This Passover, count butterflies or see portraits of northerners who are finally back home
Ideas of places to go during the springtime holiday, with plenty that’s free and open to the public
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Passover begins Saturday night, and during the week of the festival celebrants can visit museums and historic sites, public institutions and national parks, all open for the holiday.
The still-new National Library in Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv shore, the quaint streets of Zichron Yaakov and the nearly 60 museums with free entry during Passover are among the available options this year.
The National Library of Israel, opened in the weeks after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, is hosting tours of the its new building and collections, as well as activities revolving around how the story of the exodus from Egypt is told through illustrations in the library’s collection of Haggadah texts. April 8-17, NIS 45 per ticket.
Visits to the National Library can also be made virtually, with Haggadah texts available to download from the library’s collection.
Bank Hapoalim, is sponsoring free visits at nearly 60 sites and museums for the 20th year running. There is a full list of the participating sites online.
And the city of Tel Aviv is hosting a series of free events, including a kite-flying event on April 15 and 16 at the northern port and ecological activities for the family in Old Jaffa on April 18 and 19.
Over in Tel Aviv’s Nachalat Binyamin neighborhood, comic book artists and caricaturists, including Ze’ev “Shoshke” Engelmayer and Uri Fink, will draw during live illustration events on April 15 and 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tel Aviv’s beaches are open for the summer season starting with the Passover holiday. They’re enforcing several new rules this year, including a ban on paper goods and plastic at the beach, keeping a reasonable price list at kiosks and food purveyors, and making sure that sexual harassment doesn’t take place at the beach, with the creation of safe spaces and specialized training for beach staff and rescuers.
Farther north, the city of Zichron Yaakov is marking Passover with a series of musical events held outside on the cobblestoned main street, with bands and duos performing Israeli pop, New Orleans swing with a Middle Eastern twist, Brazilian Bossa Nova and reggae. There are different offerings every evening, April 15-18, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., free.
Nearby Binyamina is also hosting musical events hosted by DJs on April 14, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the Burj Binyamina, an Ottoman-era building and park in the area.
For something a little more esoteric, participants can help count and identify butterflies with the Association for Butterfly Lovers, the Steinhardt Nature Museum and several other nature organizations.
From April 6 to 26, the public is being asked to go outside to any area where flowers grow, and spend 15 minutes between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. counting and identifying as many butterflies as possible, in order to help note environmental changes and biological signs that affect butterflies.
The association has an online list of 24 types of springtime butterflies, and participants can identify them with the guide and list details about them in the online form.
Nahal Tzippori, the Tzippori stream, links the outskirts of the northern metropolis of Haifa to the northern reaches of Israel’s largest Arab city, Nazareth. It was recently rehabilitated in a joint Environmental Protection Ministry and Agriculture Ministry project, and is serving again as a centerpiece of a spring music festival, April 16-19, celebrating nature, hope and partnership in the Lower Galilee.
Locals and visitors are invited to hike, walk and enjoy the daily entertainment, which includes David Broza with Valerie Hamaty, Shaanan Streett with Saj, Shem-Tov Levi with Naseem Dakwar, and musicians from Polyphony, the first classical music conservatory in Israel’s Arab community. Tickets are available from the festival site.
Two photography exhibits were assembled in the north for the Passover season, marking the return home of residents from northern Israel after being evacuated since October 2023 due to the war with Hezbollah.
“Habyta (back home) – The North Returns to Life,” opened on April 6 through Passover at Hula Lake Park, featuring 23 photographs documenting farmers in the Golan Heights, members of Kibbutz Menara and residents of Kiryat Shmona, among others, returning home.
The exhibition, an initiative of a department of the World Zionist Organization, will also travel to capital cities worldwide to connect Jewish communities to what is happening in Israel.
Another exhibit, “Life Stories,” is open to the public from April 15 through May 18 at Kibbutz Neot Mordechai, telling the stories of several elderly citizens from Israel’s north who had to evacuate their homes and were relocated to hotels in Jerusalem and the Galilee for more than a year.
The powerful display was a collaboration between spiritual caregivers from Haverut, an organization that promotes individual wellness and a healthy society in Israel, and the evacuee communities in the north, providing those featured in the exhibit with the opportunity to tell their stories.
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