Four Holy Cities


The Four Holy Cities is the collective term in early modern Jewish tradition applied to the cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias, the four main centers of Jewish life after the Ottoman conquest of Palestine. The concept dates from the 1640s, when the Jewish communities of these cities organized an association for fundraising.
The "holy cities" concept dates to the 1640s, with Tiberias joining in 1740, resulting from the creation of an association between the cities for the collection of halukka.
According to the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia: "Since the sixteenth century the Holiness of Palestine, especially for burial, has been almost wholly transferred to four cities—Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed."