title: Surf Curse

text: The band established a growing Los Angeles fanbase, allowing them to play at the October 2016 Beach Goth Festival before an audience that included non-local attendees. Their second album, "Nothing Yet", was released in January 2017 through Danger Collective. Rattigan and Rubeck described "Nothing Yet" as reflecting their lifelong influence by movies, saying that the song "The Strange and the Kind" could fit on the soundtrack of a modern "Dazed and Confused". The band remained somewhat successful, albeit underground, through the 2019 release of their third album, "Heaven Surrounds You". This third album was praised for Rattigan's vocals and its lead track "Disco", with its fast pace compared favorably to Vampire Weekend's debut, but criticized for reliance on clichés within its lyrics. The lyrics of the album's final song "Jamie" and its repeated line of "I love the people in my life, all my friends keep me alive" have been identified as particularly moving.


title: Surf Curse

text: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns in 2020, Surf Curse were unable to continue performing live. However, in 2020, the song "Freaks" began drawing attention on the short-form video platform TikTok. The song's angsty lyrics, particularly "I am just a freak", made it compatible with TikTok meme formats that played it in the background. "Freaks" has been described as a "soundtrack [for] whatever you're cringing about", though its second life on TikTok has been distinguished from other songs that saw a resurgence on the app. Generally, songs that received renewed interest through TikTok were recently featured in movies of television shows, unlike the rather obscurity that "Freaks" had previously enjoyed. Rattigan said he would have also been happy with the song gaining traction had it been featured on the soundtrack to the upcoming film ""; Rubeck joked that the unusual variety of videos featuring the song—including gardening tutorials and thirst traps—meant they "had to just stop watching them". The two said that they neither understood nor used TikTok.


title: Surf Curse

text: The popularity of "Freaks" came almost simultaneously with accusations that both Rattigan and Rubeck engaged in sexual misconduct with fans. Danger Collective severed ties with Surf Curse at the time of the allegations. An anonymous allegation against Rubeck was retracted and two against Rattigan were similarly deleted; both band members denied the allegations. In August 2020, Rubeck stated: "There hasn't been a moment in my life that even comes close to what was described in that post." The allegations were made around the same time that Burger Records, which had organized the 2016 Goth Beach Festival, folded during a wave of similar allegations in the Southern California punk scene.


title: Surf Curse

text: After being rereleased as a single in May 2021 following the band signing with Atlantic Records, "Freaks" reached number 64 on the UK Singles Chart and number 17 on "Billboard" Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, eight years after it first appeared on "Buds". The song is RIAA certified Platinum and, , has more than 650 million streams. "Billboard" recognized Surf Curse as the second-ranked artists of 2021 in their category New Rock Artists.


title: Surf Curse

text: Following their signing to Atlantic Records, Surf Curse added bassist Henry Dillon and guitarist Noah Kholl to their lineup. Both Dillon and Kholl had toured with the band pre-pandemic; Rattigan said of adding them: "I think the sort of the connection that me and Jacob felt with each other when we started the band, we also felt with Noah and Henry." As a now four-member band, Surf Curse released "Magic Hour" in 2022. As with their other album covers that featured the band members, all four are featured on the cover art of the album. The album's release had been preceded by the band performing at Coachella in "Wizard of Oz"–themed attire and the launch of the album's lead single "Sugar". The band began their North America tour for "Magic Hour" with a concert in Las Vegas on 30 October 2022 where each band member was dressed as a different iteration of Elvis Presley. "Magic Hour" was received positively by critics, who identified its lyrics as more creative and a positive evolution of the band's sound and talent.


title: Surf Curse

text: Surf Curse's music has been described as surf rock, lo-fi, garage pop, surf punk, post-punk, surf pop, indie rock, indie pop, and jangle pop. The band's live performances have been characterized as "bedlam" and "bonkers", with Rattigan saying that a particularly energetic set at Pappy & Harriet's resulted in the venue banning the band.


title: English language in Europe

text: The English language in Europe, as a native language, is mainly spoken in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Outside of these states, it has official status in Malta, the Crown Dependencies (the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey), Gibraltar and the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (two of the British Overseas Territories). In the Kingdom of the Netherlands, English has an official status as a regional language on the isles of Saba and Sint Eustatius (located in the Caribbean). In other parts of Europe, English is spoken mainly by those who have learnt it as a second language, but also, to a lesser extent, natively by some expatriates from some countries in the English-speaking world.


title: English language in Europe

text: The English language is the de facto official language of England, the sole official language of Gibraltar and of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, and one of the official languages of the Republic of Ireland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the European Union.


title: English language in Europe

text: The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland form a "European Anglosphere" with an area of about and a population of over 71 million.


title: English language in Europe

text: According to a survey published in 2006, 13% of EU citizens then spoke English as their native language. Another 38% of EU citizens then stated that they had sufficient English skills to hold a conversation, so the total reach of English in the EU in 2006 was 51%.


title: English language in Europe

text: European English is known by a number of colloquial portmanteau words, including: "Eurolish" (first recorded in 1979), "Eurish" (1993) and "Eurlish" (2006).


title: English language in Europe

text: English is descended from the language spoken by the Germanic tribes of the German Bight along the southern coast of the North Sea, the Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes. According to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", around 449 AD, Vortigern, King of the Britons, issued an invitation to the "Angle kin" (Angles, led by Hengest and Horsa), to help him against the Picts. In return, the Angles were granted lands in the South-East. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles and Jutes). The Chronicle documents the subsequent influx of settlers who eventually established seven kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex and Wessex.


title: English language in Europe

text: These Germanic invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants. The dialects spoken by these invaders formed what would be called Old English, which was also strongly influenced by another Germanic language, Old East Norse, spoken by Danish Viking invaders who settled mainly in the North-East. English, England and East Anglia are derived from words referring to the Angles: "Englisc", "Angelcynn" and "Englaland".


title: English language in Europe

text: For 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Anglo-Norman language was the language of administration and few Kings of England spoke English. A large number of French words were absorbed into Old English, which also lost most of its inflections, resulting in Middle English. Around the year 1500, the Great Vowel Shift marked the transformation of Middle English into Modern English.


