About Tal

 Tal Chenya (40 years old) is a licensed tour guide in Jerusalem and a doctoral student in the Jewish History Department of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University..

and an expert researcher of Jerusalem’s history. He has been guiding in Jerusalem since 2000 , and has lent his vast experience to the guides of Jerusalem’s Beit Orot College, where he served as Guide Coordinator. Married to Moriya and the father of Yonatan, Achinoam, Carmel, and Shachar, Tal lives between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea in the small town of Mitzpeh Yericho. Tal teaches a variety of Jerusalem-related classes on behalf of many of Israel’s institutions – including the Megalim Institute, the International Cultural Center of Jerusalem, various frameworks for pensioners sponsored by the Jerusalem Municipality, and many more.

A veteran guide at the City of David and the Western Wall Tunnels, Tal also guides unique tours for prominent touring agencies in Jerusalem, including Makom Tours, the Ben Zvi Institute, the Begin Center, Ammunition Hill, and the Tower of David. In addition to guiding, he also holds a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, and is currently completing a master’s degree in Israel Studies at Haifa University.

Tal specializes in a number of different Jerusalem tours, including: the Old City’s Jewish history, Jerusalem military heritage (pre-state battles through the Six Day War), and ethnic groups in Judaism from the Middle Ages onwards (for which he also arranges both musical and tasting tours throughout Jerusalem). As the house guide for the North Africa Jewish Heritage Center, he conducts unique tours that follow in the footsteps of the great figures of Jerusalem’s Jewish Moroccan population – from the Middle Ages until the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
In addition to guiding, Tal has spent the past three years teaching about various elements of Jerusalem’s history throughout the country. His talks are accompanied by pictures and documents taken from different archives, as well as lesser-known stories and surprising information, which create a dramatic and experiential story.

After more than a decade of guiding in Jerusalem – a city containing both the new and old, the east and west, the ancient and the modern – Tal now seeks to weave together the eras, figures, and stories, and thread them together as one complete story. It is the story of the Jewish People as told through the pages of the Bible, dozens of rare Jerusalem memoirs, personal interviews, newspaper clippings, architectural artifacts, and more. From the siege of the First Temple to the siege of 1948, from Bar Kokhba to Yigal Yadin, from the family of Upper Jerusalem whose house was destroyed 2000 years ago to the first family to rebuild their house in the Jewish Quarter in 1970. It is the story of Jerusalem throughout the generations.

Tal Chenya invites you to experience the story of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.