Cafe Ta'amon, a tiny, cute coffee shop of only a few small tables under a blue awning on King George Street, may be somewhat nondescript-seeming in a city overflowing with the aforementioned tiny, cute coffee shops. But like much of what you'll see in Israel, the nondescript appearance belies a long and rich history.

Cafe Ta'amon is one of the oldest cafes in western Jerusalem and it occupies a prominent place in the Jerusalem landscape, both physically and culturally. Located across the street from the previous site of the Israeli Knesset, Ta'amon served for decades as a hub for Jerusalem's leftist intellectuals and policymakers, both underground and above ground, drawing in everybody from prominent government Laborites to the Mizrachi Black Panthers.

The Knesset has moved, and the Begin revolution and the failures of the Yom Kippur War in the '70s shattered the classic Israeli socialist Left, but Cafe Ta'amon lives on. Still drawing a crowd of idealistic youngsters and nostalgic members of the old guard, Ta'amon serves the standard cafe fare of soups, salads and sandwiches, and keeps hip with regular art shows.