Shai Agnon House
Photo: Shai Agnon House
Although he’s best known as Israel’s only author to ever win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Shmuel Yosef (Shai) Agnon was also the quintessential Jerusalemite.
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, the acclaimed author said (in Hebrew), “As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.” Thus it is fitting that Agnon’s home in the Talpiot neighborhood has become an established Jerusalem institution where people come to see Agnon’s humble living quarters, his extensive library, and, of course, his Nobel Prize.
The reading room of the Agnon House museum hosts lectures and workshops and organizes walking tours and other events throughout the year.