowl of soup, just like mom used to make. You're in the right place for it. Welcome, readers, to the soup capital of the world. Maybe you think Jewish soup begins and ends with soggy matzah balls bobbing in chicken broth, but that's as much a misconception as thinking Italian food begins and ends with spaghetti. When the Jews flooded back into Israel from the...

Heaven and hell in Malcha

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:18:18 +0200

Beitar Jerusalem likes to use the advertizing/intimidation tactic of calling their home at Malcha's Teddy Stadium hell. It has indeed been hell so far this year, but only for Jerusalem - not the visiting teams. Though the season is more than half through, Jerusalem's corps of insane, obnoxious and xenophobic fans - and, to be fair, completely normal and nice ones, too - have yet to see their team win a game at home....

Making Jerusalem clean...for Bambi

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:41:17 +0200

Yeah, it's true: we've been talking a lot about Gazelle Valley lately. But this time, we don't have anything to report about the mad machinations of our local robber barons. This is good news. You see, Jerusalem (as well as the rest of the country) suffers from a terrible litter problem. Despite the love for the Land of Israel drilled into every Israeli kid as part of the public curriculum, not to mention built into the Jewish religion, far too few people make the seemingly obvious mental association...

A conversation with Gil Peled, eco-architect

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:51:19 +0200

Born in Jerusalem, environmentally aware architect Gil Peled was somewhat of a gypsy as a child, following his parents, who worked in the Foreign Service, to Germany, Austria and back. After completing his army service, Gil studied architecture in Scotland, in keeping with his cross-cultural roots. Today, Gil works as an eco-architect, and is the founder of Eco-Challenges: Sustainable Architecture and Consultancy. Perhaps his most famous project is his own apartment building, near downtown Jerusalem....

Jerusalem finally gets Park and Ride - kind of

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:26:20 +0200

If you can't beat them, advertise to them. That's the attitude the city is taking toward drivers who insist on driving into and parking in the city's center

This week in Jerusalem

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:27:44 +0200

It's winter, and there's a faint whiff of approaching holidays in the air, even here in Jerusalem...or maybe that's just the delicious, delicious smell of sufganiyot (Hanukkah donuts) in the morning. And it's also festival time. Hamshushalaim madness kicks into full swing this evening, and it's your best (and by that we mean cheapest) chance all year to take in dozens of Jerusalem museums, restaurants and cultural venues. So get to it...

Hamshushalaim makes every weekend a three-day weekend

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:25:49 +0200

So what can a Jerusalem resident or visitor expect from these three hamshushim for the price of one? A pretty good deal: free or reduced-price admission to museums and tourist sites; extended venue and museum hours; reduced hotel fares as thousands upon thousands of both domestic and foreign tourists descend on the city; and cheap food from some of the city's finest restaurants....