Jerusalem’s Book Week Returns to Safra Square, Highlighting Israeli Resilience and Reading

This year, Jerusalem’s Hebrew Book Week moved from the busy entertainment area of the First Station to Safra Square, beside City Hall. From the fourth-floor balcony of Mayor Moshe Lion’s office, the writer describes a striking view of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and countless construction cranes, with book stalls and hundreds of visitors below. The scene, he says, brought together religious and secular Israelis, including women with head coverings, girls in tank tops, and haredi readers chatting with people in shorts. "Safra" remained in the square, he writes, while the "sword" stayed on television screens.