We are going to Jerusalem next week and I am reading the Amos Oz novel Tales of Love and Darkness. In Chapter 7 the family walks from Kerem Avraham, a poor neighborhood north of the city center, to Talpiot, an affluent neighborhood outside the city, south of the German Colony. The novel is set in 1940's Jerusalem. In the novel the family was walking (on the Sabbeth) to visit their famous literary uncle, Joseph Klausner. The book is partly autobiographical as Oz's uncle was Joseph Klausner.
Here is an article about Klausner and the street.
Times of Israel - On a small Jerusalem street, a historic literary rivalry
Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon and historian Josef Klausner were once grouchy neighbors in Jerusalem's Talpiot. And they're not the only major figures with echoes in the leafy neighborhood
From the article: Relations between famous author S.Y. Agnon and his neighbor up the street, eminent historian Josef Klausner, were strained at best.
Indeed, in his autobiographical novel A Tale of Love and Darkness, Klausner’s nephew Amos Oz writes: “A polite but Arctic chill fell momentarily on the little road if the two of them ever happened to meet…They would raise their hats an inch or so, give a slight bow, and probably each wished the other from the depths of his heart to be consigned for all eternity to the deepest hell of oblivion.”
Thus after Klausner departed this world, and the street that they lived on was renamed in his honor, Agnon – not known for his modesty — complained to a neighbor: Can you believe me living on Klausner Street?!” To which the neighbor replied, “Would you rather Klausner was living on Agnon Street?”
The Walk
I took notes from the book and searched for places on Google Maps and came up with what I think is the walk. I will update these notes when we do the walk ourselves. In the novel he says the walk is 6 - 7 kilometers.
View on Google Maps.View: https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1hdmpEJUPMP-YI9VipJSeXD2bgX65bVEZ
Windmill at Yemin Moshe (Montefiore Windmill)
Here is an article about Klausner and the street.
Times of Israel - On a small Jerusalem street, a historic literary rivalry
Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon and historian Josef Klausner were once grouchy neighbors in Jerusalem's Talpiot. And they're not the only major figures with echoes in the leafy neighborhood
From the article: Relations between famous author S.Y. Agnon and his neighbor up the street, eminent historian Josef Klausner, were strained at best.
Indeed, in his autobiographical novel A Tale of Love and Darkness, Klausner’s nephew Amos Oz writes: “A polite but Arctic chill fell momentarily on the little road if the two of them ever happened to meet…They would raise their hats an inch or so, give a slight bow, and probably each wished the other from the depths of his heart to be consigned for all eternity to the deepest hell of oblivion.”
Thus after Klausner departed this world, and the street that they lived on was renamed in his honor, Agnon – not known for his modesty — complained to a neighbor: Can you believe me living on Klausner Street?!” To which the neighbor replied, “Would you rather Klausner was living on Agnon Street?”
The Walk
I took notes from the book and searched for places on Google Maps and came up with what I think is the walk. I will update these notes when we do the walk ourselves. In the novel he says the walk is 6 - 7 kilometers.
- Start in Kerem Avraham.
- Cross Geulah Street (could not find) into alleys of ultra-Orthodox Ahva.
- Climb up Zikhron Moshe where the poor Ashkenazi live.
- Continue on Steet of Prophets (now called Ha'Nevi'im Street).
- Down Strauss Street, past a hospital on each side, one Protestant, one Jewish (walls make the street dark).
- Cross Jaffa Road (also called Yafo Street) by famous Maayan Shtub department store and Ahiasaf Brothers book store (neither are there now).
- Walk the length of King George V Avenue (now called King George Street), past shops and cafes, Talitha Kumi Buildings, Schiber's Pit, Frumin Building, Beit Hama'alot (could not find these on the map).
- View of the Old City over Mamillah Muslim Cemetary.
- Past Yeshurun Synagogue and Jewish Agency.
- Downhill to Terra Sancta College.
- In 20 minutes to curved David Building and open fields to the railway station in Emek Refaim. To the left there is the windmill at Yemin Moshe. To the right the last houses in Talbiyeh. This is the end of the Hebrew city.
- Walk along the road that divided the ruins of the Ottoman Pilgrims Hostel. Above is the Scottish Church and railway station.
- From the square at the railway station, walk down Hebron Road (now Highway 60). On the left are roads downhill to Arab quarter Abu Tor. On the right the lanes of the German Colony.
- Walk through the Arab neighborhood of Bakaa (Baq'a).
- Past the Allenby Barracks (British military base, no longer in use but may become site for new US embassy).
- Left off the Hebron Road into Talpiot.
- Right on Kore HaDorot Street to the pine wood.
- Left to uncle's house (Joseph Klausner who lived across from S.Y. Agnon). This street was renamed for Klausner after his death.
View on Google Maps.View: https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1hdmpEJUPMP-YI9VipJSeXD2bgX65bVEZ
Windmill at Yemin Moshe (Montefiore Windmill)
