A Day in Zichron Ya'acov

June 22, 2009

A photo essay by Daniel E. Levenson

Located between Tel Aviv and Haifa, the town of Zichron Ya’acov sits a short distance from the Mediterranean Sea and feels a world away from its bustling industrial neighbor to the north and the busy metropolis to its south.

The town offers a wide variety of restaurants and shops for visitors and residents to enjoy.

A shop located just off of the "midrachov," or main pedestrian thoroughfare.

This quiet town of tree-lined boulevards has a wide variety of shops and restaurants and is also home to the First Alyah Museum as well as a number of historic buildings with plaques highlighting connections between the town and Baron Edmund de Rothschild who provided vital support to the first Jewish families that made alyah to the land of Israel from eastern Europe in the late 19th century.

Located in the nearby town of Binyamina, the Tishbi winery offers tours of the facility in both English and Hebrew, and outdoor dining at their kosher dairy restaurant.

Everywhere one goes in this quaint town there is a reminder of the generosity of the Barron (as he is often referred to) and of the many struggles and hardships that the first generation of Olim faced as they tried to eke out a living in a land filled with disease and hostile neighbors.

The sun setting over the Mediterranean.

Zichron Ya’akov seems to be a town that has struck a nice balance between the historical and the modern, and visitors will find a number of great restaurants to choose from, as well as shops selling the work of local artists. While Zichron Ya’acov may be a bit off the beaten path, it is certainly a worthwhile destination.


A water tower at the edge of the town bears a portrait of the Barron's father, Ya'acov de Rothschild, for whom the town is named.