Summer festival season has wound down, and the citywide High Holidays bashes are still a couple months off, but don't mistake this for the doldrums: even during the hottest days of a hot summer, Jerusalem and her many fine institutions continue to offer more culture than a Tel Avivi could shake an unearned sense of superiority at. Dig:

• Comedian Nadav Bosem and uni-monikered singer Rili are mounting a comedic/musical tribute to the popular Israeli entertainers of the '50s and '60s tonight at Beit Shmuel.

• Galilean oud master Haytham Safia and his band will take audiences to the sort of nightclub where classical Arab music and Western jazz get smashed on arak and make out, also tonight at the Confederation House.

• Escape Jerusalem (temporarily, of course) for the sylvan charms of Nataf and the French-inspired Hebrew chansons of singer/songwriter/storyteller Yael Badihi on Friday morning.

• Also on Friday morning, some of Jerusalem's finest poets will be gathering at the Confederation House for a Euterpean tribute to the late Israeli poet Yair Hurwitz on the 20th anniversary of his death.

• Join Beit Shmuel Saturday morning for a tour of the various outposts of foreign countries in and around Jerusalem's Old City - like traveling abroad for only 95 NIS.

• Once Shabbat makes its timely exit, don't miss the opportunity to see Israeli funkateers Hadag Nachash live within the intimate confines of the Yellow Submarine.

• Take the kids to the Israel Museum Sunday for a taste of what childhood was like in the austerity-stricken early days of the country with a hands-on exhibit of bygone childhood pursuits. Maybe they'll appreciate their lives more afterwards?

• For more adult-oriented museum time, swing by the Jerusalem Artists House for a new exhibit by respected Israeli artists Avner Katz, Gustavo Sagorsky and Chava Epstein.

• Give yourself a little grounding in pressing international affairs Monday by attending Foreign Ministry official Menashe Amir's lecture on the Iranian people at the Hebrew University.

• On Monday evening, reserve a seat at the Jerusalem Theatre for this season's premiere of the theatrical version of Savyon Liebrecht's novella "Apples from the Desert."

• Wrap yourself in the warm, if sometimes limiting embrace of the Jerusalem Anglo community at Mike's Place Tuesday night for some musical democracy in action: a freestyle, take-all-comers jam session. Bring your axe, as long as you like guitar rock and Shlomo Carlebach niggunim.

• Summer Nights continues on Wednesday with world music outfit the Shem Tov Levi Ensemble playing beneath the stars in Liberty Bell Park.

And as always, there's plenty more to do, and you'll find it all in the Jerusalemite Events Section. Click here for a full listing of the week's events.

Image of Gustavo Sagorsky's photography courtesy of the Jerusalem Artists House.