Shopping A-Z

Basketware

Jerusalem's once roaring basket market, the Suq El Hussor, has fallen victim to bamboo import items, but you can still find a few locally made, primitive olive-twig baskets, a Jerusalem and regional tradition that is thousands of years old. Rough, almost bird's nest-like in texture, these baskets look great when filled with dried flowers, fresh fruit, yarn, or almost anything else. Don't pay more than NIS 30 to NIS 40 ($7.50-$9) for a basket with a handle, the kind used by country women to collect fresh grapes or figs. Bigger traylike baskets, the kind women in the markets carry on their heads, should cost NIS 45 to NIS 80 ($10-$18). One of the few places where a few real olive twig branch baskets can be found is a small hole-in-the-wall shop on the right side of Christian Quarter Road in the Old City, between David Street and St. Helena Street. The owner, a small man with a small mustache, is one of the toughest bargainers in town.

Bookstores

Most bookstores carrying a selection of books in English are within 2 blocks of Zion Square. Look for the following stores: Librairie Française Alcheh, 30 Jaffa Rd. (tel. 02/625-7058), between Zion Square and the central post office; the well-stocked Steimatzky chain, with its large main branch at 39 Jaffa Rd. and smaller branches at 9 King George St. and on the Ben-Yehuda Pedestrian Mall. Steimatzky's maintains very small branches in many major hotels and sells a good selection of new English- and foreign-language periodicals, books, and guidebooks to various regions of the country. Prices are high but look for (summer) interesting remainder tables!

For used books try Sefer Ve Sefel Bookshop, 4 Yavetz St., upstairs (tel. 02/624-8237), where you'll find the largest selection of English language fiction in Israel, and used but often current guidebooks; Clal Center Bookstore, 97 Jaffa Rd. has a good, interesting stock of quality used English books (ask directions to their affiliates, Moffit, also in the Clal Center); and Yalkut Bookstore, in the rear plaza of the Redjwan Building on King George Street. Tmol Shilshom Bookstore Café, in a rear courtyard off 5 Yoel Salomon St. (tel. 02/623-2758), has a small eclectic collection of new and used books and magazines, and remains open until midnight Sunday through Thursday; it's mainly a café restaurant with a wonderful program of readings and live music. The Bookshelf, 2 Jewish Quarter Rd. (tel. 02/627-3889), in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, has an especially helpful management and an influx of good reading material, often shipped in from Princeton, New Jersey. It also offers fax and Internet service and does photocopying; it is open from Sunday through Thursday from 10am to 6pm, and on Friday from 10am to 2:30pm. Stein Books, 52 King George St. (tel. 02/624-7877), is well known for Jewish Studies and rare books; The Book Gallery/Books on Schatz, 6 Schatz St., off King George St., a block south of Hillel St., is a new, extremely well-stocked place with vast subterranean browsing rooms; it even offers a few elderly armchairs to encourage reading while you browse. The convenient little Gur Arieh bookshop at 8 Yoel Salomon St. is worth checking out, and a good place to pick up the Jerusalem Post or Herald Tribune/Ha'aretz; owner, Fredi Engelberg is often more savvy than the tourism office. The SPINI bookstore, with lots of detailed maps is at 13 Heleni Ha-Malka St. (tel. 02/624-4605) inside the Russian Compound. Most maps are in Hebrew, but some in English. The American Colony Hotel Bookshop, at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, stocks work by many Middle Eastern writers and hosts publishing parties and talks by Palestinian, Israeli and international writers of fiction, poetry, and cultural and political issues.

Tourist Shops in West Jerusalem

You'll find interesting items in Judaica and tourist shops all over the Ben Yehuda Mall area and in Mea Shearim, the ultraorthodox part of West Jerusalem that begins about 1km (1/2 mile) north of Zion Square. Remember that bargaining (or politely asking for a discount) has become customary in most of these shops, and that prices for identical and nearly identical items can vary greatly from store to store. For this reason, many of Jerusalem's tourist/Judaica stores display signs that say in Hebrew, if not English: NO REFUNDS, RETURNS, OR EXCHANGES! So comparison shop before making a purchase: Once you buy it, it's yours!

