Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Pereira is the director of adult education at Chabad of Virginia, Richmond, and the founding director of the RVA—Jewish Studies Center. He is the author or co-author of several books, including “Jewish Voices from Portugal” and "Jewish Ethics from Portugal,” and lectures extensively around the world on the history of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula and the Sephardic World in general. He is also a university professor and a widely published economist.
Rabbi Pereira can be reached at shlomo@chabadofva.org.
1835
After having reached great prominence in the 17th century, by the late 18th century, Gaza had a small but active Jewish community. In early 1799, Napoleon led his army in the conquest of the coastal towns of Palestine. When he captured Gaza, he found that most of the Jews, fearing the worst, had fled to Hebron before his arrival. The remaining Jews abandoned the city when they discovered that Napoleon had failed to restrain the French soldiers and local Arabs from abusing the few Jewish residents that had remained in Gaza. Their flight marked the temporary end of a Jewish presence in the area. By 1811, virtually no Jews remained in Gaza, and its main synagogue lay abandoned . Meanwhile, Hebron had a continuous Jewish presence and a historic synagogue named Avraham Avinu (Our Father Abraham) built in 1540. Hebron’s Jewish community welcomed the refugees from Gaza, who, in turn, maintained ties to their former hometown and kept alive the memory of Gaza’s synagogue. In 1835, a turning point came when, during the war between the Ottoman Empire and the rebellious province of Egypt, Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian ruler governing the region, ordered the dismantling of the old synagogue building in Gaza. Its stones were to be reused to construct a fortress in nearby Ashkelon. Upon hearing that Gaza’s abandoned synagogue would be destroyed, the former Jewish residents of Gaza now living in Hebron acted swiftly. They rushed back to Gaza and rescued the synagogue’s large decorated wooden doors before the building was torn down. These doors, carved from sycamore wood and adorned with Jewish symbols, would be the only remnants of the Gaza synagogue. According to accounts from the time, the salvaged doors were carried to Hebron in a convoy of carts or camels. In Hebron, they installed the Gaza doors as the entrance doors of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue, effectively giving these artifacts a new home. Contemporary letters and recollections emphasize the significance of this act: even decades later, elders in Hebron recounted how the people of Gaza who came to Hebron brought with them the wooden doors of the ancient synagogue in Gaza and fixed them in the ancient synagogue in Hebron. Historians note a poetic echo in this story: in the Bible, the hero Shimshon is said to have carried the gates of Gaza and deposited them on a hill near Hebron (Judges 16:3). In a spiritual sense, the 19th-century relocation of Gaza’s synagogue doors to Hebron mirrored that ancient event, underscoring how Gaza’s doors found refuge in Hebron. The Gaza synagogue’s doors remained in place at Hebron’s Avraham Avinu Synagogue for roughly 94 years. They not only enhanced the Hebron synagogue’s sanctity but also reminded worshippers of the once-thriving Jewish life in Gaza. During this period, not only did the Jewish community in Hebron continue to flourish, but the Jewish presence in Gaza was renewed without, however, reaching anything close to the heights of its glorious past. Tragically, the story came to a bitter end in 1929. That year, a wave of anti-Jewish riots swept British Mandate Palestine, and Hebron was the site of a horrific massacre. Arab mobs attacked the Jewish community of Hebron in late August 1929, killing 67 Jews and forcing the survivors to flee the city. In the violence, the Avraham Avinu Synagogue – including its precious doors – was ransacked and desecrated. Eyewitnesses later described the synagogue’s interior as wrecked, holy books torn, and furniture smashed. The precious wooden doors from Gaza were lost amid the destruction. It is unclear if they were burned in the attack or stolen afterward, but no trace of them was ever found. Less than a century after being saved, the Gaza synagogue doors met the same fate as the community that had preserved them. For decades after 1929, Hebron had no Jewish community, as under Jordanian rule, Jews were banned from returning to the city. The Avraham Avinu Synagogue stood in ruins – even used as a goat pen and garbage dump in the mid-20th century. When Israel regained control of Hebron in 1967, the synagogue was eventually rebuilt and completed in 1977, but the original Gaza doors were gone forever. Nonetheless, the story of the synagogue doors from Gaza remains significant in Jewish history. It reminds us of the once-flourishing Jewish life in Gaza City and its connections to other Jewish communities in the Land of Israel.
