| Safed | |||
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| Hebrew transcription(s) | |||
| • Hebrew | צְפַת | ||
| • ISO 259 | Çpat | ||
| • Translit. | Tz'fat | ||
| • Also spelled | Tsfat, Tzefat, Zfat, Ẕefat (official) | ||
| Arabic transcription(s) | |||
| • Arabic | صفد | ||
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Safed
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| Coordinates: | |||
| District | North | ||
| Founded | Canaanite age | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | City | ||
| • Mayor | Ilan Shohat | ||
| Elevation | 900 m (2,953 ft) | ||
| Population (2010)[1] | |||
| • Total | 30,100 | ||
Safed (Hebrew: צְפַת, Tzfat; Arabic: صفد, Safed, Ashkenazi: Tzfas; Biblical: Ṣ'fath, ISO 259-3: Çpat), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of 900 metres (2,953 ft), Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel.[2] Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters.[3] Since the sixteenth century, Safed has been considered one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias;[4] since that time, the city has remained a center of Kabbalah, also known as Jewish mysticism.
Due to its beautiful setting surrounded by pine forests and its mild climate, Safed has become a summer holiday resort frequented by Israelis and foreign visitors alike.[5]
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According to the Book of Judges, the area where Safed is located was assigned to the Tribe of Naphtali.[6] Legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah after the Great Flood.[3] The city first appears in Jewish sources in the late Middle Ages.[3] It is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period.[7] Safed has been identified with Sepph, a fortified Jewish town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus (Wars 2:573).[8]
In the 12th century, Safed was a fortified city in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem known as Saphet.[3] The Knights Hospitaller built a castle there. In 1266, the Mamluk sultan Baybars wiped out the Christian Templar population and turned it into a Muslim town called Safed or Safat. Samuel ben Samson who visited the town in the 13th-century mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there.[9] According to al-Dimashqi (who died in Safed in 1327), writing around 1300, Baybars, after levelling the old fortress, built a "round tower and called it Kullah..".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.[10] According to Abu al-Fida, Safed "was 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 suburbs cover three hills... Since the place was conquered by Al Malik Adh Dhahir from the Franks, it has been made the central station for the troops who guard all the coast-towns of that district."[11]
| Old Yishuv |
| Jewish life in the Land of Israel before Modern Zionism |
| Key figures |
|---|
| Nahmanides • Yechiel of Paris • Bartenura • Yehuda he-Hasid |
| Economy |
| Kollel • Halukka • Etrog |
| Communities |
| Sephardim • Perushim • Hasidim |
| Synagogues |
| Ramban • Ari • Hurva • Shomrei HaChomos |
| Related articles |
| History of the Jews in the Land of Israel • History of Zionism (Timeline) • Anti-Zionism (Timeline) • Haredim and Zionism • Edah HaChareidis • ShaDaR • Yishuv • Three Oaths |
Safed rose to fame in the 16th century as a center of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.[12] Under the Ottomans, Safed was the capital of the sanjak of Safed, which encompassed much of the Galillee and extended to the Mediterranean coast. This sanjak was part of the Eyalet of Damascus until 1660, when it was united with the sanjak of Sidon into a separate eyalet, of which it was briefly the capital. Finally, from the mid-19th century it was part of the vilayet of Sidon. The orthodox Sunni courts arbitrated over cases in 'Akbara, Ein al-Zeitun and as far away as Mejdel Islim.[13] In 1553-4, the population consisted of 1,121 Muslim households, 222 Muslim bachelors, 54 Muslim religious leaders, 716 Jewish households, 56 Jewish bachelors, and 9 disabled persons.[14] A Hebrew printing press was established in Safed in 1577 by Eliezer Ashkenazi and his son, Isaac of Prague.[7] It was the first press in the whole of the Ottoman Empire.[15] In 1584, there were 32 synagogues registered in the town.[16]
After the expulsion of the Islamic rule from Spain during the reconquista which ended by 1492, many prominent rabbis found their way to Safed, among them the Kabbalists Isaac Luria and Moshe Kordovero; Joseph Caro, the author of the Shulchan Aruch and Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, composer of the Sabbath hymn "Lecha Dodi". The influx of Sephardi Jews—reaching its peak under the rule of Sultans Suleiman I and Selim II —made Safed a global center for Jewish learning and a regional center for trade throughout 15th and 16th centuries.[12][17] The Kurdish quarter was established in the Middle Ages and continued through to the 19th century.[13]
Over the course of the seventeenth century, Jewish settlements of Galilee had declined economically and demographically, with Safed being no exception. In around 1625, Quaresmius spoke of the town being inhabited "chiefly by Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and for whose sustenance contributions were made by the Jews in other parts of the world." [18] In 1628, the city fell to the Druze and five years later was retaken by Ottomans. In 1660, in the turmoil following the death of Mulhim Ma'an, the Druze destroyed Safed and Tiberias, with only a few of the former Jewish residents returning to Safed by 1662. As nearby Tiberias remained desolate for several decades, Safed gained the key position among Galilean Jewish communities. In 1665, the Sabbatai Sevi movement is said to have arrived to the town.
