Jadal for Knowledge and Culture

Like most good places I stumble upon, curiosity is my copilot. The same can be said of discovering Jadal. As for how I know they are good: it is often just a feeling. Usually it's instantaneous, a little like a perfume you fall in love with- you don't always know just what it is that you love about it.At the end of a long hallway, at the end of a long stairway, the space opens up into a courtyard filled with tables, a little tiled-blue fountain and a few small, den-like rooms. The rooms hold bookshelves filled with history, the walls, the art of local artists, old photographs and atop the dusty cemento tiles, plenty of places to sit, create, play music or simply gather. Back under warm rays in the courtyard, I was encouraged to climb a metal staircase that led to a rooftop garden where small, simple greenhouses had been built with what looked to be recycled palettes. A kind employee explained that the garden was a project called Greening the Camps, a non-profit that designs, builds and helps maintain rooftop gardens in Palestinian refugee camps.