title: English language in Europe

text: The most famous surviving work from Old English is "Beowulf"; the most famous Middle English work being Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales".


title: English language in Europe

text: The rise of Modern English began around the fifteenth century, with Early Modern English reaching its literary pinnacle at the time of William Shakespeare. Some scholars divide Early Modern English and Late Modern English at around 1800, in concert with the British conquest of much of the rest of the world, as the influence of native languages affected English enormously.


title: English language in Europe

text: English belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest undoubted living relatives of English are Scots and the Frisian languages. West Frisian is spoken by approximately half a million people in the Dutch province of Friesland (Fryslân). Saterland Frisian is spoken in nearby areas of Germany. North Frisian is spoken on the North Frisian Islands in the North Sea. While native English speakers are generally able to read Scots, except for some odd unfamiliar words, Frisian is largely unintelligible (though it was much closer to modern English's predecessors, Middle English and especially Old English).


title: English language in Europe

text: After Scots and Frisian, the next closest relative is the modern Low German language of the eastern Netherlands and northern Germany, which was the old homeland of the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain. Other less closely related living languages include Dutch, German, and the North Germanic languages. Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker, as English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from the Norman language after the Norman conquest, and French in later centuries; as a result, a substantial proportion of English vocabulary is very close to French, with some slight spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.) and some occasional shifts in meaning.


title: English language in Europe

text: The second English dominion was Ireland. With the arrival of the Normans in Ireland in 1169, King Henry II of England gained Irish lands and the fealty of many native Gaelic nobles. By the 14th century, however, English rule was largely limited to the area around Dublin known as the Pale. English influence on the country waned during this period to the point that the English-dominated Parliament was driven to legislate that any Irish of English descent must speak English (requiring those that did not know English to learn it) through the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1367.


title: English language in Europe

text: English rule expanded in the 16th century by the Tudor conquest of Ireland, leading the Gaelic order to collapse at the start of the 17th century. The Flight of the Earls in 1607 paved the way for the Plantation of Ulster and a deepening of the English language culture in Ireland. The Cromwellian Plantation and suppression of Catholicism, including both native Irish and the "Old English" (those of Anglo-Norman descent), further cemented English influence across the country.


title: English language in Europe

text: As the centuries passed and the social conditions in Ireland deteriorated, culminating in the Great Irish Famine, Irish parents didn't speak Irish to their children as they knew that the children might have to emigrate and Irish would be of no use outside the home country, in Britain, the United States, Australia or Canada. In addition, the introduction of universal state education in the national schools from 1831 proved a powerful vector for the transmission of English as a home language, with the greatest retreat of the Irish language occurring in the period between 1850 and 1900.


title: English language in Europe

text: By the 20th century, Ireland had a centuries-old history of diglossia. English was the prestige language while the Irish language was associated with poverty and disfranchisement. Accordingly, some Irish people who spoke both Irish and English refrained from speaking to their children in Irish, or, in extreme cases, feigned the inability to speak Irish themselves. Despite state support for the Irish language in the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland) after independence, Irish continued to retreat, the economic marginality of many Irish-speaking areas (see Gaeltacht) being a primary factor. For this reason Irish is spoken as a mother tongue by only a very small number of people on the island of Ireland. Irish has been a compulsory subject in schools in the Republic since the 1920s and proficiency in Irish was until the mid-1980s required for all government jobs.


title: English language in Europe

text: It may be noted, however, that certain Irish words (especially those germane to political and civic life) in the Republic and are rarely, if ever, translated into English. These include the names of legislative bodies (such as Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann), government positions such as Taoiseach and Tánaiste, of the elected representative(s) in the Dáil (Teachta Dála), and political parties (such as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael). Ireland's police force, the Garda Síochána, are referred to as "the Gardaí", or "the Guards" for short. Irish appears on government forms, euro-currency, and postage stamps, in traditional music and in media promoting folk culture. Irish placenames are still common for houses, streets, villages, and geographic features, especially the thousands of townlands. But with these important exceptions, and despite the presence of Irish loan words in Hiberno-English, Ireland is today largely an English-speaking country. Fluent or native Irish speakers are a minority in the most of the country, with Irish remaining as a vernacular mainly in the relatively small Gaeltacht regions, and most Irish speakers also have fluent English.


title: English language in Europe

text: At the time of partition, English had become the first language of the vast majority in Northern Ireland. It had small elderly Irish-speaking populations in the Sperrin Mountains as well as in the northern Glens of Antrim and Rathlin Island. There were also pockets of Irish speakers in the southernmost part of County Armagh. All of these Irish speakers were bilingual and chose to speak English to their children, and thus these areas of Northern Ireland are now entirely English-speaking. However, in the 2000s a Gaeltacht Quarter was established in Belfast to drive inward investment as a response to a notable level of public interest in learning Irish and the expansion of Irish-medium education (predominantly attended by children whose home language is English) since the 1970s. In recent decades, some Nationalists in Northern Ireland have used it as a means of promoting an Irish identity. However, the amount of interest from Unionists remains low, particularly since the 1960s. About 165,000 people in Northern Ireland have some knowledge of Irish. Ability varies; 64,847 people stated they could understand, speak, read and write Irish in the 2011 UK census, the majority of whom have learnt it as a second language. Otherwise, except for place names and folk music, English is effectively the sole language of Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement specifically acknowledges the position both of Irish and of Ulster Scots in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland.


title: English language in Europe

text: Anglic speakers were actually established in Lothian by the 7th century, but remained confined there, and indeed contracted slightly to the advance of the Gaelic language. However, during the 12th and 13th centuries, Norman landowners and their retainers, were invited to settle by the king. It is probable that many of their retainers spoke a northern form of Middle English, although probably French was more common. Most of the evidence suggests that English spread into Scotland via the burgh, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. Incoming burghers were mainly English (especially from Northumbria, and the Earldom of Huntingdon), Flemish and French. Although the military aristocracy employed French and Gaelic, these small urban communities appear to have been using English as something more than a "lingua franca" by the end of the 13th century. English appeared in Scotland for the first time in literary form in the mid-14th century, when its form unsurprisingly differed little from other northern English dialects. As a consequence of the outcome of the Wars of Independence though, the English of Lothian who lived under the King of Scots had to accept Scottish identity. The growth in prestige of English in the 14th century, and the complementary decline of French in Scotland, made English the prestige language of most of eastern Scotland.


