There’s a synagogue right around the corner from Avraham Yosef Shababo’s home in this heavily religious northern Israeli city, which terrorists targeted with dozens of rockets every day last week.
Yet Shababo, a 75-year-old father of 11 whose family has lived in Safed for centuries, walked uphill for half an hour on Sunday to pray at a distant one.
He did it “to set an example” and show his family that he’s “not afraid to leave home,” Shababo told JNS halfway up the hill. The city has been shrouded in smoke for days from forest fires started by rockets from Lebanon. “Also, I’m not young anymore. I need these uphill walks to stay fit,” he added, smiling.
The rocket fire, which destroyed several homes in Safed, intensified following Israel’s slaying of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top terrorists in Beirut on Saturday.
Many of the 42,000-odd locals of this iconic, spiritual center of Judaism share Shababo’s resolve. He admits the rockets are “frightening” but forces himself to overcome the fear. Yet hundreds if not thousands have left temporarily, locals said, and some doubt the city’s ability to recover soon from losing its tourists, its main source of income.
“The summer tourists are our lifeline. And now, hope is basically lost for some autumn traffic to mitigate the losses,” said Michael Cohen, who runs the marketing for one of the dozens of Safed’s art galleries. The city is an unlikely arts hub, away from the main scene in the country’s center. Cohen was cautiously optimistic in the wake of Nasrallah’s elimination. “I’m still trying to figure out what it means for us,” he said of the longtime Hezbollah leader’s death.
Cohen’s gallery, David & Jonathan Wood Art, closed its display space months ago. Cohen keeps thousands of artworks in his two-room apartment, selling them online, mostly to clients in the United States.
“We got some new customers who wanted to buy artworks specifically from Safed to support us, but it’s nowhere near covering the shortfall created by the total evaporation of tourists,” Cohen told JNS in the yard of his apartment.
Nestled between three centuries-old stone buildings—Safed is famous for such structures—the yard features sofas where Cohen used to play music with his friends. But many, including Cohen’s next-door neighbors, have left since the outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah on Oct. 8 and especially following this month’s escalation.
The exchanges of fire with Hezbollah began a day after thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting another 251.
For nearly a year, Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, prompting retaliations in a limited-scale exchange that claimed the lives of about 50 Israelis and about 500 Hezbollah terrorists. Israel evacuated some 60,000 residents from border-adjacent locales to minimize its casualties, with tens of thousands more evacuating voluntarily. Safed has not been evacuated.
The conflict escalated dramatically this month, as Israel carried out hundreds of strikes, including assassinations of top Hezbollah terrorists. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, including Haifa and Tel Aviv. But Safed, which is located just 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the border, has received far more rockets than most other Israeli cities.
One rocket that hit the city in February killed a soldier and wounded eight others. On Wednesday, a rocket directly hit a residential home in Safed, resulting in no injuries.
Both Shababo—whose daughter and son-in-law left Safed on Tuesday temporarily for Ashdod—and Cohen are considering leaving in case of a major escalation, they said. “For now, I can still work here, there’s public transportation, there are postal services. There are even out-of-towners who come,” Cohen said. “If that changes, I might leave, too.”
Cohen, who was born in Binyamina near Netanya, has issues with Safed beyond the war. As a non-devout person, he feels that the city, which has a growing Haredi population, “is taking on a different character. There’s neglect of the youth, of businesses. Of infrastructure. It’s disheartening,” he said. Regardless of the war, added Cohen, he has stopped believing in the city’s potential.
Shababo, by contrast, will “never leave” the city where his family had lived for centuries, he said. Speaking to JNS after the elimination of Nasrallah, he quoted scripture about victory for the Children of Israel and said it was a major step toward restoring security for Safed, “even if in the short term we’ll get more rockets. We’re ready for it,” he said.
A hub of Jewish mysticism, Safed is one of Judaism’s so-called Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias. For centuries before modern Zionism, these cities were centers of worship and Jewish thought, and the burial places of great sages.
Shimon bar Yochai, a second-century luminary, is buried 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Safed. Pilgrims to the gravesite often visit the city, whose picturesque labyrinth of cobblestone streets attracts secular tourists, too.
In the summertime, the city’s 850-meter (2,789 feet) elevation spares it from the region’s scorching heat. Art galleries and musical events, including the annual international Klezmer Music Festival, draw thousands here in normal years.
“Usually, around Tishrei, the air is so pristine and fresh,” said Shababo, referencing the current Hebrew calendar month. “Now it just smells like smoke.” Asked what he would like to see happen in Lebanon, he delivered a typical answer. “Raze it, if that’s what it takes to allow us to live safely. We’ll take as many rockets as needed, just get the job done.”
Despite his faith in divine protection, Shababo does not abandon caution. When a rocket alarm blares, he crouches and waits out the thuds. Safed has a 15-second warning buffer, so looking around for shelter is inadvisable. The municipality has advised residents to avoid unnecessary movement.
Between barrages, the center of Safed appeared lively on Wednesday, with parents walking on the street with their children—who had switched to remote video learning on Sunday—and buses transporting locals across the sprawling town. Some restaurants were closed but other businesses were open and even busy, including the Bananot fashion store for girls.
Things were quieter in Merom Cnaan, the northernmost and one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Safed. It’s a frequent target because it borders the Israel Defense Forces Northern Command headquarters complex of bases, bunkers and emergency storage facilities. It was there that the rocket that killed a soldier hit in February. As elsewhere in Safed, most homes here lack in-house shelters.
Talma Lapid, a resident of Merom Cnaan, left her home this week for the first time during the current escalation. She was with family in Hod Hasharon on Wednesday, but is planning to return this weekend, she told JNS on the phone.
A native of Kibbutz Hulata, located about 12 kilometers northeast of Safed, she grew up with Syrian artillery shelling. Undaunted by ballistic threats, she bought her detached home with a large yard in 1994.
Like many locals, Lapid, who is an artist, opposes adding Safed to the list of evacuated locales. “That’d be a terrible error. You don’t move back, or you might as well move out,” she said. Unlike Shababo, she’s less confident in the efficacy of military action. “We seem to be in an endless cycle. I don’t know how to break it, not my field of expertise,” she said dryly.
A non-devout Jew who is drawn to philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s naturalist ideas about divinity, she finds inspiration in the majestic Biriya Forest near her home, which is now pocked by burnt patches from rocket fire.
“Walking through those ashen spots, you already see many of the charred plants grow green shoots, in time for winter’s revival,” she said. “I draw strength and inspiration from that.”
