Bialik House

This guide to Bialik House in Tel Aviv opens with the poet visiting the wrecked town of Kishinev after the 1903 pogrom, and the searing poem, In the City of Slaughter, that came out of it. Two decades later, already famous as Israel's national poet, he arrived in the young city of Tel Aviv and designed his own house tile by tile with architect Joseph Minor, building an answer in stone and ceramic to that earlier fury. You'll hear about the painted columns by Bezalel School artist Ze'ev Raban, and an ancient Roman coin motif worked into them. Take a slow look at the courtyard tilework before you head inside.