title: English language in Europe

text: Thus, from the end of the 14th century, and certainly by the end of the 15th century, Scotland began to show a split into two cultural areasthe mainly English or Scots Lowlands, and the mainly Gaelic-speaking Highlands (which then could be thought to include Galloway and Carrick; see Galwegian Gaelic). This caused divisions in the country where the Lowlands remained, historically, more influenced by the English to the south: the Lowlands lay more open to attack by invading armies from the south and absorbed English influence through their proximity to and their trading relations with their southern neighbours.


title: English language in Europe

text: In 1603 the Scottish King James VI inherited the throne of England, and became James I of England. James moved to London and only returned once to Scotland. By the time of James VI's accession to the English throne the old Scottish Court and Parliament spoke Scots. Scots developed from the Anglian spoken in the Northumbrian kingdom of Bernicia, which in the 6th century conquered the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and renamed its capital of Din Eidyn to Edinburgh (see the etymology of Edinburgh). Scots continues to heavily influence the spoken English of the Scottish people today. It is much more similar to dialects in the north of England than to 'British' English, even today. The introduction of King James Version of the Bible into Scottish churches also was a blow to the Scots language, since it used Southern English forms.


title: English language in Europe

text: In 1707 the Scottish and English Parliaments signed a Treaty of Union. Implementing the treaty involved dissolving both the English and the Scottish Parliaments, and transferring all their powers to a new Parliament in London which then became the British Parliament. A customs and currency union also took place. With this, Scotland's position was consolidated within the United Kingdom.


title: English language in Europe

text: Today, almost all residents of Scotland speak English, although many speak various dialects of Scots which differ markedly from Scottish Standard English. Approximately 2% of the population use Scottish Gaelic as their language of everyday use, primarily in the northern and western regions of the country. Virtually all Scottish Gaelic speakers also speak fluent English.


title: English language in Europe

text: In 1282 Edward I of England defeated Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Wales's last independent prince, in battle. Edward followed the practice used by his Norman predecessors in their subjugation of the English, and constructed a series of great stone castles in order to control Wales, thus preventing further military action against England by the Welsh. With ‘English’ political control at this time came Anglo-Norman customs and language; English did not displace Welsh as the majority language of the Welsh people until the anti-Welsh language campaigns, which began towards the end of the 19th century (54% spoke Welsh in 1891; see Welsh language). The Welsh language is currently spoken by about one-fifth of the population. It has been enjoying support from the authorities for some decades, resulting in a revival, and is in a healthy position in many parts of Wales.


title: English language in Europe

text: The bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are two Crown Dependencies. Besides English, some (very few) inhabitants of these islands speak regional languages, or those related to French (such as Jèrriais, Dgèrnésiais and Sercquiais).


title: English language in Europe

text: In 1914 the Ottoman Empire declared war against the United Kingdom and France as part of the complex series of alliances that led to World War I. The British then annexed Cyprus on 2 November 1914 as part of the British Empire, making the Cypriots British subjects. On 5 November 1914 the British and the French declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Most of Cyprus gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, with the UK, Greece and Turkey retaining limited rights to intervene in internal affairs. Parts of the island were excluded from the territory of the new independent republic and remain under UK control. These zones are what are known as the Sovereign Base Areas or SBAs.


title: English language in Europe

text: The British colonial history of Cyprus has left Cypriots with a good level of English but it is no longer an official language in either the Greek south side of the island, formally known as the Republic of Cyprus or the Turkish north, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus though English remains official in the SBAs. Since the effective partition of the island in 1974, Greek and Turkish Cypriots have had little opportunity or inclination to learn the others' language, and are more likely to talk to each other in English. Older Turkish Cypriots who worked or lived with Greek Cypriots prior to partition often speak Greek quite fluently. Indeed, many Ottoman soldiers took Greek wives and were allowed to marry up to four.


title: English language in Europe

text: English is also commonly used on Cyprus to communicate with foreign visitors. The large number of British tourists (and other, largely Northern European ones, who use English as a "lingua franca") who visit Cyprus regularly has contributed largely to the continued use of English on Cyprus, especially in its thriving tourist industry.


title: English language in Europe

text: After independence in the 1960s there was some attempt to encourage French, which was still the most important European language. This policy would have been in line with that in place in Greece at the time. Furthermore, in the 1960s, affluent French-speaking tourists (both from France and Lebanon) in terms of percentage were more important than today. Overall though, the French policy was indicative of a desire to distance Cyprus from the former British colonial power, against which a bitter war of independence had recently been fought and won.


title: English language in Europe

text: However, knowledge of English is helped by the large Cypriot migrant communities in the UK and Australia, leading to diffusion of culture and language back to their country of origin, and negative sentiments towards the UK have waned or disappeared. There is now a large British expatriate population, in addition to the British military presence in the Sovereign Base Areas, as well as the UN buffer zone, whose peacekeepers usually also use English as a "lingua franca". All of the above maintains an English-speaking presence on the island.


title: English language in Europe

text: Gibraltar has been a British overseas territory since an Anglo-Dutch force led by Sir George Rooke seized "The Rock" in 1704 and Spain ceded the territory in perpetuity to Great Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.


title: English language in Europe

text: The territory's Gibraltarian inhabitants have a rich cultural heritage as a result of the mix of the neighbouring Andalusian population with immigrants from Great Britain, Genoa, Malta, Portugal, Morocco and India.


title: English language in Europe

text: The vernacular language of the territory is Llanito. It consists of a mix of Andalusian Spanish and British English as well as languages such as Maltese, Portuguese, Genoese and Haketia. Even though Andalusian Spanish is the main constituent of Llanito, it is also heavily influenced by British English, involving a certain amount of code-switching into English.