1628
Rabbi Israel ben Moses Najara [c.1550-c.1625], a Kabbalist and a rabbi was best known for his liturgical poems. He was born in Safed, and studied with his father R. Moshe Najara [c. 1510-1581] and his maternal grandfather R. Israel ben Meir di Curiel [1501-1573]. The Najara family came originally from a city of the same name in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula and left with the Expulsion of 1492. The family settled first in Salonica and eventually in Safed. In 1579, after an attack on the Jews of Safed, the Najara family left and settled in the outskirts of Damascus. After that, R. Israel Najara wandered through various Ottoman towns, eventually settling in Hebron. In 1619, however, an epidemic drove most of the Jews from Hebron to resettle in Gaza. In Gaza City, R. Israel Najara served as the community rabbi and teacher. He died in 1628 in Gaza City and is buried in the city old Jewish cemetery. His son R. Moshe Najara succeeded him as rabbi of the Jewish community of Gaza. R. Israel Najara's fame rests on his prolific output in the fields of sacred poetry and liturgical piyyutim. His poems, numbering hundreds are outstanding in both their of language and in their style, and have achieved wide circulation in the Jewish world. Among R. Israel Najara‘s best known poems are ‘Yah Ribon Olam’ [Lord of the World], a popular Shabbat song in Aramaic, and his ‘Ketubbah LeChag HaShavuot’ [Marriage Contract for Shavuot], a poem comparing the pact between Israel and G-d at Sinai to a wedding ceremony, read in many Sephardic communities on Shavuot. In addition, many of R. Israel's piyyuṭim were incorporated into the Jewish rituals and prayers in places such as Aleppo, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Syria, and Turkey, just to name a few. Interestingly, some of his work was adopted first, into the Karaite rituals and then, into the Shabbatean rituals, in both cases Jewish sectarian groups. Of R. Israel Najara‘s extensive work only a small part has been published, most being still in manuscript form. The earliest publication of his works was ‘Zemirot Israel’ [Songs of Israel], printed in Safed in 1587, and which consists of 109 poems for all the week-days and for Sabbaths, holy days, and occasional ceremonies. This book would have two more editions before the end of the century, the third of which, in Venice in 1599, was a greatly enlarged version with 346 poems, including ‘Meimei Israel’ [Waters of Israel], a series of secular and love poems composed during his youth. In turn, ‘Mesacheket baTevel’ [Rejoicing in the World], was printed in Safed, also in 1587, and is a book of moral instruction on the nothingness of the world. Later publications include ‘Kli Machazik Beracha’ [Tool to Strengthen the Blessing] on grace after meals, ‘Shochatey HaYeladim’ [Ritual Slaughter for Kids], on the laws of ritual slaughter in poetic form composed at the request of his son Moses. In addition, some of his works are not extant, such as ‘Ma'arkot Israel‘ [The Battles of Israel], a commentary to the Torah and ‘Mikveh Israel’ [The Hope of Israel] a set of forty homilies. In addition, of his ‘Pitzey Ohev’ [Wounds of Love] a commentary on Job only a few pages of the final portions are extant. Despite the enormous and long lasting success of R. Israel Najara, his work was not without controversy. He followed in the tradition of the great Jewish poets of the Spanish-Arabic period, but he nevertheless frequently employed original forms and contents influenced by alien styles and melodies. In fact, in his youth he wrote a fair number os secular poetry as well as religious hymns. Furthermore, he seemed to have put some of these poems to then-popular Arabic and Turkish tunes, which apparently he learned in questionable places. Despite these accusations, R. Yitzchak Luria [1534-1572] declared that R. Israel Najara's hymns were listened to with delight in heaven.