An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and the Near East earthquake of 1759 left the city in ruins. An influx Russian Jews in 1776 and 1781, and of Lithuanian Jews of the Perushim in 1809 and 1810, reinvigorated the community.[19]
In 1812, another plague killed 80% of the Jewish population, and in 1819 the remaining Jewish residents were held for ransom by Abdullah Pasha, the governor of Acre. During the period of Egyptian domination, the city experienced a severe decline, with the Jewish community hit particularly hard. In the 1834 Safed Great Plunder, much of the Jewish quarter was destroyed by rebel Arabs, who plundered the city for many weeks. The Galilee earthquake of 1837 killed 2,158 inhabitants, of which 1507 were Ottoman subjects, Muslim or Jewish. The northern, Jewish, section of the town was almost entirely destroyed, while the southern, Moslem, section suffered far less damage.[20] In 1838, the Druze rebels robbed the city over the course of 3 days, killing many among the Jews.
In 1840, Ottoman rule was restored. In 1847, plague struck Safed again. The Jewish population increased in the last half of the 19th century by immigration from Persia, Morocco, and Algeria. Moses Montefiore visited Safed seven times and financed rebuilding of much of the town. However, virtually all the antiquities of Safed were destroyed by earthquakes.
The Qaddura family was a major political force in Safed. At the end of Ottoman rule the family owned 50,000 dunums. This included 8 villages around Safed.[21]
Safed remained a mixed city during the British Mandate for Palestine and ethnic tensions between Jews and Arabs rose during the 1920s. With the eruption of 1929 Palestine riots, Safed and Hebron became major clash points. In the Safed massacre 20 Jewish residents were killed by local Arabs.[22]
By 1948, the city was home to around 1,700 Jews, mostly religious and elderly, as well as some 12,000 Arabs.[3] In February 1948, Muslim Arabs attacked a Jewish bus attempting to reach Safed, and the Jewish quarter of the town came under siege by the Muslims. British forces that were present did not intervene. According to Martin Gilbert, food supplies ran short.
"Even water and flour were in desperately short supply. Each day, the Arab attackers drew closer to the heart of the Jewish quarter, systematically blowing up Jewish houses as they pressed in on the central area." [23]
On April 16, the same day that British forces evacuated Safed, 200 local Arab militiamen, supported by over 200 Arab Liberation Army soldiers, tried to take over the city's Jewish Quarter. They were repelled by the Jewish garrison, consisting of some 200 Haganah fighters, men and women, boosted by a Palmach platoon.[24]
The Palmach ground attack on the Arab section of Safed took place on 6 May, as a part of Operation Yiftah. The first phase of the Palmach plan to capture Safed, was to secure a corridor through the mountains by capturing the Arab village of Birya.[25] The Arab Liberation Army had plans to take over the whole city on May 10, and in the meantime placed artillery pieces on a hill adjacent to the Jewish quarter and started its shelling.[26]
The Third Battalion failed to take the main objective, the "citadel", but "terrified" the Arab population sufficiently to prompt further flight, as well as urgent appeals for outside help and an effort to obtain a truce.[27]
According to Benny Morris, Azzam Pasha accurately described the aim of Plan Dalet, of which Operation Yiftah was a part, when he said:
"The Jews were following a perfectly clear and ruthless plan... They are now drawing [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. In particular, Acre and Safed were in very great danger of Jewish occupation. It was obvious that if this continued, the Arab armies would have great difficulty in even entering Palestine after May 15."[28]
However, the appeals for help were ignored, and the British, now less than a week away from the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, also did not intervene against the second -and final- Haganah attack, which began on the evening of 9 May, with a mortar barrage on key sites in Safed. Following the barrage, Palmach 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 the exit routes for the population to "facilitate" their exodus...' " [29] According to Gilbert,
"The Arabs of Safed began to leave, including the commander of the Arab forces, Adib Shishakli (later Prime Minister of Syria). With the police fort on Mount Canaan isolated, its defenders withdrew without fighting. The fall of Safed was a blow to Arab morale throughout the region.....With the invasion of Palestine by regular Arab armies believed to be imminent - once the British had finally left in elven or twelve days' time - many Arabs felt that prudence dictated their departure until the Jews had been defeated and they could return to their homes.[30]
Some 12,000 (some estimate 15,000) fled Safed and were a "heavy burden on the Arab war effort".[31] Among them was the family of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.[32] The city was fully under the control of Jewish paramilitary forces by May 11, 1948.[3] On that day Palmach troops secured the now empty Arab quarters, and confiscated "goods that could serve the combat units".
