This post is meant to give a little insight into some wonderful Jerusalem places to visit, if you just have a few days. Not for tourists, this is for serious thinkers, writers and researchers. Okay, health warning over!
Day One: I had heard about the marvellous William Dobbie exhibit. I also love the Old City, especially the Rova. So playing it safe to start with, I headed for the Heritage Centre and library at Christchurch, Jaffa Gate. Lt Gen Sir William Dobbie was the man who finally managed to restore order in 1929. He is one of only two British Generals to receive a commemorative Bible from the Yishuv. The other was General Monty. Dobbie’s silver-bound Tenach came, poignantly, from the Jewish Community of Hevron. The exhibit is well worth a visit, and is open until November.
Day two: All I can say is that there’s a perfect little place/library where you can get all the help you need and it’s a real treasure trove. I was tipped off by someone at Christchurch that this little place had all the Consul Finn correspondence, from way back in the 1860s. I don’t want to divulge the location, but just to say there are always lovely surprises in Jerusalem.
Day three: If you plan to go digging at the Israel State Archives, make sure you either have more than one day (!) or order the material by about 10:30 am. In addition, make sure you have emailed in advance your requests. And be prepared that many of the headings are in Hebrew. And allow time for the return journey, as not as many buses leave there for the town centre as you might think.
Tucked away on the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew U, is the Maps Library. This is an amazing resource, storing all the original (and huge) maps done by the Palestine Exploration Fund in the 1860s and 70s. The maps corresponding to the Survey of Western Palestine can also be found there.
Day four: Central Zionist Archives. Wow what a find, and really central (as the name suggests!) I mean, I always knew where the (old) bus station was, and the Binyanei. But now I’m proud to add to my mental list the location of the CZA. Amazing resource. Wonderful, helpful people. The silent ‘buzz’ of deep concentration in the comfortable reading room. A researcher’s paradise. Again, many headings in Hebrew, but help available. As well as the online system, there are tiny little drawers you can pull out from the wall, containing little indices to all the really old stuff, like pre-1948.
Day five: Well, not much chance of a library visit on Yom Shishi, to be honest. The place to be, as an eminent scholar reminded me, is anywhere in or around the ‘shuk’, Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda market. It was only an academic experience in the sense that I decided to meet my former tutor and lecturer from the Hebrew University. She suggested the ‘Nisan’ spice shop, which is also a little café. Smack bang in the middle of the action, there are plenty of sights and sounds (and aromas) but not too much of a touristy feel. Definitely more Yerushalmi/t than anything. And with it being pre-election fever as well, I was even targeted as a Likud party recruit!
My ex-tutor then took my around the shuk, which was much more fun than seeing it alone. She showed me her favourite bakery, which was not the cheapest, “but the best”. Lots of sophisticated places compared to 1998 (when I was her student). Together we decided that the shuk better not get any more chic, lest it lose its typical shuky feel. An example of this was being offered a free hamentashen (complete with chocolate filling) as it was just before Purim. Aaah. How on earth could I go home?Day six was Shabbat and I had just enough time before the sherut for coffee with a friend at the First Station. I am still amazed by this beautifully arranged complex, which just wasn't there back when I lived in J-town. Well worth a visit at any time of the day. And even there, historians and journos can happily read all the various plaques around the place, explaining how the railway came about. Not to mention the ice cream shop with every flavour you can imagine!So if you only have less than a week for a flying visit, go for it!