Traditional Ceramics

The outer walls of the Dome of the Rock are covered with turquoise and cobalt-blue ceramic tiles in the Persian tradition. Two world-famous Armenian pottery workshops, the Karakashian family's Jerusalem Pottery and the Balian family's Palestinian Armenian Pottery, listed below, were brought to Jerusalem at the start of the British Mandate in order to maintain the Dome of the Rock's lavish facade. Their traditional Anatolian hand-painted ceramics have come to be regarded as a national treasure: They've had exhibitions in Israeli and world museums, and in 2004 the State of Israel honored them with a series of commemorative postage stamps. These two workshops also produce items for sale to the general public. After a quick survey of the showrooms here, you'll appreciate the difference between their hand-painted folk ceramics, tiles, and bowls, and the mass-produced work available in the bazaars; the rich colors are unmatched anywhere else. Prices are very reasonable. Note: Fans of Jerusalem's Armenian ceramics tradition will want to check out a beautifully illustrated book, The Armenian Ceramics of Jerusalem, Three Generations, by Nurith Kenaan-Kedar. Published in 2003, it chronicles the work of both the Balian and Karakashian families, and is available at the Eretz Israel Museum Bookstore in Tel Aviv, or at Steimatsky's Bookstores on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. Be sure to specify the English-language edition if you order it.

Palestinian Embroidery

You'll notice antique Palestinian embroidered robes hanging from the doors of many shops in the Old City bazaar. Red, rose, and scarlet on hand-woven black cloth are the preferred colors, stemming from a tradition that goes back almost 3,000 years, to the centuries when the prophets warned against women who sewed with scarlet threads of vanity. Many of the current embroidery designs can be traced back to patterns introduced by the Crusaders almost 1,000 years ago. You can find interesting scraps of embroidery suitable for framing for anywhere from NIS 23 to NIS 125 ($5-$30). Complete caftans, especially those with long, pointed medieval sleeves, if not worn, can be hung or mounted as dramatic decorative focal points. A beautifully photographed book, Traditional Palestinian Embroidery and Jewelry, by Abed Abu Omar, is sold for approximately NIS 90 ($20) at his Bedouin antiques and embroidery shop on the Christian Quarter Road near the Greek Patriarchate Road. The shop of Maher Natsheh, 10 Christian Quarter Rd., also carries a good range of antique and old textiles.

In addition to the many shops in the Old City markets selling caftans and antique or semiantique embroidery, three church-supported nonprofit shops (two in the Old City and one in West Jerusalem) offer a dazzling array of freshly made, top-quality embroideries all done by specially trained women who are working to support their families. Quality is assured, and prices at these shops are extremely fair.

Walking Shoes & Sandals

If your walking shoes wear out, or you want to take advantage of the local market in comfy footwear, there are good choices in both the Old and New Cities.

Photographs

One of Jerusalem's little known shopping pleasures are Reprints of Antique Photographs of Jerusalem. A number of venerable, family-run photography studios on Al Khanka Street in the Old City have gone through their archives and are now selling fascinating, often very beautiful reprints of views of Jerusalem (and the entire region) from the first half of the 20th century. Photo buffs and those interested in Jerusalem's history can spend hours browsing these collections. Kevork Kahvedjian, of Elia Photo Service, 14 Al Khanka St. (www.eliaphotoservice.com) has published a striking edition, Jerusalem Through My Father's Eyes, containing over a half century of his father's photographic work ($50) at the Elia Studio. You'll find other photography shops on Al Khanka Street also selling remarkable matted reproductions of Old Jerusalem scenes from their archives in the $20 range (some are truly exceptional). Higher quality prints can also be ordered. To get to Al Khanka Street, enter Jaffa Gate and continue straight on David Street into the bazaar. At Christian Quarter Road, turn left, and continue to the end. Turn right (downhill) onto Al Khanka Street the end of Christian Quarter Road. The shops with antique photo collections for sale are all on the right side of the street.