‘Isfiya; Husifah Complete

Description

Ancient burials within the village and numismatic evidence attest to an early Jewish presence on Mount Carmel, roughly 12 km southeast of Haifa. Among the finds is a hoard of 4,560 silver coins, the latest of which dates to 52–53 CE. The settlement, occupied in the Roman–Byzantine period, is known to have been destroyed, a calamity remembered in a Hebrew elegy preserved in the Cairo Genizah. In 1933, the remains of its synagogue were excavated by Naim Makhouly and Michael Avi-Yonah. Further reading: M. Avi-Yonah, “Husifah,” in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, 1993, pp. 637–638. https://synagogues.kinneret.ac.il/synagogues/isfiya/