title: English language in Europe

text: English remains the sole official language, used by Government. It is also the medium of instruction in schools and most Gibraltarians who go on to tertiary education do so in the UK. Gibraltar receives Spanish television and radio, and British television is also widely available via satellite. Whereas a century ago, most Gibraltarians were monolingual Spanish speakers, the majority is now naturally bilingual in English and Spanish.


title: English language in Europe

text: The Isle of Man is a Crown Dependency. English and Manx Gaelic are the two official languages.. The last native speaker of Manx, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974. All inhabitants of the Isle of Man speak English.


title: English language in Europe

text: In 1814, Malta became part of the British Empire, under the terms of the Treaty of Vienna. Prior to the arrival of the British, the language of the educated Maltese elite had been Italian, and all legal statutes, taxation, education and clerical discourses were conducted either in Italian or in Latin.


title: English language in Europe

text: However, this was increasingly downgraded by the increased use of English. The British began scripting and codifying Maltesehitherto an unscripted vernacular in or around 1868. From this point on, the Maltese language gradually gained currency as the main language on the islands, its grammars and conventions evolving in a mix between Italian, Arabic and English.


title: English language in Europe

text: Between the 1870s and 1930s, Malta had three official languages, Italian, Maltese and English, but in 1934, English and Maltese were declared the sole official languages. The British associated Italian with the Benito Mussolini regime in Italy, which had made territorial claims on the islands, although the use of Italian by nationalists was more out of cultural affinities with Italy than any sympathy with Italian Fascism. With the outbreak of World War II, the Maltese lost their sense of fraternity with the Italian world, and there was a decline in Italian spoken in Malta.


title: English language in Europe

text: English remains an official language in Malta, but since independence in 1964, the country's cultural and commercial links with Italy have strengthened, owing to proximity. Italian television is widely received in Malta and is highly popular.


title: English language in Europe

text: Like Gibraltar, Menorca was ceded to Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht, although as it transpired this was to be a temporary dominion. Nevertheless, while under British Control Menorca become the Royal Navy's main Mediterranean base and English has been very widely spoken throughout Menorca ever since. Although not an official language, English tends to be used on much public signage for the benefit of tourists and expatriates, alongside Castilian Spanish and Menorcan Catalan.


title: English language in Europe

text: There are also pockets of native English speakers to be found throughout Europe, such as in southern Spain, France, Algarve in Portugal, as well as numerous US and British military bases in Germany. There are communities of native English speakers in some European cities outside the UK and Ireland, such as Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, and Vienna.


title: English language in Europe

text: In Luxembourg, a trilingual country, there was a proposal in 2019 to make English an official language, but this ultimately failed to get the required minimum number of signatures to be discussed by the parliament. In 2021, a similar proposal was made, which failed to meet the 4500 minimum signatures.


title: English language in Europe

text: In 2020, two English-language courts opened in Stuttgart and Mannheim, in the land of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. According to a spokesperson of the xxxx, all judges in of the Stuttgart Commercial Court and the Mannheim Commercial Court will be able to conduct hearings in the English language. The courts have been created with the intent of settling international disputes, thus increasing the role of Germany in international commercial law.


title: English language in Europe

text: In 2021, Juhana Vartiainen, then mayor of Helsinki, proposed to elevate English as an official language in Finland. He cited the difficulty typically encountered by foreigners in learning Finnish and the aim of making Helsinki more attractive to international talent.


title: English language in Europe

text: Throughout Europe, tourism, publishing, finance, computers and related industries rely heavily on English due to Anglophone trade ties. Air traffic control and shipping movements are almost all conducted in English.


title: English language in Europe

text: In areas of Europe where English is not the first language, there are many examples of the mandated primacy of English: for example, in many European companies, such as Airbus, Philips, Renault, Volvo, etc. have designated English to be the language of communication for their senior management, and many universities are offering education in English. The language is also a required subject in most European countries. Thus, the percentage of English speakers is expected to rise.


title: English language in Europe

text: Euro English or European English, less commonly known as EU English and EU Speak, is a pidgin dialect of English based on the technical jargon of the European Union and the native languages of its non-native English speaking population.


title: English language in Europe

text: English is the most commonly spoken foreign language in 19 out of 25 European Union countries (excluding the UK and Ireland)


title: English language in Europe

text: In the EU25, working knowledge of English as a foreign language is clearly leading at 38%, followed by German and French (at 14% each), Russian and Spanish (at 6% each), and Italian (3%).


title: English language in Europe

text: "Very good" knowledge of English is particularly high in Malta (52%), Denmark (44%), Cyprus (42%) and Sweden (40%).


title: English language in Europe

text: Working knowledge varies a lot between European countries. It is very high in Malta, Cyprus and Denmark but low in Russia, Spain (12%), Hungary (14%), Italy (5%) and Slovakia (14%). On average in 2012, 38% of citizens of the European Union (excluding the United Kingdom and Ireland) stated that they have sufficient knowledge of English to have a conversation in this language.


title: English language in Europe

text: English has become the pre-eminent second language of Europe in the absence of any colonial history or diaspora, but rather as a concerted effort to increase fluency in English by Europeans since the Second World War. English has become the most useful language to connect different language groups in Europe. The impact of Brexit on EU language policy remains to be seen, but it is possible that the EU, in retaining English as a key working language without the dominant presence of British English speakers, would claim ownership over its own variety of English and develop it for its own needs.


title: Safed

text: Safed (known in Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת "Tsfat", Ashkenazi Hebrew: "Tzfas", Biblical Hebrew: "Ṣǝp̄aṯ"; , "Ṣafad"), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel.


