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Safed



 
 
Safed (Tzfat; , ?afad) is a city in the Northern District of Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 and a center for Kabbalah
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
, or Jewish mysticism
Mysticism

Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, Unio Mystica with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, Spirituality, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight....
. At an elevation of 800 meters (2,660 feet) above sea level, Safed is the highest city in the Galilee
Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the ridges of Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa t...
.

rding to the Book of Judges
Book of Judges

The Book of Judges is a Books of the Bible originally written in Hebrew language. It appears in the Tanakh and in the Christian Old Testament. Its title refers to its contents; it contains the history of Biblical judges , who helped rule and guide the ancient Israelites, and of their times....
, the region was assigned to the tribe of Naftali. The city of Safed itself first appears in Jewish sources in the late Middle Ages. It is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud
Jerusalem Talmud

The Jerusalem Talmud or Talmud Yerushalmi , often the Yerushalmi for short, is a collection of rabbi notes about the Jewish Oral law as detailed in the 2nd-century Mishnah....
 as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period.






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Safed (Tzfat; , ?afad) is a city in the Northern District of Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 and a center for Kabbalah
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
, or Jewish mysticism
Mysticism

Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, Unio Mystica with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, Spirituality, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight....
. At an elevation of 800 meters (2,660 feet) above sea level, Safed is the highest city in the Galilee
Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the ridges of Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa t...
.

History

According to the Book of Judges
Book of Judges

The Book of Judges is a Books of the Bible originally written in Hebrew language. It appears in the Tanakh and in the Christian Old Testament. Its title refers to its contents; it contains the history of Biblical judges , who helped rule and guide the ancient Israelites, and of their times....
, the region was assigned to the tribe of Naftali. The city of Safed itself first appears in Jewish sources in the late Middle Ages. It is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud
Jerusalem Talmud

The Jerusalem Talmud or Talmud Yerushalmi , often the Yerushalmi for short, is a collection of rabbi notes about the Jewish Oral law as detailed in the 2nd-century Mishnah....
 as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period. Legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah
Noah

Noah was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs ; and a prophet according to the Qur'an. The biblical story of Noah is contained in the book of Book of Genesis, chapters 5-9, while the Qur'an has a whole sura named after and devoted to his story with other references elsewhere....
 after the Great Flood. Safed has been identified with Sepph, a fortified Jewish town in the Upper Galilee
Upper Galilee

The Upper Galilee is a geographical-political term in use since the end of the Second Temple period, originally referring to a mountainous area overlapping the present northern Israel and southern Lebanon, its borders being the Litani river in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Beit HaKerem valley and Lower Galilee in the south...
 mentioned in the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus
Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
 (Wars 2:573). In the 12th century, Safed was a fortified city in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christianity kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. It lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, Israel, was destroyed by the Mamluks....
 known as Saphet. The Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta is a Roman Catholic Church order based in Rome, Italy....
 built a castle there. In 1266, the Mamluk
Mamluk

A mamluk was a slavery soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and the Ayyubid sultans from the 9th to the 13th centuries....
 sultan Baybars wiped out the Christian Templar population and turned it into a Muslim town called Safad or Safat. According to al-Dimashqi
Al-Dimashqi

Sheikh Shams al-Din al-Ansari al-Dimashqi or simply al-Dimashqi was a medieval Arab geographer, completing his main work in 1300. Born in Damascus?as his name "Dimashqi" implies?he mostly wrote of his native land, the Greater Syria , upon the complete withdrawal of the Crusaders....
 (who died in Safed in 1327), writing around 1300, Baybars after levelling the old fortress, built a
"round tower and called it Kullah. Its height is 120 ells, and its breadth is 70. And to the terrace-roof (of the tower) you go up by double passage. Five horses can ride up to the top (of the tower) abreast by winding passage-way without steps. The tower is built in three stories. It is provided with provisions, and halls, and magazines. Under the place is a cistern for rain-water, sufficient to supply the garrison of the fortress from year´s end to year´s end. [ ] In the fortress is a well called As Saturah. Its depth is 11 ells, by 6 ells across []
According to Abu al-Fida
Abu al-Fida

Abu al-Fida or Abul Fida Ismail Hamvi was a Kurdish people historian, geographer, and local sultan. The crater Abulfeda on the Moon, is named after him....
, Safad in
"Jordan Province, [] a town of medium size. It has a very strongly built castle, which dominates the Lake of Tabariyyah. There are underground watercourses, which bring drinking-water up to the castle-gate. Its gardens are below, in the valley going towards the Lake of Tabariyyah. Its suburbs are built over and cover three hills, and they possess many broad districts. Since the place was conquered by Al Malik Adh Dhahir from the Franks
Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious war waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents. Crusades were fought mainly against Muslims, though campaigns were also directed against Paganism Slavic peoples, Jews, Eastern Orthodox Church, Mongols, Catharism, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political enemi...
, it has been made the central station for the troops who guard all the coast-towns of that district."
Safed rose to fame in the 16th century a center of Kabbalah
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
, or Jewish mysticism. A Hebrew printing press was established in Safed in 1577 by Eliezer Ashkenazi and his son, Isaac of Prague. It was the first press in Palestine
Palestine

Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is derived from a name used already much earlier for a narrower geographical region, mainly along the coastal region....
 and the whole of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
.
Safed3
Under the Ottomans, Safed was part of the vilayet of Sidon
Sidon

Sidon,or Sa?da, is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, Lebanon of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea coast, about 40 km north of Tyre, Lebanon and 40 km south of the capital Beirut....
. After the expulsion of the Islamic rule and with it many Jews from Spain during the reconquista
Reconquista

The Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims....
 which ended by 1492, many prominent rabbis found their way to Safed, among them the kabbalists Isaac Luria (Arizal)
Isaac Luria

Rabbi Isaac Luria was a Judaism mystic in Safed. His name today is attached to all of the mystic thought in the town of Safed in 16th century Ottoman Palestine....
 and Moshe Kordovero; Joseph Caro, the author of the Shulchan Aruch
Shulchan Aruch

The Shulchan Aruch is a codification, or written manual, of halacha , composed by Rabbi Yosef Karo in the 16th century. Together with its commentaries, it is considered the most authoritative compilation of halakha since the Talmud....
 and Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz
Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz

Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz was a kabbalist and poet perhaps best known for his composition of the song Lecha Dodi; sources differ as to when he wrote it ....
, composer of the Sabbath
Shabbat

Shabbat or Shabbos , is the weekly day of rest in Judaism, symbolizing the seventh day in Genesis, after the six days of creation. Though it is commonly said to be the Saturday of each week, it is observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night....
 hymn Lecha Dodi. The influx of Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews

Sephardi Jews are a subgroup of Jews originating in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, usually defined in contrast to Ashkenazi or Mizrahi Jews....
 made Safed a global center for Jewish learning and a regional center for trade throughout 15th and 16th centuries. In 1555, the Jewish population was 8,000-10,000. By the end of the century, it had grown to 20,000 or 30,000. An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and an earthquake in 1759 left the city in ruins. An influx of Russian Jews in 1776 and 1781, and of the Perushim
Perushim

The Perushim were disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Vilna Gaon, who left Lithuania at the beginning of the nineteenth century to settle in the Land of Israel, then under Ottoman Empire....
 in 1809 and 1810, reinvigorated the community.
Safed1908
In 1812, another plague killed 80% of the Jewish population, and in 1819 the remaining Jews were held for ransom by Abdullah Pasha, the governor of Acre
Acre, Israel

Acre also Akko, is a List of Israeli cities in the Western Galilee region of North District Israel. It is situated on a low promontory at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay....
. On January 1, 1837, an earthquake killed 2,158 inhabitants, of which 1507 were Ottoman subjects, Muslim or Jewish. The north, Jewish section of the town was almost entirely destroyed, while the south, Moslem section suffered far less damage. In 1847, plague struck Safed again. Throughout the 19th century, the Jewish community suffered from Bedouin
Bedouin

The Bedouin, , are predominantly Muslim, desert-dwelling Arab nomadic pastoralist, or previously nomadic group, found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert , Sinai Peninsula, and Negev to the Arabian Desert....
 and Arab attacks.

The Jewish population was increased in the last half of the 19th century by immigration from Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
, and Algeria
Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
. Moses Montefiore
Moses Montefiore

Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous United Kingdom Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a finance, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London....
 visited Safed seven times and financed rebuilding of much of the town. Virtually all the antiquities of Safed were destroyed by earthquakes.

The Qaddura family was a major Political force in Safad supplying family members to the Ottoman administration of the town. At the end of Ottoman rule the family owned 50,000 dunums, this included 8 villages around Safad.

Palestinian-Israeli conflict

In the 1929 massacre in Safed
1929 Safed massacre

The 1929 Safed massacre took place on 29 August during the 1929 Palestine riots. Eighteen Jews were killed and eighty wounded. The main Jewish street was looted and burned....
, twenty Jewish residents of Safed were killed there. In 1948, Safed was home to 12,000 Arabs. The city's 1,700 Jews were mostly religious and elderly.

In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the first Palmah ground attack on Arab Safad took place on 6 May, as a part of Operation Yiftah. The Third Battalion failed to take the main objective, the "citadel", but "terrified" the Arab population sufficiently to prompt further flight, urgent appeals for outside help and an effort to obtain a truce. According to Benny Morris
Benny Morris

Benny Morris is a professor of history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva, Israel.Morris is identified with the loosely defined group of "New Historians"....
, Azzam Pasha
Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam

Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam ? was an Egyptian diplomat, with family origins in Egypt He served as the first secretary-general of the Arab League between 1945 and 1952....
 accurately described the Plan D
Plan Dalet