1665
R. Moshe Galante, was a prominent scholar who hailed from a distinguished family of Iberian 1492 exiles, who settled in the Kand of Israel in the middle of the 16th century, In 1665, R. Moshe Galante became the de facto leader of Jewry in the Land of Israel, by assuming the position of Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Jerusalem, an official position recognized by the central Ottoman authorities. ——— R. Moshe Galante [1620-1689] was born in Safed in 1620. The Galante family was an aristocratic line of Sephardic Rabbis. The first of the line, R. Mordecai, settled in Tome in the aftermath of the Expulsion from Spain in 1492. Initially, the family name was Angel, but R. Mordechai’s courteous manners won him the surname "Galantuomo" (gentleman), a name which the family would afterwards retained. After his death in 1541 his children emigrated to the Land of Israel, and from that point on the family history became intertwined with the history of the land and the surrounding areas. R. Moshe Galante was the son of R. Yonatan Galante and grandson of R. Moshe Galante [1540-1614], referred to as the elder, who had been a student of R. Yosef Karo [1488-1575]. R. Galante studied in Safed with R. Baruch Barzilai. He later moved to Jerusalem, where he became a distinguished rabbi and head of the yeshiva Beit Yaakov. R. Moshe Galante was considered the greatest of his generation in Torah, wisdom, and piety. He was the leading rabbi of Jerusalem at a time when, tradition has it, the city was home to eighty-seven outstanding Torah scholars. Reputedly, all the Torah scholars in the city bowed to his authority and deferred to his Torah knowledge. Yet, in his great humility, he refused to carry the title of Rabbi of Jerusalem. In fact, he and the other scholars instituted an ordinance to the effect that the title rabbi would not be used in Jerusalem so that no one would have authority over the others. Accordingly, he was only referred to as the Rishon LeTzion. R. Moshe Galante served as the first Rishon Le'Zion, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, from 1665 until he died in 1689. The title Rishon l'Tzion ("the First of Zion"), a term from Isaiah 41:27, was a title that would from then on be traditionally conferred upon the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Jerusalem and later of the Land of Israel, positions officially recognized by the central Ottoman authorities. To be noted until the early 19th century, Sephardic Jews had a strongly dominant presence in Jerusalem as well as in the rest of the Land of Israel. Therefore, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Jerusalem was, by extension, effectively the Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel. It is known that R. Galante, like many rabbis of his time, was influenced by the Shabbatean movement for a while. In 1665, he went, with other rabbis, from Jerusalem to Gaza, where at the time R. Nathan of Gaza, later regarded as the false prophet of the false messiah Shabbetai Tzvi, lived. At the end of 1665, R. Galante was in Aleppo, and according to local accounts, he accompanied Shabbetai Tzvi to Smyrna and Constantinople. Eventually, and even before the apostasy of Shabbetai Tzvi to Islam in late 1666, R. Moshe Galante is said to have departed and condemned the movement. The immediate cause is cited as him having seen Shabbetai Tzvi signing a letter in which he not only wrote the four-letter name of G-d but did so applying it to himself. R. Moshe Galante wrote, among others books, Zevach HaShelamim [Peace Offering] on the Talmud, a harmonization of contradictory Biblical passages and of Biblical with Talmudical statements; Ḳorban Chagigah [Festival Offerings] sermons for the Three Festivals and insights on the tractate Chagigah and on Maimonides' Yad ha-Ḥazakah; and Parpara'ot l'Chochmah [Delicacies of wisdom] was a commentary on the Bible. In addition, he wrote Elef HaMagen [A Thousand Shieds], which includes 1,000 responses on various topics. In fact, he is often referred to as Rav HaMagen in reference to this work. R. Moshe Galante‘s students included R. Moshe ibn Habib [1654–1696], his brother-in-law who succeeded him as Rishon LeTzion, R. Chezekiah da Silva [1659–1698], author of Pri Chadash, R. Israel Yaakov Chagiz [1620-1674], his son-in-law and father of R. Moshe Chagiz [1672-c.1750], and R. Abraham Yitzchaki [1661–1729], who would also become Rishon LeTzion from 1709 to 1729. R. Moshe Galante died in Jerusalem in 1689 and is buried in the old Jewish cemetery of the Mount of Olives.
