Not that money makes the poet, but if you think about it, you'll realize that Bialik had quite an audience in his day. And, as a result, became somewhat of a cultural founding father of the modern State of Israel. While others focused on physical security, he worked on the cultural plane. His house shows you a combination of modesty in scale with exquisite taste. The custom tiles on the downstairs living room are both beautiful and symbolic. On one framing column, a tile illustrates the Roman coin "Judea Capta..." and on the other, a Jewish Revolt coin showing Jerusalem reborn. Worth a special trip.

This building is located within the house in which Bialik lived in the 20's and 30's and it is a very upscale version of the so-called White buildings of this area of Tel Aviv. The most interesting thing I can say about Bialik himself is that he "invented" many Hebrew words for modern items that hadn't previously existed in this ancient language. The outside of the house is all white, but the inside is splashed with colorful ceramic tiles, on the floors and walls and on the decorative support columns. To me this was the most distinctive feature of the house. The exhibits are only captioned in Hebrew, but if you ask at the reception desk, they will lend you a multi-page English interpretation of the entire place including a short biography of Bialik's life. The uniqueness of the colorful tiles is probably what will stick in my memory from my visit.

The histoic house has plenty of original artifacts. However, the staff insists on giving you a guided tour, which amounts to long and boring lectures, elementary school style. This problem mars many Israeli museums I'm afraid. I would rather spend my visit alone, in my own pace and skip the forced guidance. That's why this museum gets only three stars instead of 4 or even 5.

Well laid out, and containing interesting souveniers of a major figure in Hebrew letters. The museum is in the heart of Tel Aviv and close to both commercial and tourist centers.