The Brit who owns Tel Aviv’s first English-only bookshop

For as long as she can remember, Michal Goldschmidt has spent her Saturday mornings reading book reviews. “I’ve been a giant reader since I learnt to read, and it has always been a hobby to find the right books for people.”

But it was never something that Michal, a former museum curator, wanted to do professionally. However, on 1 January 2026, in the heart of Tel Aviv, she opened Bookhaus, the city’s first English-only bookshop.

Its name is a nod to the White City’s history: the Bauhaus School trained German Jewish immigrant architects who moved to Tel Aviv in the 1930s and brought their distinctive design and style, which contributed to the modern character of the city.
Her hope was that Bookhaus would also enrich the city.

“I want this to be a hub for English speakers who are making Tel Aviv their home,” she explains via Zoom from the shop, which happens to be in a renovated Bauhaus building. “In the same way that the German Bauhaus exiles came together and made something uniquely Tel Aviv, I hope that the conversations, connections and events we hold will create a literary space where people can do something similar.”

Michael, 35, moved to Israel from London to join her now husband just two weeks before October 7. Although she had loved her career as a museum curator – she had worked at Tate Britain and the Barbican – she realised it was time to pivot.

Establishing Bookhaus has been an immense learning curve and there have been challenges to establishing a business in a country grappling with national trauma. She had a separate tab of books that she wanted the shop to sell but did not feel it was appropriate to do so if there were still hostages in Gaza. And, inevitably, the impact of the current war has been significant.

“During the war, people were only interested in walking to where was familiar and close to a shelter. So if we were not in their radius, they weren’t coming in.”

In response to the drop in foot traffic she altered the shop’s opening hours and introduced international gift cards for people with family and friends in Israel.

Despite the potential controversy, Michal chose to supply books by authors who support a cultural boycott of Israel and have refused to allow their work to be translated into Hebrew, such as Sally Rooney. “Strangely, Sally Rooney sells a lot but only to Israelis. I would rather us say: ‘We believe in the power of literature, in different perspectives and in engaging in all different sources and texts, and we hope that one day you too will be able to come to the table.’ To me, that’s a more powerful statement than saying: ‘We’re going to exclude you back.’”

Bookhaus also runs book clubs and author events, which, pre-war, included an evening with Wingate Literary Prize winner Amir Tibon (The Gates of Gaza), and is waiting for a licence to open an in-house café.