1839-1840
R. Yehuda Bibas is the first rabbi to be known to openly and strongly advocate the Jewish return to the Land of Israel, and he did so long before the formal establishment of the political Zionist movement. Despite his lack of any meaningful success in terms of actual Aliyah and his untimely death, R. Bibas’s ideas and efforts left an indelible mark. His pioneering ideas inspired many who later took up the cause of Jewish restoration in the Land of Israel. ——— R. Yehudah Bibas (1789-1852) was born in Gibraltar to a Sephardic family descending from Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. On his mother’s side, he was the grandson of the illustrious Moroccan rabbi Chayim ben Attar (1696–1743), known as the Or HaChayim after his most famous book. His father’s family was rooted in the Jewish community of Tetuán in Spanish Morocco. After his father's death, R. Bibas moved to Livorno, Italy, where he lived with his grandfather. Livorno, a vibrant hub of Jewish scholarship and culture, shaped his intellectual and spiritual growth. There, he pursued both religious and secular education, earning ordination as a rabbi and certification as a physician. In addition, he developed fluency in multiple languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, and Hebrew, which would eventually allow him to engage with very diverse audiences. Returning to Gibraltar, R. Bibas became a respected leader in the Jewish community and established a yeshiva that attracted students from across the Mediterranean. In 1810, he traveled to London, where he met Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885), a prominent Jewish philanthropist and supporter of Jewish resettlement in Palestine, with whom R. Bibas shared a vision of self-sustaining Jewish revival in the Land of Israel. From 1831 to 1850, R. Bibas served as the rabbi of the Jewish community on the island of Corfu, then part of the Venetian Republic and later under British control. During his tenure, he became deeply disillusioned with the Jewish situation in exile, which he viewed as a desecration of G-d’s name. He began advocating for mass Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel, seeing it as essential for both spiritual and national renewal. Living through the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832), R. Bibas witnessed the successful struggle of the Greeks against Ottoman rule and drew inspiration from their victory. Observing the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, he believed the time was ripe for Jewish self-determination. He proposed that Jews, like the Greeks, could rise and reclaim sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. His ideas were revolutionary for the time, yet he couched them in traditional Jewish terms, aligning them with religious teachings and emphasizing education as a key to national revival. Specifically, R. Bibas expanded the concept of Teshuvah (repentance or “return”) to include a collective return to the Land of Israel. He argued, based on Deuteronomy 30:1-11, that returning to Israel represented a national reconciliation with G-d, just as exile had been a result of the nation’s spiritual estrangement. This redefinition of Teshuvah became a cornerstone of his advocacy for Aliyah. Between 1839 and 1840, R. Bibas embarked on an extensive journey across Europe and North Africa, urging Jewish communities to support resettlement in Palestine. The timing of this journey is very telling as 1840 corresponded to the Hebrew year of 5600, and as such, was imbued with heightened messianic hopes of redemption His mission began in Corfu, traveling to Thessaloniki and then to Belgrade, where he met R. Yehudah Alkalai (1798-1878) in July 1839. During their discussions, R. Bibas cited the teachings of R. Eliyahu, the Vilna Gaon (1720–1797) on Aliyah and the establishment of Jewish settlements. Although R. Alkalai had already written his pioneering tract, Shema Yisrael, in 1832, advocating the return to the Land of Israel, this meeting significantly influenced his thinking. R. Bibas continued his travels, visiting Wallachia and Moldova, where he delivered speeches in cities like Raila and Bucharest. From there, he moved westward, visiting Vienna, Leipzig, Frankfurt, and London. In Livorno, he reconnected with acquaintances from his youth and began planning the next steps of his advocacy. In the winter of 1850, R. Bibas’s wife Rachel passed away, prompting him to accelerate his plans to settle in the Land of Israel. After announcing his resignation as rabbi of Corfu, he embarked on his journey to Palestine via Istanbul. On February 6, 1852, accompanied by two students, he arrived at the port of Jaffa. After spending some time in Jaffa and Jerusalem, R. Bibas settled in Hebron, where he established a yeshivah and built an extensive library. At the time, Hebron’s Jewish community consisted of about 500 people, and his arrival, along with his leadership and extraordinary library, were significant contributions to the city. Tragically, R. Bibas passed away just two months after he arrived in Hebron. He died unexpectedly while delivering a sermon in the synagogue and was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery of Hebron. His writings were lost or destroyed, and with no surviving descendants, much of his legacy relies on his influence on others. Despite his untimely death, R. Bibas’s ideas and efforts left an indelible mark. His vision of a Jewish state rooted in both spiritual renewal and national sovereignty laid the foundation for modern political Zionism.