title: Safed

text: Safed has been identified with "Sepph," a fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus. The Jerusalem Talmud mentions Safed as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period. Safed attained local prominence under the Crusaders, who built a large fortress there in 1168. It was conquered by Saladin 20 years later, and demolished by his grandnephew al-Mu'azzam Isa in 1219. After reverting to the Crusaders in a treaty in 1240, a larger fortress was erected, which was expanded and reinforced in 1268 by the Mamluk sultan Baybars, who developed Safed into a major town and the capital of a new province spanning the Galilee. After a century of general decline, the stability brought by the Ottoman conquest in 1517 ushered in nearly a century of growth and prosperity in Safed, during which time Jewish immigrants from across Europe developed the city into a center for wool and textile production and the mystical Kabbalah movement. It became known as one of the Four Holy Cities of Judaism. As the capital of the Safad Sanjak, it was the main population center of the Galilee, with large Muslim and Jewish communities.


title: Safed

text: Besides the fortunate governorship of Fakhr al-Din II in the early 17th century, the city underwent a general decline and was eclipsed by Acre by the mid-18th century. Its Jewish residents were targeted in Druze and local Muslim raids in the 1830s, and most of them perished in an earthquake in that same decade. Safed's conditions improved considerably in the late 19th century, with its municipal council founded along with a number of banks, though the city's jurisdiction was limited to the Upper Galilee. Its population reached 24,000 toward the end of the century; it was a mixed city, divided roughly equally between Jews and Muslims with a small Christian community. Its Muslim merchants played a key role as middlemen in the grain trade between the local farmers and the traders of Acre, while the Ottomans promoted the city as a center of Sunni jurisprudence. Through the philanthropy of Moses Montefiore, its Jewish synagogues and homes were rebuilt. Around the start of British Mandatory rule, in 1922, Safed's population had dropped to around 8,700, roughly 60% Muslim, 33% Jewish and the remainder Christians. Amid rising ethnic tension throughout Palestine, Safed's Jews were attacked in an Arab riot in 1929. The city's population had risen to 13,700 by 1948, overwhelmingly Arab, though the city was proposed to be part of a Jewish state in the 1947 UN Partition Plan. During the 1948 war, Jewish paramilitary forces captured the city after heavy fighting, precipitating the flight of all of Safed's Palestinian Arabs, such that today the city has an almost exclusively Jewish population.


title: Safed

text: Safed has a large Haredi community and remains a center for Jewish religious studies. Due to its high elevation, the city has warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters. Its mild climate and scenic views have made Safed a popular holiday resort frequented by Israelis and foreign visitors. In it had a population of .


title: Safed

text: Legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah after the Great Flood. According to the Book of Judges (), the area where Safed is located was assigned to the tribe of Naphtali.


title: Safed

text: It has been suggested that Jesus' assertion that "a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden" may have referred to Safed.


title: Safed

text: Safed has been identified with "Sepph," a fortified town in the Upper Galilee mentioned in the writings of the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus. Safed is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as one of five elevated spots where fires were lit to announce the New Moon and festivals during the Second Temple period.


title: Safed

text: There is scarce information about Safed before the Crusader conquest. A document from the Cairo Geniza, composed in 1034, mentions a transaction made in Tiberias in 1023 by a certain Jew, Musa ben Hiba ben Salmun with the "nisba" (Arabic descriptive suffix) "al-Safati" (of Safed), indicating the presence of a Jewish community living alongside Muslims in Safed in the 11th century. According to the Muslim historian Ibn Shaddad (d. 1285), at the beginning of the 12th century, a "flourishing village" beneath a tower called Burj Yatim had existed at the site of Safed on the eve of the Crusaders' capture of the area in 1101–1102 and that "nothing" about the village was mentioned in "the early Islamic history books". Although Ibn Shaddad mistakenly attributes the tower's construction to the Knights Templar, the modern historian Ronnie Ellenblum asserts that the tower was likely built during the early Muslim period (mid-7th–11th centuries).


title: Safed

text: The Frankish chronicler William of Tyre noted the presence of a "burgus" (tower) in Safed, which he called "Castrum Saphet" or "Sephet", in 1157. Safed was the seat of a "castellany" (area governed by a castle) by at least 1165, when its "castellan" (appointed castle governor) was Fulk, constable of Tiberias. The castle of Safed was purchased from Fulk by King Amalric of Jerusalem in 1168. He subsequently reinforced the castle and transferred it to the Templars in the same year. Theoderich the Monk, describing his visit to the area in 1172, noted that the expanded fortification of the castle of Safed was meant to check the raids of the Turks (the Turkic Zengid dynasty ruled the area east of the Kingdom). Testifying to the considerable expansion of the castle, the chronicler Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) wrote that it was practically built anew. The remains of Fulk's castle can now be found under the citadel excavations, on a hill above the old city.


title: Safed

text: In the estimation of modern historian Havré Barbé, the "castellany" of Safed comprised approximately . According to Barbé, its western boundary straddled the domains of Acre, including the fief of St. George de la Beyne, which included Sajur and Beit Jann, and the fief of Geoffrey le Tor, which included Akbara and Hurfeish, and in the southwest ran north of Maghar and Sallama. Its northern boundary was marked by the Nahal Dishon (Wadi al-Hindaj) stream, its southern boundary was likely formed near Wadi al-Amud, separating it from the fief of Tiberias, while its eastern limits were the marshes of the Hula Valley and upper Jordan Valley. There were several Jewish communities in the "castellany" of Safed, as testified in the accounts of Jewish pilgrims and chroniclers between 1120 and 1293. Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the town in 1170, does not record any Jews living in Safed proper.


title: Safed

text: Safed was captured by the Ayyubids led by Sultan Saladin in 1188 after a month-long siege, following the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Saladin ultimately allowed its residents to relocate to Tyre. He granted Safed and Tiberias as an "iqta" (akin to a fief) to Sa'd al-Din Mas'ud ibn Mubarak (d. 1211), the son of his niece, after which it was bequeathed to Sa'd al-Din's son Ahmad. Samuel ben Samson, who visited the town in 1210, mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there. He also noted that two Muslims guarded and maintained the cave tomb of a rabbi, Hanina ben Horqano, in Safed. The "iqta" of Safed was taken from the family of Sa'd al-Din by the Ayyubid emir of Damascus, al-Mu'azzam Isa, in 1217. Two years later, during the Crusader siege of Damietta, al-Mu'azzam Isa had the Safed castle demolished to prevent its capture and reuse by potential future Crusaders.


