A welcoming Jerusalem mix on Kook Street
With the spring holiday season in full swing and the summer festival season on the horizon, it's relatively safe to say that Jerusalem has plenty of night-time revelry on her agenda. But what to do during the seemingly endless sharav-like May days in the city? The wonders of air conditioning make a day spent inside seem the perfect cure, but denizens need not only rely on the staycation as a means of respite from the sun and dust. Though not as people-watching-tastic as its big brother Ben Yehuda Street, nearby Rav Kook Street offers a slew of quirky and educational spots to visit while remaining comfortably indoors.
The street was once home to one of Israel's most celebrated rabbis, Rav Abraham Isaac Kook, hence the name. Kook worked to close the distance between the ultra-Orthodox and the non-religious Zionists during the mandate period, fostering the eventual creation of the religious Zionist movement. His apartment is now home to the Rabbi Kook Museum, a shrine to the rabbi and his teachings. The entrance to the house, featuring a turreted wall reminiscent of the nearby Old City walls, takes visitors into the residence that looks much as it did when Rabbi Kook occupied it, complete with mikveh (ritual bath) and beit midrash (study hall).
For those looking for a less straightforward religiously educational experience, there is the dreamy Museum of Psalms. Though the paintings that make up the museum may appear on their surfaces to be mere visceral phychedelia, the art is actually the work of kabbalist and Holocaust survivor Moshe Tzvi Halevi Berger. Berger's paintings bring the 150 Psalms to life, though the years they have spent on permanent display have begun to show in some of them.
A short walk away is the Anna Ticho House,
a former Ottoman-era home occupied by artist/social butterfly Anna
Ticho and her husband/cousin Avraham, who also ran an eye clinic at the
site, during the early 20th century. The gallery is filled with Anna's
artwork, for which she was famous, and Avraham's candelabra collection. The museum also hosts temporary exhiitions and experimental arts performances.
You can hit up the acclaimed Little Jerusalem restaurant without even having to venture outside. The dairy joint serves up standard European and Middle Eastern fare with a bevy of breakfast options.
With its recently renovated campus and its own rotation of temporary exhibitions of students' works, Hadassah College is situated just up the street, although the school's exhibits are often hosted at other nearby insitutions like the Underground Prisoners Museum, which is adjacent to Safra Square.
Pictured is Raaya Karas' Some Place for Tomorrow, which was recently on display at the Ticho House.
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