The 1700s
During the 1700s, Jerusalem was by far the city with the most important Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. This is true quantitatively. It is estimated that around the beginning of the 1700s, the Jewish population in Israel was about 2,000, with about 1500 living in Jerusalem. In turn, by 1800, estimates indicate a Jewish presence of about 7,500 people, of which 5,000 lived in Jerusalem. It is also true qualitatively. Of the 29 known yeshivot operating in the 1700s in the Land of Israel, 24 were located in Jerusalem. In what was a community of scholars, this is a highly significant statistic. Another significant aspect of Jewish life in Jerusalem in the 1700s was the dominant Sephardic presence. The Ashkenazic presence, which was at any rate small, ended in 1720 with their expulsion by the local rulers. The community was only re-established towards the end of the century with the arrival of followers of the Vilna Gaon. The following TIMELINE of Jerusalem in the 1700s is not intended to be comprehensive but rather illustrative. 1700-1750 1700 - Jerusalem was the leading Jewish center in the Land of Israel, and it had about 1500 Jews. 1700 - R. Yehudah HaChasid, from Poland, arrived in Jerusalem with about 1000 followers. 1702 - R. Rovigo of Modena, Italy, a great supporter of the Jews of Israel, settled in Jerusalem. 1702 - R. Raphael Mordechai Malki, a physician and community leader, died in Jerusalem. 1705 - Serious restrictions were imposed against the Jews of Jerusalem. 1708 - The sages of Jerusalem excommunicated R. Nechemia Chayun for his heretical Shabbatean views. 1720 - Arab mobs destroy the Yehudah HaChassid Synagogue and the Ashkenazi courtyard in Jerusalem. Early 1720s - The Sephardic community faced a severe financial crisis as it was held liable for the debts of the Ashkenazic community. 1724 - R. Chaim Yosef David Azulai was born in Jerusalem. c.1724 - R. Tuvia Cohen, aka Dr. Tobias Cohn, moves from Turkey to Jerusalem. 1727 - The Committee of Istanbul Officials for Jerusalem was established to coordinate the financial support of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. 1731 - Karaite Jews, mainly from Damascus, returned to Jerusalem. 1737 - R. Immanuel Rikki, an influential Kabbalist from Italy, moved to Jerusalem. 1737 - The Beth El Yeshiva in Jerusalem, with a unique focus on Jewish mysticism, started operations. 1738 - R. Moshe Chagiz returned to Jerusalem after forty years as an emissary in Europe. Late 1730s - R. Shalom Sharabi moved from Yemen to Jerusalem. 1742 - R. Chaim Ibn Attar from Morocco settled in Jerusalem. 1747 - The recently arrived chassidic leader, R. Gershon of Kitov, relocated from Hebron to Jerusalem. 1750-1799 1751 - R. Shalom Sharabi became the head of Yeshiva Bet El in Jerusalem. 1755 - R. Chaim Yosef David Azulai started his first mission abroad as an emissary on behalf of the Jewish communities. 1757 - R. Abraham Gershom of Kitov returns to Eastern Europe … to remarry. 1764 - A group of Chassidism led by R. Menahem Mendel of Peremyshlyany settled in Jerusalem. 1771 - The Mamluk ruler of Egypt, in alliance with Russia, temporarily took control of Jerusalem. 1773—The Jews of Livorno, Italy, are offered the opportunity to purchase Jerusalem from the Mamluk ruler of Egypt. 1780 - Rabbi David Pardo moves from Sarajevo to Jerusalem. 1782 - The Jewish Cemetery at the Mount of Olives faced new harsh measures. 1799 - The Jews of Jerusalem helped save the city from Napoleon's forces. 1799—Jerusalem continued to be the foremost Jewish center in the Land of Israel, now with about 5,000 Jews.
1780
Hailing from an Iberian family, R. David Pardo moved to Jerusalem in 1780 after serving for decades in several communities in the Balkans. R. Pardo distinguished himself by a unique focus on the literature of the period of the Tannaim, that is, the period until the end of the second century of the Common Era.