title: Safed

text: As an outcome of the treaty negotiations between the Crusader leader Theobald I of Navarre and the Ayyubid emir of Damascus, al-Salih Isma'il, in 1240 Safed once again passed to Crusader control. Afterward, the Templars were tasked with rebuilding the town's fortress, with efforts spearheaded by Benoît d'Alignan, Bishop of Marseille. The rebuilding is recorded in a short treatise, "De constructione castri Saphet", from the early 1260s. The reconstruction was completed at the considerable expense of 40,000 bezants in 1243. The new fortress was larger than the original, with a capacity for 2,200 soldiers in time of war, and with a resident force of 1,700 in peacetime. The garrison's goods and services were provided by the town or large village growing rapidly beneath the fortress, which, according to Benoit's account, contained a market, "numerous inhabitants" and was protected by the fortress. The settlement also benefited from trade with travelers on the route between Acre and the Jordan Valley, which passed through Safed.


title: Safed

text: The Ayyubids of Egypt had been supplanted by the Mamluks in 1250 and the Mamluk sultan Baybars entered Syria with his army in 1261. Thereafter, he led a series of campaigns over several years against Crusader strongholds across the Syrian coastal mountains. Safed, with its position overlooking the Jordan River and allowing the Crusaders early warnings of Muslim troop movements in the area, had been a consistent aggravation for the Muslim regional powers. After a six-week siege, Baybars captured Safed in July 1266, after which he had nearly the entire garrison killed. The siege occurred during a Mamluk military campaign to subdue Crusader strongholds in Palestine and followed a failed attempt to capture the Crusaders' coastal stronghold of Acre. Unlike the Crusader fortresses along the coastline, which were demolished upon their capture by the Mamluks, Baybars spared the fortress of Safed. He likely preserved it because of the strategic value stemming from its location on a high mountain and its isolation from other Crusader fortresses. Moreover, Baybars determined that in the event of a renewed Crusader invasion of the coastal region, a strongly fortified Safed could serve as an ideal headquarters to confront the Crusader threat. In 1268, he had the fortress repaired, expanded and strengthened. He commissioned numerous building works in the town of Safed, including caravanserais, markets and baths, and converted the town's church into a mosque. The mosque, called Jami al-Ahmar (the Red Mosque), was completed in 1275. By the end of Baybars's reign, Safed had developed into a prosperous town and fortress.


title: Safed

text: Baybars assigned fifty-four mamluks, at the head of whom was Emir Ala al-Din Kandaghani, to oversee the management of Safed and its dependencies. From the time of its capture, the city was made the administrative center of Mamlakat Safad, one of seven "mamlakas" (provinces), whose governors were typically appointed from Cairo, which made up Mamluk Syria. Initially, its jurisdiction corresponded roughly with the Crusader "castellany". After the fall of the Montfort Castle to the Mamluks in 1271, the castle and its dependency, the Shaghur district, were incorporated into Mamlakat Safad. The territorial jurisdiction of the "mamlaka" eventually spanned the entire Galilee and the lands further south down to Jenin.


title: Safed

text: The geographer al-Dimashqi, who died in Safed in 1327, wrote around 1300 that Baybars built a "round tower and called it Kullah ..." after leveling the old fortress. The tower was built in three stories, and provided with provisions, halls, and magazines. Under the structure, a cistern collected enough rainwater to regularly supply the garrison. The governor of Safed, Emir Baktamur al-Jukandar (the Polomaster; ), built a mosque later called after him in the northeastern section of the city. The geographer Abu'l Fida (1273–1331), the ruler of Hama, described Safed as follows:[Safed] was a town of medium size. It has a very strongly built castle, which dominates the Lake of Tabariyyah [Sea of Galilee]. There are underground watercourses, which bring drinking-water up to the castle-gate...Its suburbs cover three hills... Since the place was conquered by Al Malik Adh Dhahir [Baybars] from the Franks [Crusaders], it has been made the central station for the troops who guard all the coast-towns of that district."


title: Safed

text: The native "qadi" (Islamic head judge) of Safed, Shams al-Din al-Uthmani, composed a text about Safed called "Ta'rikh Safad" (the History of Safed) during the rule of its governor Emir Alamdar (). The extant parts of the work consisted of ten folios largely devoted to Safed's distinguishing qualities, its dependent villages, agriculture, trade and geography, with no information about its history. His account reveals the city's dominant features were its citadel, the Red Mosque and its towering position over the surrounding landscape. He noted Safed lacked "regular urban planning", "madrasas" (schools of Islamic law), "ribats" (hostels for military volunteers) and defensive walls, and that its houses were clustered in disarray and its streets were not distinguishable from its squares. He attributed the city's shortcomings to the dearth of generous patrons. A device for transporting buckets of water called the "satura" existed in the city mainly to supply the soldiers of the citadel; surplus water was distributed to the city's residents. Al-Uthmani praised the natural beauty of Safed, its therapeutic air, and noted that its residents took strolls in the surrounding gorges and ravines.


title: Safed

text: The Black Death brought about a decline in the population in Safed from 1348 onward. There is little available information about the city and its dependencies during the last century of Mamluk rule (), though travelers' accounts describe a general decline precipitated by famine, plagues, natural disasters and political instability.


title: Safed

text: The Ottomans conquered Mamluk Syria following their victory at the Battle of Marj Dabiq in northern Syria in 1516. Safed's inhabitants sent the keys of the town citadel to Sultan Selim I after he captured Damascus. No fighting was recorded around Safed, which was bypassed by Selim's army on the way to Mamluk Egypt. The sultan had placed the district of Safed under the jurisdiction of the Mamluk governor of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali, who defected to the Ottomans. Rumors in 1517 that Selim was slain by the Mamluks precipitated a revolt against the newly-appointed Ottoman governor by the townspeople of Safed, which resulted in wide-scale killings, many of which targeted the city's Jews, who were viewed as sympathizers of the Ottomans. Safed became the capital of the Safed Sanjak, roughly corresponding with Mamlakat Safad but excluding most of the Jezreel Valley and the area of Atlit, part of the larger province of Damascus Eyalet.


