Houses from Within

We just had a great day in Jerusalem. For the past two years, there is a special events weekend called Houses from Within where various houses and public buildings with special architectural features are opened to the public. The website lists the various structures that are opened to the public over the two-day event. Some have a nominal fee and require pre-registration but many are just open houses with or without tours.

Our first stop was The Grand Synagogue of the Belz Hasidic Dynasty which is a grandiose building that has capacity for 10,000 people. It was extremely well-run with two different members of the sect speaking about the building and the sect. It was great.

Next stop was Beit Tavor which is located in the center of town. Originally serving as a private residence, it is currently home to the Swedish Theological Institute. Former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek described it as the nicest house in Jerusalem. Here, unfortunately, the scheduled tour and video did not happen as scheduled. One of the things that you will discover soon enough in Israel is flexibility - things don't often happen as planned. In any case, it was nice to wander around the building and gardens.

There were many other sites to visit but we had no time! The website indicates that there is also a comparable event for Tel Aviv structures.

Houses from Within - www.batim-jerusalem.org