Ancient Tzfat

THE 20TH CENTURY By 1947, Tzfat’s population was predominately Arab: 12,000 to only 1,600 Jews. In the surrounding district there were dozens of Arab villages (with 50,000 inhabitants) and just... Read more...

THE MISSIONARIES IN Tzfat

THE MISSIONARIES IN Tzfat In the 19th century, European missionary societies were permitted to operate freely in Eretz Israel, as part of the Turkish authorities’ desire to ingratiate themselves with the... Read more...

THE 19TH CENTURY

THE 19TH CENTURY His son Ibrahim Peha commanded the force that wrested Palestine from the Turks. He treated the Jewish and Christian population equitably, and during his reign the Jew’s collective... Read more...

Tzfat

At times obscure, hidden among the hills of Galilee, and at other times revealed in its full glory – this is Tzfat. A little town that makes its way into... Read more...

FADED SPLENDOR – THE 17TH CENTURY

FADED SPLENDOR – THE 17TH CENTURY Tzfat’s days of glory had already passed by the end of the 16th century. Different events that occurred almost simultaneously brought about its demise. The... Read more...

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

ADMINISTRATION Under Ottoman rule, Tzfat again became a district capital (sanjak), one of a group of districts in the province of Damascus. Its boundaries stretched from the Litani River in... Read more...

JOSEPH CARO (Spain 1488-Tzfat 1575)

Rabbi Joseph Caro succeeded where others before him tried and failed. He gave the Jewish people an organized and universally accepted code of law. In his first book, “Beit Yosef”, he... Read more...

FOUR OF Tzfat’S GREAT MEN IN THE 16TH CENTURY

JOSEPH CARO (Spain 1488-Tzfat 1575) Rabbi Joseph Caro succeeded where others before him tried and failed. He gave the Jewish people an organized and universally accepted code of law. In... Read more...

SPIRTUAL LIFE

"The eyes of the Jewish world were on Tzfat. Great scholars and rabbis. Kabbalists and practical men converged here. A convocation as varied as this had not been seen in... Read more...

THE OLD CEMETERY

It is said that "twice as many Jews as in the Exodus from Egypt" are buried in Tzfat's old cemetery. Thousands of tombstones dot the hillside below the old Sephardi... Read more...

THE SEPHARADI ARI SYNAGOGUE

Tradition has it that the Ari studied Torah in the dark cave beneath the eastern wall of the synagogue. Here the Prophet Elijah is said to have appeared and shared... Read more...

THE JOSEPH CARO SYNAGOGUE

Named for the author of the "Shulchan Aruch", the original structure was destroyed twice by earthquakes (1759 and 1837). A stone above the entrance commemorates its more recent reconstruction. Local... Read more...