title: Safed

text: In 1525/26, the population of Safed consisted of 633 Muslim families, 40 Muslim bachelors, 26 Muslim religious persons, nine Muslim disabled, 232 Jewish families, and 60 military families. In 1549, under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a wall was constructed and troops were garrisoned to protect the city. In 1553/54, the population consisted of 1,121 Muslim households, 222 Muslim bachelors, 54 Muslim religious leaders, 716 Jewish households, 56 Jewish bachelors, and 9 disabled persons. At least in the 16th century, Safed was the only "kasaba" (city) in the sanjak and in 1555 was divided into nineteen "mahallas" (quarters), seven Muslim and twelve Jewish. The total population of Safed rose from 926 households in 1525–26 to 1,931 households in 1567–1568. Among these, the Jewish population rose from a mere 233 households in 1525 to 945 households in 1567–1568. The Muslim quarters were Sawawin, located west of the fortress; Khandaq (the moat); Ghazzawiyah, which had likely been settled by Gazans; Jami' al-Ahmar (the Red Mosque), located south of the fortress and named for the local mosque; al-Akrad, which dated to the Middle Ages and continued to exist through the 19th century, and whose inhabitants were mostly Kurds; al-Wata (the lower), the southernmost quarter of Safed and situated below the city; and al-Suq, named after the market or mosque located within the quarter. The Jewish quarters were all situated west of the fortress. Each quarter was named for the place of origin of its inhabitants: Purtuqal (Portugal), Qurtubah (Cordoba), Qastiliyah (Castille), Musta'rib (Jews of local, Arabic-speaking origin), Magharibah (northwestern Africa), Araghun ma' Qatalan (Aragon and Catalonia), Majar (Hungary), Puliah (Apulia), Qalabriyah (Calabria), Sibiliyah (Seville), Taliyan (Italian) and Alaman (German).


title: Safed

text: In the 15th and 16th centuries there were a number of well-known Sufi (Muslim mysticism) followers of Ibn Arabi living in Safed. The Sufi sage Ahmad al-Asadi (1537–1601) established a "zawiya" (Sufi lodge) called Sadr Mosque in the city. Safed became a center of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) during the 16th century.


title: Safed

text: After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, many prominent rabbis found their way to Safed, among them the Kabbalists Isaac Luria and Moshe Kordovero; Joseph Caro, the author of the Shulchan Aruch and Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, composer of the Sabbath hymn "Lecha Dodi". The influx of Sephardi Jews—reaching its peak under the rule of Sultans Suleiman the Magnificent and Selim II—made Safed a global center for Jewish learning and a regional center for trade throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. Sephardi Jews and other Jewish immigrants by then outnumbered the indigenous (Musta'rib) Jews in the city. During this period, the Jews developed the textile industry in Safed, transforming the town into an important and lucrative centre for wool production and textile manufacturing. There were more than 7,000 Jews in Safed in 1576 when Murad III issued an edict for the forced deportation of 1,000 wealthy Jewish families to Cyprus to boost the island's economy. There is no evidence that the edict, or a second one issued the following year for the removal of 500 families, was enforced. A Hebrew printing press, the first in Western Asia, was established in Safed in 1577 by Eliezer Ashkenazi and his son, Isaac of Prague. In 1584, there were 32 synagogues registered in the town.


title: Safed

text: By the early part of the 17th century, Safed was a small town. In 1602 the paramount chief of the Druze in Mount Lebanon, Fakhr al-Din of the Ma'n dynasty, was appointed the sanjak-bey (district governor) of Safed, in addition to his governorship of neighboring Sidon-Beirut Sanjak to the north. In the preceding years, the Safed Sanjak had entered a state of ruin and desolation, and was often the scene of conflict between the local Druze and Shia Muslim peasants and the Ottoman authorities. By 1605 Fakhr al-Din had established peace and security in the sanjak, with highway brigandage and Bedouin raids having ceased under his watch. Trade and agriculture consequently thrived and the population prospered. He formed close relations with the city's Sunni Muslim "ulema" (religious scholars), particularly the mufti Ahmad al-Khalidi of the Hanafi "fiqh" (school of jurisprudence), who became his practical court historian. Fakhr al-Din was driven into European exile by the Ottomans in 1613, but his son Ali became governor in 1615. Fakhr al-Din returned to his domains in 1618 and five years later regained the governorship of Safed, which the Ma'ns had lost, after his victory against the governor of Damascus at the Battle of Anjar. In , the orientalist Quaresmius spoke of Safed being inhabited "chiefly by Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and for whose sustenance contributions were made by the Jews in other parts of the world." According to the historian Louis Finkelstein, the Jewish community of Safed was plundered by the Druze under Mulhim ibn Yunus, nephew of Fakhr al-Din. Five years later, Fakhr al-Din was routed by the Ottoman governor of Damascus, Mulhim abandoned Safed, and its Jewish residents returned.


title: Safed

text: The Druze again attacked the Jews of Safed in 1656. During the power struggle between Fakhr al-Din's heirs (1658–1667), each faction attacked Safed. In 1660, in the turmoil following the death of Mulhim, the Druze destroyed Safed with only a few of the former Jewish residents returning to the city by 1662. Safed Sanjak and the neighboring Sidon-Beirut Sanjak to the north were administratively separated from Damascus in 1660 to form the Sidon Eyalet, of which Safed was briefly the capital. The province was created by the imperial government to check the power of the Druze of Mount Lebanon, as well as the Shia of Jabal Amil.


title: Safed

text: As nearby Tiberias remained desolate for several decades, Safed gained the key position among Galilean Jewish communities. In 1665, the Sabbatai Sevi movement is said to have arrived in the town. In the 1670s, the account of the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi recorded that Safed contained three caravanserais, several mosques, seven Sufi lodges and six public bathhouses. The Red Mosque was restored by Safed's governor Salih Bey in 1671/72, at which point it measured about , had all masonry interior, a cistern to collect rain water in the winter for drinking and a tall minaret over its southern entrance; the minaret had been destroyed before the end of the 17th century.


