Make Your Own Scavenger Hunt

A guest post by Aliza Sussman:

I love the shuk (Machane Yehuda in Jerusalem) and have recently been going there without the kids to do shopping during the week. Last week we were on our way to visit my dad in Jerusalem,when he called and asked if we could come a little later in the day. Being that we were half way there, we needed to come up with another activity before visiting him. We needed it to fun but at the same time, not spend a lot of money. That is when the idea for a Shuk Scavenger Hunt came to us.

Our oldest is nine and youngest is two, so it had to be fun but we had to find a way to keep us (Mommy & Daddy) involved. We could not let them run wild in the shuk on a Friday morning. Between my husband and I, we thought of 10-15 tasks that needed to be completed in and around the shuk. We had a camera and phones so we included picture taking in the tasks. My kids thought it was a great idea-except for the nine year old who at first was too embarrassed to take a picture holding a fish or posing with random strangers. Her opinion soon changed...

We parked in the parking lot off Agrippas, put the 2 year old in the stroller, got our water and headed toward the shuk. It took a few minutes to divide the teams but I took the 5 and 7 year old boys while my husband took the nine year old and two year old. We decided each task was worth 5 points and we would see how many we could do in a half hour. We were off! The first task was finding three men with the name Meir. My 7 year old went up to strangers and asked if his name was Meir, while my 5 year old was looking for Chayalim (soldiers) to take pictures with. We did not find Meir but found three different chayalim who were very happy to take a pic with two cute boys. While we were searching for men named Meir, we found a fish stall and I grabbed a plastic bag and held up a fish for a picture- Two tasks done and on or way.

 The next tasks were finding 3 people from 3 different countries,2 men from New York and 2 women not from New York. This was pretty easy being that it was a Friday in the summer. It was packed with lots of out of town people visiting for the summer. One family stopped and took a "tourist" picture with one of our chayalim.  The next few tasks we needed to complete was to find someone we were related to (not such a hard task for Aliza's husband), buy something "4 for 10 shekel" and find the cheapest Hubba Bubba gum.  We ran to the candy store and bought 4 packs of mentos for 10 shekel. We had 2 minutes to run back to the meeting place and hope JJ and the others did not have as much luck. We met up and compared our lists. Each kid was screaming and laughing louder than the next, telling the opposite parent how funny or embarrassing it had been. They were hot and sweaty but having fun.

We decided to bring the two teams together for 2 more tasks and then go visit Zayde. We asked them to find out how Machane Yehuda got it's name. After 3 tries we found out.The Machane Yehuda neighborhood ( was created primarily by three men: Yaacov Protiger, a bank manager and a former missionary, Shalom Konstrom Blecher, a known metal worker, and Yosef Navon (the uncle of Yitzchak Navon, Israel’s former president) who laid the railway down Yaffo Street. They named the market street after Navon’s brother, Yehuda Navon , who passed away from old age, around the same time.

It was pretty interesting to find out how much the vendors knew about the market.  We went back to the candy store on Agrippas, found the cheapest Hubba Bubba and made our way to the car.  Of course everyone was a winner and got their prize- grape icee from Marzipan for 5 shekel. Everyone had fun and the whole thing cost 35 shekels.

Shebet- This is a great idea to plan to do with your kids. The tasks can be easy or hard depending on the age of the kids. Although this took place in Jerusalem Machane Yehuda it is the type of activity that can work in places all over the world. Thank you Aliza!

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