Fifteenth to Seventeenth-Century CE Hebrew Epitaphs from the Jewish Cemetery at Ẓefat (Safed)

More than 100 previously undocumented Hebrew epitaphs (many of them fragmentary) dating from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century were uncovered in the ancient Jewish cemetery of Ẓefat (Safed) through the initiative of the Safed Religious Council. This is by far the largest corpus of ancient Hebrew inscriptions found in one site in Israel. Information gleaned from the engraved names of the deceased attests to a diverse and vibrant Jewish community that existed in the city during these centuries, according with accounts in other historical sources. The study of the epitaphs enriches our knowledge concerning,for example, the existence of certified physicians in Ẓefat and the presence of an unrecorded yeshiva (Talmudic Academy). Interestingly, most of the deceased were honored by the addition of formal titles, such as ‘Rabbi,’ for men, and ‘Dona,’ for women. This study describes in detail 28 of the most complete and legible epitaphs, attesting to a wide range of local and foreign Jewish ethnicities.