Jerusalem Tours by Léontine Cohen

Léontine Cohen is a tour guide in Jerusalem, curating unparalleled tours in Jerusalem & Tel Aviv & the Israel’s Desert & beyond …

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First, a little about me …

I was born and raised in Holland. After high school, I studied to become a social worker and worked one year for the social services of the city of Amsterdam.

But after having visited Paris, I fell in love with the city and eventually moved there.

I enrolled in the Tour Guide school of Paris and started working in the best profession one can imagine: I became a licensed tour guide.

I have worked with great pleasure as a guide in France and have met so many people, developed so many new tours… it was an amazing period in my life.

But my Jewish roots pulled me to Israel and after having lived for nearly thirty years in France, I moved to the Holy Land.

The only job I could imagine doing in Israel was of course being a Tour Guide, so I enrolled in the Tour Guide school in Jerusalem, and…..here I am, ready to guide you with love and enthusiasm in this amazing country.

Like in France, I want to show you the beauty of this country, tell you the long history, share my passion with you.

I designed the famous Jewish walking tour in Paris

I trained my daughter Flora Goldenberg as a tour guide and now she is curating one of my famous tours in Paris : the Jewish Walking tour.

And sometimes, when I go back to Paris to visit her, I do the tour to help her.

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As I said, Jerusalem is, by far, my favorite City !

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Jerusalem has endless possibilities of visits with of course the Old City and its four quarters: Jewish, Armenian, Christian and Muslim.

In the Old City, we can visit the Wailing Wall and the adjacent Archeological Garden where we see the history of the Second Temple Period come alive. We also visit the Roman remnants of the city, the Holy Sepulcher, the Mameluk architecture, the Hurva synagogue and walk by the Via Dolorosa and so many other sites.

Outside the Old City, we can visit the City of David with its archeology and the water tunnel of Hezekiah (yes, we will be walking through water in a 2700 year old tunnel), the incredible Israel Museum with the Dead Sea scrolls, the tomb of King Herod and many other splendors.

We can walk up the Mount of Olives and visit the churches there or end at Mount Zion where churches bear witness to the presence of events in the life of Jesus, for example his Last Supper and his imprisonment… and not to forget Yad Vashem and Mount Herzl, the Begin museum, the famous shuk and again, so many other sites.

Both the Old City and the city outside the 500 year old city walls, have endless possibilities for visiting, so I will adapt the program according to your interest, religion and previous experience within the city.

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Neighborhoods walks in Jerusalem Old City

We will walk through different neighborhoods of West Jerusalem and learn about the development of the city from the 1860-s until today.

I will take you by the tiny Jewish neighborhoods with their different origins and histories, through the Christian German Colony, admire the Arab neighborhood of Talbiya and visit the small Garden City Rehavia.

We will discover the different architectures, from Middle Eastern style to International Style and I will bring to life the different people who made Jerusalem what it is today.

Here is what my guests from New York City said about me :

” Why do you need to explore Jerusalem with Léo ? Because, the day tour was absolutely adapted to me, my wife and my kids. We took a lot of pleasure learning, walking, talking, asking question, eating the best hummus, having a coffee with the locals, buying jewelry. We saw all the Christian and Jewish landmarks. Léontine gave us first hand knowledge you can never find in travel books. She has a lot of experience. She even guided in Paris and designed the famous Jewish tour in Paris for her daughter. She is a beautiful soul, dynamic sioninst with a lot of thing to teach our children. Very passionate, she cares too much about her work and made our day the best day in Israel 🙂 Thank you Leo

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Email: leontineinisrael@gmail.com

Téléphone : +972 52-754-9422

Fees start from 200$ for a half day up to 6 people maximum to maintain the high quality of my tours.

I curate only for private groups.

All Jerusalem Museum tours

The Yad Vashem guided tour

The name of this impressive museum means “The Memorial to the Name”.

A special law was made in the 1950s in order to preserve the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered during World War II.

I will guide you through the museum of Yad Vashem and we will see the different memorials and monuments that are located in the compound.

We will learn about the The Righteous Among the Nations, the Diaspora (the Jews living in Europe before the war) and the terrible destiny of these Jews.

Israel Museum guided tour

Thanks to my experience and education as a French National guide, I will be able to show you the impressive art collection. I call this museum “The Louvre of Israel”.

The amazing archeological collection emphasizes on the biblical history of Israel and you will be stunned to see artifacts that we will connect directly with the Old and New testament.

The Shrine of the Book, a memorial to the oldest written biblical text in the world, will bring us to Qumran, a Jewish religious community, living in the Judean desert more than 2000 years ago.

Other museums I can guide you and highly recommend: L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art, Friends of Zion museum, Bible Lands Museum, Tower of David Museum and many more.

My Jerusalem food tours

Visit the shuk, taste and sample the different specialties like halva, humus, herbs, Israeli cheeses, olive oil and wines.

Then move on to the Old City where we can taste warm humus, freshly made in front of us and for the adventurous foodies I can bring you to a tiny restaurant where we can taste grilled brains.

See my other Guided tours in Israel ?

My guided tours in Tel Aviv >

My guided tours in the Desert >

My new guided tours in Israel – North Coast >

My resume

To contact me, send an email or use the form :

Email: leontineinisrael@gmail.com

Téléphone : +972 52-754-9422

Fees start from $200 for a half day for 1-6 people maximum : Only private groups.

Adresse : HaNasi St 4, Jerusalem, 9218802, Israel

Here is my resume as a Private guide

I am Dutch and as you can guess, we love walking, traveling, learning about new cultures and new cities.

My professional background as a private tour guide

• Free-lance licensed guide in France since 1998 until today
• Sales manager for Museum Arts Forains Paris 2005-2006
• Operations Manager with DMC Lafayette Travel Paris 2000- 2005
• Co-operator Art gallery and restaurant Paris 1985 – 1998
• Social worker with city of Amsterdam 1983-1985
• Experience with FIT, Incentive Travel, Congresses, Logistics of large events
• Professional Tour in France with License to guide in Versailles, the Louvre and all Parisian Museums
• Designed the Jewish Walking tour in Paris – I am still doing the tour in Paris , 2019 : The tour takes place in le Marais and is about 2000 years of all the Jewish Heritage of Paris, the French jewish life and WWII … you can search for my daughter : Flora Goldenberg and read about the tour
• Designed the tour of the Louvre Tour with a Jewish Influence in Paris : It is a Fantastic tour, inside the Louvre Museum, about the Kingdom of Israel and the famous donations by notorious and influent French Jews to the Louvre, about their lives, and the Jewish life in Paris before and after the WWII.

My Education

• High school Holland 1979
• Academy of social work Holland 1983
• Professional license for guiding in France 1989, 1993 and 2012
• Professional license for guiding in Israel, 2017

I speak 5 languages

• Fluent in Dutch, French, English.
• I speak Hebrew. I learned Hebrew when I moved to Israel and I loved it. It is by far my favorite language.
• Sufficient German …