Tallit Shops in Tel Aviv

We frequently receive inquiries from people who are impressed with our web store and want to drop by when they come for a visit to Israel, thinking we have a brick-and-mortar shop somewhere in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

But the truth is we are located off the beaten path in Modi’in Illit, which is a 45-minute drive from Tel Aviv, and we are not set up to accommodate walk-in customers.

My guess is that there are all sorts of people who come for a visit to Israel once every few years, hoping to return home with a nice new tallit or tzitzit in their luggage. Or maybe a sibling or cousin or friend asked them to buy a tallit in Israel. Often the selection at their local Judaica store is too limited to supply them the tallit they want, or they’re looking for certain options that are a bit hard to find.

Sending someone to buy a tallit for you is not always a great solution because when you buy just about anything in Israel, you pay 17% VAT, which often offsets or even exceeds the shipping costs. If you buy a tallit for $150, for instance, you’ll see on your receipt that you paid $21.90 VAT, which is akin to state sales taxes in the United States — only much higher. Shipping options for that sort of purchase on our website would be $10-$15 to European and US addresses, so you end up saving money by placing an order online and having us ship it to you.

Is VAT avoidable? Some retail businesses in Israel that cater to tourists are set up to refund the VAT on condition you spend at least 400 shekels. You pay the full amount, including VAT, fill out a form and then before you board your plane there’s a VAT refund counter at Ben Gurion. Note that they charge a service fee (typically 10%-15%) to receive the refund.

In fact, even if you place an order on our site and enter a shipping address in Israel — or select our pickup option — you’ll also be charged 17% VAT.

All orders that we ship abroad are exempt from VAT. It’s quite involved exporting our orders in accordance with government regulations, but it’s worth it because that we we can keep our prices down.

If despite the above you still feel you really want to buy a tallit in Tel Aviv, be very wary, because most Judaica stores in Tel Aviv are not really qualified to sell tallits and tzitzit. Often Tel Aviv residents will travel to nearby Bnei Brak, where specialty tallit shops are not too scarce.

The first place to try is one of the three Mishkan Hatchelet outlet stores in Bnei Brak. Most of the traditional wool tallits we sell are manufactured by Mishkan Hatchelet, which is generally considered the top tallit maker in the country, and possibly worldwide.

If your tastes are fairly modern and you have the budget for a hand-woven tallit, take a look at Gabrieli, whose tallits are renown worldwide (see here). Their weaving studio is located in Rechovot and they have a gallery in Jaffa.