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One of the largest chassidic groups, originating in Poland. The Belzer Rebbe holds a tish on Friday night and on holidays. The best time to arrive is around 22:00. The entrance to the Belzer building is on: [a] Dover Sholom Street [b] Divrei Chaim Street [c] Binat Yissachar Street or [d] Kedushat Aharon Street, all in Kiryat Belz.
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An abandoned Arab village near the western entrance to Jerusalem. The place is full of spacious, multilevel, half-ruined buildings. Some of the houses are rebuilt and Jewish families live in these. It's easy to find wild opuntia (cactus fruit) and almond trees there. The must-see spot in Lifta is a long, very narrow tunnel going from the bricked-in ancient pool at the bottom of the village. The pool is mentioned in the Bible. Take off your shoes before entering it, because water can reach knee-level. The simplest way to get there is to take a walk from the main bus station towards the nearby hill where you enter the city from Tel Aviv, take the foot bridge over the highway and hike downhill on the trail that starts just before and goes behind the gas station, which takes about 15 minutes. Be careful: the pool is about 2 meters deep when full but has no stairs or ladder out, and while sometimes people pile stones at a corner for a step up to get out, you need to be strong enough to exit with a full pullup and hand press from the high edge or wait for a friend to pull you out. Especially on Friday and even more so before major Jewish holidays, many religious male youths will be found at Lifta performing ritual purification by immersion, and they may become irritated should a female bather show up to swim, potentially forcing large numbers of males wishing to use the ancient ritual mikveh pool for what they consider a non-recreational ritual away from the area.
A freely accessible park with impressive rock-carved tombs from the 1st century. The most impressive tombs are deeper (further north) in the park.
A vibrant shopping street which forms the bouncing heart of Haredi Jerusalem. Especially on the evenings preceding the Sabbath and major holidays, and on summer nights, it is one of the busiest areas of the city. The street, with its narrow sidewalks and chaotic traffic, is lined with stores of all types, ranging from kosher music to modest ladies clothing, from household appliances to pizza stores. On Thursday nights you can get hot cholent (the traditional Sabbath stew) to eat, and there are stores selling traditional Ashkenazi dishes like kugel and herring.
The Tomb of Benjamin
The tomb of one of the disciples of the prophet Muhammad, and next to it a mosque. They were inactive until the end of 2023, when a fringe group decided it was the tomb of Benjamin and four of his sons. The tomb is open for prayer during daylight hours.
Dushinsky headquarters on Shmuel HaNavi Street, about halfway between the roundabout close to the light rail, and the intersection with Yechezkel Street. It is on the northwestern side of the road, in a low, long building. In front of the building, facing the square, are steps going up to a hall where the tish is held. During the winter, the tish starts at about 22:00 and ends at about midnight. There is a tish almost every Friday night, as well as on holidays.
This neighborhood is perhaps the closest the 21st century can get to the shtetl Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. Minimally influenced by the modern world, the Hasidic residents of Me'ah Shearim continue to dress like their great-grandparents and speak Yiddish conversationally. The walls are often plastered with pashkevilim - posters with social or political announcements, by communal leaders or sometimes random activists. For tourists, the main roads are lined with shops selling Judaica.