Jerusalem Events February 2015

The Best Things to Do in Jerusalem in February

Jerusalem events in February highlight a time when the promise of spring is just around the corner, so tantalizingly close you can almost smell it in the air, which helps us through these last few weeks of winter. 

The Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat usually falls in February and this year, it happens on February 4.  The holiday celebrates trees and nature, with many Kabbalistic overtones, and always heralds spring. 

It's a great time to stroll through Mahane Yehuda, the fruit and vegetable market, and see what unusual offerings are to be found in honor of Tu BiShvat.  Some people have a custom to make a "Tu BiShvat Seder" - if you'd like to make one, too, here's how, step-by-delicious-step.

While we can already see the first signs of budding on trees, the best place to be on most days is still curled up nice and warm inside, preferably with a good book.

Add your Jerusalem events to our February Calendar below.

Here are some of some of the best things to do in Jerusalem in February:

Tu BiShvat Tree Planting

The Jewish National Fund organizes tree planting events all over Israel to plant trees on Tu Bishvat.  Planting a tree has become a Tu BiShvat tradition, as well as a way to mark life cycle events, such as births, bar/bat mitzvahs or weddings, or to memorialize a loved one.

To participate in one of these free Jerusalem events, get a group together and contact the KKL-JNF Forest Hotline: 1-800-350-550

Jerusalem International Book Fair

Every other year February in Jerusalem is also the time of the International Book Fair, which has become a venerated cultural tradition. Book lovers and over 1200 editors, collectors and publishing-industry professionals from over 40 countries all converge at the International Convention Center and talk shop during five days of literary abandon.

This is also when the prestigious Jerusalem Prize is awarded to an
author whose work expresses and promotes the idea of the “freedom of the individual in society.”  Winning the prize seems to lead to good things: five winners of the Jerusalem Prize subsequently won the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

This year's recipient: Ismail Kadare.  Find out more about  his works here.

Spanish author Antonio Muñoz Molina was the 2013 recipeint. Find out more about his works here.

When: February 8 through 12, 2015

Where: First Train Station

City Tours

Tour Guides

Private Walking Tours

Where to Stay

Learn Hebrew

Tour Guides

Jerusalem City Tours

Scavenger Hunts

Private Walking Tours