Israel: Through a Writer's Lens

Three Israeli authors shed the guise of fiction to tell us about their favorite places in the country they love.

A.B. Yehoshua
Haifa: Urban Nature
I moved to Haifa from Jerusalem 44 years ago, and it was the best move I ever made. Haifa itself is beautiful. When I drove up Mount Carmel to teach at the University of Haifa, I would see the sea from both sides of the car. The university itself is located in one of the loveliest spots in the world. On a world scale, the gardens of the Bahai are famous. Haifa offers both nature and urban life: The wadis let you take a short walk from a totally urban area to deep in the jungle. It’s a very moving experience.

The Desert Solution
Every Jew should spend several days in the desert. After all, half of Israel is desert. Only by visiting the desert can a person understand Israel and the region—our neighbors like Jordan and Syria are also carved from the desert. David Ben-Gurion once said that the fate of Israel would be decided in the desert. I believe we can discover political solutions in the desert. There is much Israel can do that doesn’t require going to the West Bank. It would be so much better if we would focus on developing the desert.

Naomi Ragen
Olive Trees & Mysticism
The Upper Galilee, near Mount Meron, is one of those places where you feel as if you’re seeing the same Israel that the pioneers saw when they came 100 years ago. It’s an area of beautiful mountain ranges and blooming vegetation. Sometimes you can imagine that you’re in Italy. There are olive trees and wild flowers and small houses and a real sense of mystical communion with the land. You are eye-to-eye with the mountain tops, the sunrises and the sunsets and Tzfat, the city where the rabbis of the kabbalah wrote their treatises on Jewish mysticism. I understand why they lived and wrote there. Tzfat just fills your whole soul with a sense of timelessness and eternity and beauty. That’s a feeling that you don’t get in Tel Aviv.

The Jewish City of God
Until 1967, all you could do was stand on the Mount of Olives and catch a glimpse of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. You could barely even see that, and that was as close as you could get. When we made aliyah in 1971, the awesome privilege of walking through the Old City and finding your way to the Western Wall was still very fresh. Every time I go there, I’m filled with a sense of holiness and of wonder and of tremendous gratitude that it’s been my privilege to be alive at this time and place. It’s a place that replenishes you spiritually. If you make the tiniest opening inside yourself to let that light pour in, it’s like the sun is shining down on you at the equator. You’re at the equator of the Jewish people, the spot closest to our history, our faith, our God.

Etgar Keret
Playa Del Tel Aviv
There are many places that I like in Tel Aviv—like the bench on Ben Gurion Boulevard next to the fruit juice stands—but the place that represents Tel Aviv most to me is the beach. I grew up on this beach; my father had a kiosk right there. It’s part of my being. I keep returning. Tel Aviv’s beaches are an integral part of the city. You can take your lunch break there, eat a sandwich and go back to the office. It’s a very nonchalant existence. The beach is also an equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you come in a suit, jeans or old clothes—you take them off. The beach transcends socio-economics. There are Arabs, soldiers, high-tech rich people and the unemployed, and everybody is integrated. It’s a relief from the tension of the Middle East.

The Old Jaffa Market
I like going to Jaffa [the port city whose history dates back 3,000 years]. Not to the renovated “old” Jaffa [with its prettified buildings and tourist attractions] but to the flea market near the ancient city’s famous Clock Square. I like going to flea markets because there is something about them that actually gives you access to people’s lives. That’s because people are selling things that are a part of their lives, like old photos or old books or postcards. The flea market makes me feel as if I am a part of something bigger, of some sort of a history or group. I also like eating in Jaffa. My favorite place to eat is a place called Abu Hassan. It’s a local place, and they have the best hummus. They don’t sell anything else.