The minute you walk into Tmol Shilshom you immediately get the feeling that this is the type of place where you can settle down to enjoy a meal and a good book and that no one will make you feel like you have to get up any time soon.

Nachalat Shiv’a was the third of Jerusalem’s neighborhoods, built outside the Old City’s walls. It spans from Hilel Street in the south to Zion Square and Jaffa Road in the north, to Yoel Moshe Solomon Street in the west and Rivlin Street in the east.

The neighborhood derives its name from the seven settlers who established it in 1869. They divided the land they purchased into seven strips (all facing Jaffa Road). At the time this area was totally isolated and at least one of the settlers wives would not leave the safety of the Old City, in order to join her husband in their new home.

Over the years the neighborhood deteriorated and there were plans to tear it down and create high-rise office buildings and build a new road through the area. Luckily, in the mid-1980’s a new plan, to restore the old neighborhood won out.

According to David Ehrlich, co-owner of Tmol Shilshom, in the last 20 years, the neighborhood has undergone a dramatic change, particularly during the last ten years – during which time almost all of the residents moved out and businesses have moved in instead. He said that the building where the cafe’ is located was one of the first buildings in Nachalat Shiv’a – it is about 130 years old. The area that now makes up the cafe’ was originally three or four separate apartments according to Ehrlich. Before he opened the cafe’ there was a tailor shop on the premises and at some point a small shop that made marionettes was located there as well.

Today, Nachalat Shiv’a is a quaint oasis in the middle of Jerusalem that some have compared to SOHO. It is a popular leisure area full of cafes, pubs and small galleries. Just on Yoel Moshe Solomon Street alone (which has been turned into a pedestrian street) there are at least three cooperative shops that feature a variety of works by ceramic artists).

Tmol Shilshom holds regular poetry readings and other events. It is named after Shmuel Yosef Agnon’s book, of the same name. In 1966 Agnon was the first Israeli Nobel Prize laureate in Literature. While most of the events at Tmol Shilshom are in Hebrew there are usually a few scheduled events in English as well. January’s English line-up includes:

Joseph on the Sofa

Sunday January 6, 2002 at 7:00 PM
Prof. Nathan Szajnberg, memeber of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and Prof of Psychiatry at UCSF. Prof. Szajnberg offers a new psychoanalytic analysis of the biblical figure.

“At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: a Jew’s Search for God with ChristiansMuslims in the Holly Land”

January 27, 2002 at 7:00 pm
Yossi Klein-Halevi will talk about his book.

The cafe’-restaurant is Kosher. Its menu features salads, soups and sandwiches as well as main courses (such as ravioli, fish, etc.). The cafe’ can accommodate events for up to 80 people.

Tmol Shilshom is located at 5 Yoel Moshe Solomon Street, Jerusalem.

Directions: From Kikar Zion (Zion Square) walk down Yoel Moshe Solomon Street. Across from # 6 take a left turn into a little arched alley. As you enter the inner courtyard turn left and walk all the way to the end until you see a sign and a few steps on the left that will lead you to the cafe’.

Hours: Daily from 8:30 AM until 3:00 AM. Tmol Shilshom closes before sundown on Friday and re-opens on Saturday, after Shabbat.

02-6232-758 TEL

Email: info@tmol-shilshom.co.il