Plan Dalet, or Plan D, , was a plan that the Haganah in Palestine worked out during autumn 1947 to spring 1948. The purpose of the plan was, according to its Jewish planners, a contingency plan for defending a Jewish state from invasion....
, of which Operation Yiftah was a part, when he said: The
Jews were following a perfectly clear plan... They are now [driving] out the inhabitants of Arab villagers along the Syrian and Lebanese frontiers, particularly places on the roads by which Arab regular forces could enter the country. It was obvious that if this continued, the Arab armies would have great difficulty in even entering Palestine after May 15.
Under command, the British, now less than a week away from the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, did not intervene against the second -and final- Haganah
Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces....
 attack, which began on the evening of 9 May, with a mortar barrage on key sites in Safed. Following the barrage, Palmah infantry, in bitter fighting, took the citadel, Beit Shalva and the police fort, Safed´s three dominant buildings. Through 10 May, Haganah mortars continued to pound the Arab neighbourhoods, causing fires in the marked area and in the fuel dumps, which exploded. The Palmah "intentionally left open exit routes for the [Palestinian] population to "facilitate" their exodus." Some 12 000 refugees fled (some estimate 15,000). Among the refugees was the family of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas , also known by the Kunya Abu Mazen , has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian Authority of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah ticket....
. The city was fully under the control of Jewish paramilitary forces by May 11, 1948. On that day Palmah troops secured the now empty Arab quarters.

In 1974, 102 Israeli Jewish school children from Safed on a school trip were taken hostage by a Palestinian militant group Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxism-Leninism, secular political and military organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dimuqratiyah ....
 (DFLP) while sleeping in a school in Maalot. In what became known as the Ma'alot massacre
Ma'alot massacre

The Ma'alot massacre was an attack by Palestinian militants on May 15, 1974 in Ma'alot, Israel, in which 22 Israeli high school students, aged 14-16, from Safed were killed by members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine....
, 22 of these school children were among those killed by the hostage takers. In July 2006, Katyusha
Katyusha

Katyusha multiple rocket launchers are a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Compared to other artillery, these multiple rocket launchers deliver a devastating amount of explosives to an area target quickly, but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload....
 rockets fired by Hezbollah
Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a Shi'a Islamic political and paramilitary organisation based in Lebanon. It is a significant force in Politics of Lebanon, providing social services, which operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites....
 from Southern Lebanon hit Safed, killing one man and injuring others. Many residents fled the town. On July 22, four people were injured in a rocket attack.

Demographics

In 2008, the population of Safed was 32,000. According to CBS
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics

The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , abbreviated CBS, is an Israeli government office established in 1949 to carry out research and publish statistical data on all aspects of Israeli life, including population, society, economy, industry, education and physical infrastructure....
 figures in 2001, the ethnic makeup of the city was 99.2% Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish and non-Arab, with no significant Arab
Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
 population. 43.2% of the residents were 19 years of age or younger, 13.5% between 20 and 29, 17.1% between 30 and 44, 12.5% from 45 to 59, 3.1% from 60 to 64, and 10.5% 65 years of age or older.

Income

In December 2001, residents of Safed earned an average of 4,476 shekel
Shekel

Shekel, also rendered sheqel, refers to one of many ancient units of weight and currency. The first known usage is from Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement around 3000 BC....
s per month, compared to the national average of 6,835 shekels. In 2000, there were 6,450 salaried workers and 523 self-employed. Salaried men had a mean monthly wage of NIS 5,631 (a real change of 10.2%) versus NIS 3,330 for women (a real change of 2.3%). The mean income for the self-employed was NIS 4,843. A total of 425 residents received unemployment benefits and 3,085 received income supplements.

Education

According to CBS, the city has 25 schools and 6,292 students. There are 18 elementary schools with a student population of 3,965, and 11 high schools with a student population of 2,327. 40.8% of Safed's 12th graders were eligible for a matriculation (bagrut
Bagrut

The Te'udat Bagrut, also written Te'udat Bagroot, is the official Israeli matriculation certificate. It is the high school qualification certificate in Israel, also called a matriculation certificate ....
) certificate in 2001.

Aous Shakra
Aous Shakra

Aous Shakra was an existential philosopher and politician. He was the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. in late 1991, 6 months before passing away....
, a 20th century existential philosopher who taught at Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
, was born in Safed .

Culture

Smoke From A Katyusha Near Tzfat
In the 1950s and 1960s, Safed was known as Israel's art capital. The artists colony established in Safed's Old City was a hub of creativity that drew leading artists from around the country, among them Yosl Bergner
Yosl Bergner

Yosl Bergner is an Israelis Painting....
, Moshe Castel and Menachem Shemi. Some of Israel's leading art galleries were located there. In honor of the opening of the Glitzenstein Art Museum in 1953, the artist Mane Katz donated eight of his paintings to the city. During this period, Safed was home to the country's top nightclubs, hosting the debut performances of Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer

Naomi Shemer was one of Israel's most important and prolific song writers. During her lifetime, she was hailed as the "First Lady of Israeli Song."...
, Aris San, and other acclaimed singers.

Bibliography



See also

  • Balady citron
    Balady citron

    Balady Citron is a variety of citron, or etrog, grown in Palestine for Jewish ritual purposes. Balady is Arabic for "native."Local Arab farmers began using this name in the mid-19th century to distinguish this variety from the Greek citron, which was cultivated along the Jaffa seashore....


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