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 (DFLP) while sleeping in a school in Maalot. In what became known as the Ma'alot massacre, 22 of these school children were among those killed by the hostage takers. In July 2006, Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon hit Safed, killing one man and injuring others. Many residents fled the town.[33] On July 22, four people were injured in a rocket attack.
In 2008, the population of Safed was 32,000.[1] According to CBS figures in 2001, the ethnic makeup of the city was 99.2% Jewish and non-Arab, with no significant Arab 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.
Safed has a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and cold, rainy and occasionally snowy winters. The city receives 682 mm (27 in) of precipitation per year. Summers are rainless and hot with an average high temperature of 29 °C (84 °F) and an average low temperature of 18 °C (64 °F). Winters are cold and wet, and precipitation is occasionally in the form of snow. Winters have an average high temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) and an average low temperature of 5 °C (41 °F). Springs and autumns are pleasant and also wet, but less so than winters.
| Climate data for Safed | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 21.7 (71.1) |
21.2 (70.2) |
24.2 (75.6) |
32.4 (90.3) |
38.1 (100.6) |
40.0 (104.0) |
39.0 (102.2) |
38.7 (101.7) |
36.8 (98.2) |
33.1 (91.6) |
27.5 (81.5) |
24.4 (75.9) |
40.0 (104.0) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 9.4 (48.9) |
10.1 (50.2) |
13.3 (55.9) |
19.5 (67.1) |
25.0 (77.0) |
28.3 (82.9) |
29.8 (85.6) |
29.8 (85.6) |
28.1 (82.6) |
23.7 (74.7) |
16.7 (62.1) |
11.5 (52.7) |
20.4 (68.7) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 4.5 (40.1) |
4.3 (39.7) |
6.3 (43.3) |
10.6 (51.1) |
14.3 (57.7) |
17.0 (62.6) |
18.8 (65.8) |
18.8 (65.8) |
17.7 (63.9) |
15.1 (59.2) |
10.3 (50.5) |
6.4 (43.5) |
12.0 (53.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −3.6 (25.5) |
−9 (15.8) |
−2.2 (28.0) |
0.3 (32.5) |
5.8 (42.4) |
8.7 (47.7) |
13.2 (55.8) |
14 (57) |
12 (54) |
7.2 (45.0) |
0.1 (32.2) |
−2.7 (27.1) |
−9 (15.8) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 158.8 (6.252) |
129.7 (5.106) |
94.9 (3.736) |
43.1 (1.697) |
5.7 (0.224) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
1.5 (0.059) |
24.5 (0.965) |
85.5 (3.366) |
138.4 (5.449) |
682.1 (26.854) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 15 | 13.1 | 11.7 | 5.9 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 4.5 | 9.0 | 13.1 | 75.5 |
| Source: Israel Meteorological Service[34][35] | |||||||||||||
In December 2001, residents of Safed earned an average of 4,476 shekels 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.
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) certificate in 2001.
Aous Shakra, a 20th century existential philosopher who taught at Harvard University, was born in Safed .
One of the unique educational programs that exists in Safed is the Livnot U'Lehibanot program of Jewish exploration. The Livnot program provides an open non-denominational atmosphere where young Jewish 20somethings can volunteer, hike and study while exploring their Jewish heritage.
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, 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, Aris San, and other acclaimed singers.[36] Safed has been hailed as the klezmer capital of the world, hosting an annual klezmer festival that attracts top musicians from around the globe.[37] Travelers will find an extensive Tourist Information Center in the Old Jewish Quarter on Alkabetz Street. The Center provides assistance to tourists who drop in to access information about the center. For travelers who are planning a trip, the tourist center offers http://www.safed-home.com/TouristInformation.html. Visitors can explore the places of interest, activities and historical sites when visiting Safed. Tourists may find the stories of legends of Safed to expand their understanding of the town and its history. Accommodations provide boarding opportunities for people of all ages and incomes and the list of eateries is extensive in the city.
Safed is twinned with:
Palm Beach County, Fl USA
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