1575 Safed-Jerusalem

Safed’s supremacy found further expression in the highly irregular step of intervention by the heads of its kehillah in matters related to the Jerusalem community’s internal affairs. In the sixteenth century’s third quarter, Joseph Caro himself was directly involved in raising funds to assist the Jerusalem community. This is borne out by a letter propagandizing for assistance for the said community signed by the Jewish notables of Mantua in 1575:

We have marked the plight of the cherished sons of Zion and their moaning and have seen their distress, the hardships and straits that press on them. We have seen written in a letter that is before us, and as is the case for all truthful writings, it is signed and endorsed by all the notables… among them the most eminent among the rabbis of our people, Rabbi Joseph Caro, may he live long. They will surely testify to the needs of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, may it be speedily rebuilt. For almost all of them are poverty-stricken, miserable, and destitute by dint of their [financial] burdens. [David, “Emissaries’ Letters from Jerusalem,” 329-30]

Source: David, Abraham. To Come to the Land. (p. 136)