It was during the 12-day war with Iran in June 2025 that Michal Goldschmidt decided to open Bookhaus, her independent English-language bookstore in Tel Aviv. It wasn’t the original plan for Goldschmidt, a British art historian who had worked as a curator at London’s Tate Gallery and Barbican Centre before moving to Tel Aviv to be with her French boyfriend.

She had made aliyah two weeks before the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, married her boyfriend, had a baby and, in the meantime, found that Israel’s art world wasn’t particularly welcoming to newcomers. Goldschmidt decided to turn to one of her other loves—books.

As a recently arrived immigrant and avid reader, she struggled to find the titles she wanted to read in English as well as a bookshop for idle browsing. Then inspiration struck. Goldschmidt rented a storefront on Ben Yehuda Street in north Tel Aviv, close enough to her home and far enough from other independent Hebrew bookstores with what she called their own “tiny but fierce English book selections” so she wouldn’t feel that she was poaching customers.

Drawing on her small savings and some loans, she opened Bookhaus in January after consulting with independent booksellers worldwide about how many books to keep in stock, and with friends about the titles and selections that would round out her choices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Goldschmidt has been surprised by how well classics—from the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky and John Steinbeck—sell alongside works of current literary fiction, such as titles by Geraldine Brooks and Amor Towle. In addition to fiction and children’s books, she has small sections dedicated to nonfiction, poetry and plays. She also loves chatting with customers and hearing what books they’d like to see on the shelves.

Writer and poet Tehila Hakimi, whom Goldschmidt recently hosted for a reading from the author’s debut, Hunting in America, posted on Instagram after the event that the “beautiful bookstore” is “a little jump abroad right here in Tel Aviv.”

The spacious shop has a curated feel with blond wood bookshelves, cushioned window seats and a cafe area for serving coffee and wine, once the municipality approves Goldschmidt’s food license.

Within days of opening, Bookhaus’s mostly English-speaking customers started to become regulars, including parents with babies and toddlers who settle into a window seat to read together.

It’s been challenging to start a new business as an immigrant, in a time of war, but opening Bookhaus feels like the right decision, Goldschmidt said.

“There’s something very freeing about starting from scratch and giving yourself the grace of trying things,” she said. “I don’t know what this will look like in two or three years, and I hope it will surprise me. It complements the situation here.”