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Safed
900 m above sea level in the mountains of the Upper Galilee is the small town of Safed one of the four holy cities in Judaism (the others are Hebron, Jerusalem and Tiberias). Modern Safed dates back to the 16th century where some of the greatest scholars, spiritual leaders and religious thinkers of the Jewish world came in order to escape the Spanish Inquisition It is also a center for the Kabbalah a form of Jewish mysticism. It is also famous as a health and holiday resort with pleasant summers and snowy winters with a lot of greenery.
Today the Old City of Safed is a picturesque neighborhood of narrow alley and cobblestone streets where 19 active synagogues dating from the 16th century, each with its rich history and folklore are still in use. 
Click here to see what we can offer in Hotels in Safed, and also Hotels in Israel.

Some of the main Sites to visit:

The Artist Quarter
is where Jewish artists escaping from Europe during and after World War 2 made their homes; today the quarter includes new immigrant artists and craftsmen from Russia, Ethiopia and English speaking countries. For over 2.000 years, the western slope of Safed has served as the city’s Jewish cemetery. Interred in the cemetery are famous 16th century rabbis. 



Misa Rosenfeld’s Doll Museum - in Safed was founded in 1994 in memory of the victims of a terrorist attack on October 19th 1994 at the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv; her own daughter was among the victims.
The Exhibition consists of Jewish Costume, European Costume and Folklore.
The dolls are made of high quality porcelain and are all hand made. They are in exact proportion to the human body and all body parts are movable.
Besides doll making, Mila also makes unique articles from ceramics, which can be purchased in the museum.


The Ytshak Frenel (Frenkel) Museum
- was 
officially his house in Safed and where his works of 1920-1981 are exhibited. 





 
 Beit Hameiri
(Hameiri House) - is a historical museum documenting the life of the Jewish community of Safed over the past 200 years. Its founder, Yehezkel Hameiri (1934 - 1989), a fifth generation native of this town, spent thirty years restoring the ruined building he knew from his childhood. The museum tells the story of Safed and sheds light on an important chapter in its history. On each of the museum's floors and levels, a different aspect of the community's daily life is presented to the visitor. According to the elders of Safed, the rooms at street level are more than 400 years old. Next to the living quarters is a small 16th century mikveh (ritual bath), which used rainwater collected in winter. Its vaulted ceiling was covered by earth over the years and a giant fig tree struck roots in its walls. The mikveh is not open to the public. Across the courtyard is a synagogue that served the Persian community, originally built by the Hameiri family. It was damaged and abandoned many years ago, but is now partially restored, commemorating its founders.
Above the ground level, which has survived almost in its entirety, is a garden that was planted on the ruins of rooms, which collapsed in the earthquakes of 1759 and 1837.At the heart of the main museum building are two large vaulted halls. These are 150 years old and served as part of Safed's rabbinical court until the turn of the century. During the First World War, hundreds of orphaned children were housed here. Safed experienced terrible hardships in that troubled period - two thirds of its population were decimated in a typhus epidemic. Today in these halls you will find a display of paintings telling the story of recent generations of Safed's colorful elders. Access to the next floor of the museum is through a passageway with more images of Safed's elders, and then via the low vaulted rooms, which served as the cellars of the house on the top floor. These contain a collection of utensils, implements and craftsmen's tools. The final flight of stairs, discovered during the restoration work, leads to what used to be a schoolyard. More than 100 years ago, Jewish children studied here, in what was Safed's first Hebrew school, set up in the days of Baron Rothschild. Below the museum building you can see the flat roof of the Sephardi Ari synagogue, the ancient cemetery with its blue tombs, and the Ari mikveh. To the south is the old Arab quarter.

Memorial Museum of the Hungarian Speaking Jewry
was founded in1986. The museum is a non-profit association and depicts the past of the Jewish Community in Hungary, Tgransylvania, Slovakia, and Russia, Bachka and Burgenland and their contribution to Jewish history. The aim of the museum is to collect, exhibit and preserve all that testifies to the past, daily life, folklore and traditions of the communities. 





The Museum of Printing - illustrates the long tradition of printing in Safed (where the first Hebrew printing-press was installed in the 16th century). The museum also displays works of graphic art by leading Jewish artists.



Davidka Monument
- is west of the hill in Safed 
it is a small cannon, which drove the last Arabs out of Safed in 1948. 





The Cave of Shem and Eber - Located south of Safed is where tradition has it that Noah's son Shem and his grandson Eber studied the Torah. 


The Village of Meron
- in Upper  Galileefounded in 1949 lies 9km west of Safed on the eastern slopes of Mount Meron, the highest hill in the Galilee.Simeon Bar Yohai, one of the leaders of the Bar Kochba rising, was buried in Meron. He is credited in Jewish tradition with the authorship of the Kabbalistic work known as the "Zohar" ("Splendor"), which in fact was written in Spain in 1270. In his honor thousands of Jews come every year in spring to this place of pilgrimage and celebrate the festivity of Rashbi Hilula with a great procession, singing and dancing (April/May) Near the mausoleum of  Simeon Bar Yohai in Meron are other tombs, including the rock-cut tomb of Rabbi Hillel and his disciples and, on the far side of the valley, the tomb of Rabbi Shammai. Both men founded Mishnah schools in the first century. To the north of the Tomb of Simeon are the remains of a synagogue of the third or fourth century, which is also associated with the name of Simeon Bar Yohai. Little survives of this building. 

The village of Bar’am - is now abandoned and has notable remains of an ancient synagogue. The site is now a National Park and lies above the kibbutz of Bar’am which was founded in 1948. The synagogue, which is preserved up to, a second floor dates from the second or third century and is one of the oldest buildings in the country. The entrance with its three doorways faces in the direction of Jerusalem. In front of the entrance are some of the original eight columns with Attic bases, which supported a porch. The interior was divided by rows of columns into three aisles.

Emergency Phone Numbers:
Police
- 100
Magen David - First Aid 101
Fire Department - 102
Electric Company Hotline - 102