About Charlotte and Her Shop – Index of Names & Places

Charlotte Stein, 1901–1987, proprietor of Charlotte Shop, the first and oldest gift store in Jerusalem

Born in Berlin, Charlotte Stein studied arts & crafts there. She had emigrated to Jerusalem after what she described as a moment of political insight and because “I didn’t want to make bourgeois things for bourgeois people anymore,” ¹ opening her shop on Storrs Street in 1931. The first and oldest gift shop in Jerusalem sold Charlotte’s own hand painted silk lampshades and catered to British soldiers, eager to send souvenirs home. Charlotte worked closely with the city’s craftsmen, helping them to adjust their work to modern sensibilities and needs, and cultivated merchants from near and far. She said, “There’s nothing like the fun of never knowing who will come in next and bring you something which you’ve never had in the shop before. You have to swallow hard and not show your enchantment.”²

The store has weathered over 90 years of social and political storms and today still occupies the same space on Storrs Street, now called Koresh Street. Charlotte’s successor, Noga Eshed, continues to curate a unique collection of art and artifacts: copper craft, Armenian ceramics, Persian fabrics, antique jewelry, Bedouin embroidery, Moroccan and Israeli art.

Bevingrad, Koresh Street — Photograph by Paul Almasy from an article, *Transit Palästina,* in an unidentified German language magazine. The original caption ran: “The barbed wire on the sidewalk is already a big concession to traffic, since there are whole areas that are completely cordoned off and can only be accessed with special identity cards, which are difficult to obtain. The Jews call these neighborhoods ‘Bevingrad’ with bitter cynicism, but no wonder, after the experiences with the British.”

Charlotte Stein was on of Ismar David’s oldest friends in Jerusalem. He designed signage and graphics for the store.