A Word about Safed - the city of the Zines' family heritage.

SAFED
 According to tradition, Tzefat (Safed, Israel) was founded in the year 70 of the Common Era.  The city has since come to be considered one of the four holiest cities in Judaism, along with Jerusalem, Hebron, and Tiberias.  Much of Safed's present character, however, came about relatively recently - in the sixteenth century - when Jewish mystics and other religious scholars moved to Safed, in order to escape the Spanish Inquisition in Europe. They gave Safed its present distinction as the world center for Jewish mysticism - Kabballah. Indeed, Safed today is an artists' colony and Kabballah center, and one can see and feel signs of intense spirituality throughout the city.

Safed is also historically significant for another reason: Asia's very first printing press was installed in Safed, and in 1578, the first Hebrew book printed in Israel came out of Safed. Rabbis and students from all over the Jewish world flocked to the city, and the old cobblestone streets resounded with prayer and study. In the yeshivas and synagogues, texts and commentaries were written and were eventually printed in Safed. Many of the Rabbis and Sages were buried in the old cemetery of Safed, and graves of Talmudic sages have been discovered in the mountains and forests around the city. These burial places have become revered pilgrimage sites.

The old streets and lanes of Safed have survived to this day. Dozens of synagogues and yeshivas still operate in the Old City.  Safed is undergoing a massive restoration, including the ancient cemetery, which has 100,000 tombs.  On the night of the new moon, the beginning of the Jewish month, hundreds of memorial candles are lit throughout the cemetery and pilgrims throng to the graves for a night of prayer, immersion in the ancient ritual bath, and supplication.

Mid-August, Safed annually hosts the International Klezmer Festival. Klezmer, the music of the  Eastern European 'shtetl' is the music of the Jewish soul.  Yet it speaks to one and all, to both religious and secular Jews, to Japanese, Koreans and Americans," says Hannan Bar Sella, artistic director of Safed's Klezmer Festival.  Leading Klezmer artists come from all over the world to participate and perform in the many nightly concerts offered throughout the ancient city in both open-air performances as well as in the city's beautiful synagogues.

We are grateful and give thanks for the tremendous research done by Dr. Marshall Segal of Chicago who formatted the Zines family tree in the early 90s.  It took Dr. Segal over one and a half years for the gathering of the data to complete the tree, by personally contacting all branches of our family by mailing letters as well as calling family members by telephone.  In 1992, Dr. Segal printed up a graphic genealogical chart of the family tree, taking up 50 contiguous sheets of paper and this family tree chart was mailed out to many Zines family members throughout the world.  Dr. Segal did this work as a celebration of the Bat Mizvah of his daughter Garron Segal, on November 14, 1992.

In 2007, Laurence Davis, the initial administrator of the Zines family tree, transferred the graphic printed chart to an Internet site so that it would be easily accessible to all of our family members throughout the world.  In late-2007 we had over 1,260 names in our tree; now in 2023, we have 1,871 Zines family names. To keep the tree alive we urgently need YOUR help by staying in touch and sending us all your family news items as soon as you can, such as births/marriage/divorce/death, with details of names, place and date.

Sadly I have to announce the passing of Laurence on 23rd April 2015.  Max Wald, with the blessing of Marshall Segal, has taken on the role of administrator as of 12th June 2015. Please forward any additions or alterations or news directly to Max at: max.wald@bigpond.com

Thank you