A Literary Scavenger Hunt in Jerusalem

For those of you who visit here regularly, you know that we at Life Is Like a Library are super fans of Israel ScaVentures and the Experiential Guidebook, as evidenced by how it much we love to talk about them:

The International Writers Festival 2018 (May 2018)

Yet Another Beautiful Day in Israel (December 2018)

Jerusalem Prizes (May 2019)

Today is founder, director, writer, and all-around neat woman Tali Kaplinski Tarlow's birthday. So, in honor of this auspicious day, and in appreciation for all the adventures I've had since I received a review copy of the Guidebook, here is

"A Literary Scavenger Hunt in Jerusalem" 

(Answers will be available in the next blog post.)

The author of A Tale of Love and Darkness grew up on the street that bears the same name he does.

This institution was established in 1892 and houses millions of items in many languages.

Stop for a coffee in this café named after a book. 

This location at Ma'aravim 9 is dedicated to a distinct literary form.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority Library is housed here. 

English readers looking for second-hand books flock to this store on Ya'avets (off Jaffa Road) whose name includes the Hebrew words for book and another item.

The house of this Nobel Prize Winner for Literature is near the American Embassy on a street with another author's original last name.

Although there is a street with his name, the father of Modern Hebrew lived on a street named after an African country.

In the courtyard of the Holman Hunt House on HaNeviim, there is a small house that was home to this iconic Israeli poet who was inspired by the view of the garden from the window:

Conspiracy of spring
a man awakes and through the window sees
a pear tree blossoming,
and instantly the mountain weighing on his heart
dissolves and disappears.

O you will understand! Is there a grieving man
who can hold on stubbornly
to a single flower that withered
in last year's autumn gale,
when spring consoles and with a smile
presents him with a giant wreath of flowers
at his very window?


T.E. Lawrence and John le Carre stayed at this landmark on Nablus Road that now houses a noted bookstore. 

Israel's greatest modern poet wrote two collections with Jerusalem in the title. 

Laura S. Schor's The Best School in Jerusalem is about this girls' school, currently located in Rehavia.

This building was erected in 1902 and originally housed "The Midrash Abarbanel Library and the Joseph Archives." It now shares its name with its location.

NOTE: This is a work-in-progress. Because of the current "matsav" (COVID-19 pandemic), I was not able to go to many of the places I hoped to visit. Hopefully there will be an update in the near future.

And finally, as you go on your hunt, look for these Real Cats of Jerusalem:

Happy Birthday Tali!
Happy Reading!