title: Safed

text: The Tiberias-based sheikh Zahir al-Umar of the local Arab Zaydan clan, whose father Umar al-Zaydani had been the governor and tax farmer of Safed in 1702–1706, wrested control of Safed and its tax farm from its native strongman, Muhammad Naf'i, through military pressure and diplomacy by 1740. The Naf'i, Shahin, and Murad families continued to farm the taxes of Safed and its countryside into the 1760s as Zahir's subordinates. By the 1760s, Zahir entrusted Safed to his son Ali, who made the town his headquarters. After Zahir was killed by Ottoman imperial forces, the governor of Sidon, Jazzar Pasha, moved to oust Zahir's sons from their Galilee strongholds. Ali made a final, unsuccessful stand against Jazzar Pasha from Safed, which was afterward captured and garrisoned by the governor. The concomitant rise of Acre, established by Zahir as his capital in 1750 and which served as the capital of the Sidon Eyalet under Jazzar Pasha (1775–1804) and his successors, Sulayman Pasha al-Adil (1805–1819) and Abdullah Pasha (1820–1831), contributed to the political decline of Safed. It became a subdistrict center with limited local influence, belonging to the Acre Sanjak .


title: Safed

text: Underdevelopment and a series of natural disasters further contributed to Safed's decline during the 17th–mid-19th centuries. An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and the Near East earthquakes of 1759 left the city in ruins, killing 200 residents. An influx of Russian Jews in 1776 and 1781, and of Lithuanian Jews of the Perushim movement in 1809 and 1810, reinvigorated the Jewish community. In 1812, another plague killed 80% of the Jewish population. Following Abdullah Pasha of Acre's ordered killing of his Jewish vizier Haim Farhi, who served the same post under Jazzar and Sulayman, the governor imprisoned the Jewish residents of Safed on 12 August 1820, accusing them of tax evasion under the concealment of Farhi; they were released upon paying a ransom. The war between Abdullah Pasha and the influential Farhi brothers in Constantinople and Damascus in 1822–1823 prompted Jewish flight from the Galilee in general, though by 1824 Jewish immigrants were steadily moving to the city.


title: Safed

text: The Egyptian forces of Muhammad Ali wrested control of the Levant from the Ottomans in 1831 and in the same year many Jews who had fled the Galilee, including Safed, under Abdullah Pasha returned as a result of Muhammad Ali's liberal policies toward Jews. Safed was raided by Druze in 1833 at the approach of Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian governor of the Levant. In the following year, the Muslim notables of the city, led by Salih al-Tarshihi, opposed to the Egyptian policy of conscription, joined the peasants' revolt in Palestine. During the revolt, rebels plundered the city for over thirty days. Emir Bashir Shihab II of Mount Lebanon and his Druze fighters entered its environs in support of the Egyptians and compelled Safed's leaders to surrender. The Galilee earthquake of 1837 killed about half of Safed's 4,000-strong Jewish community, destroyed all fourteen of its synagogues and prompted the flight of 600 Perushim for Jerusalem; the surviving Sephardic and Hasidic Jews mostly remained. Among the 2,158 residents of Safed who had died, 1,507 were Ottoman subjects, the rest foreign citizens. The Jewish community, whose quarter was situated on the hillside, had been particularly hard hit, the southern, Muslim section of the town experiencing considerably less damage. The following year, in 1838, Druze rebels and local Muslims raided Safed for three days.


title: Safed

text: Ottoman rule was restored across the Levant in 1840. The Empire-wide Tanzimat reforms, which were first adopted in the 1840s, brought about a steady rise in Safed's population and economy. In 1849 Safed had a total estimated population of 5,000, of whom 2,940-3,440 were Muslims, 1,500-2,000 were Jews and 60 were Christians. The population was estimated at 7,000 in 1850–1855, of whom 2,500-3,000 were Jews. The Jewish population increased in the last half of the 19th century by immigration from Persia, Morocco, and Algeria. Moses Montefiore (d. 1885) visited Safed seven times and financed much of the rebuilding of Safed's synagogues and Jewish houses.


title: Safed

text: In 1864 the Sidon Eyalet was absorbed into the new province of Syria Vilayet. In the new province, Safed remained part of the Acre Sanjak and served as the center of a kaza (third-level subdivision), whose jurisdiction covered the villages around the city and the subdistrict of Mount Meron (Jabal Jarmaq). In the Ottoman survey of Syria in 1871, Safed had 1,395 Muslim households, 1,197 Jewish households and three Christian households. The survey recorded a relatively high number of businesses in the city, namely 227 shops, fifteen mills, fourteen bakeries and four olive oil factories, an indicator of Safed's long-established role as an economic hub for the people of the Upper Galilee, the Hula Valley, the Golan Heights and parts of modern-day South Lebanon. Through the late 19th century, Safed's merchants served as middlemen in the Galilee grain trade, selling the wheat, pulses and fruit grown by the peasants of the Galilee to the traders of Acre, who in turn exported at least part of the merchandise to Europe. Safed also maintained extensive trade with the port of Tyre. The bulk of trade in Safed, which was traditionally dominated by the city's Jews, largely passed to its Muslim merchants during the late 19th century, particularly trade with the local villagers; Muslim traders offered higher credit to the peasants and were able to obtain government assistance for debt repayments. The wealth of Safed's Muslims increased and a number of the city's leading Muslim families made an opportunity from the Ottoman Land Code of 1858 to purchase extensive tracts around Safed. The major Muslim landowning clans were the Soubeh, Murad and Qaddura. The latter owned about 50,000 dunams toward the end of the century, including eight villages around Safed.


title: Safed

text: In 1878 the municipal council of Safed was established. In 1888 the Acre Sanjak, including the Safed Kaza, became part of the new province of Beirut Vilayet, an administrative state of affairs which persisted until the Empire's fall in 1918. The centralization and stability brought by the imperial reforms solidified the political status and practical influence of Safed in the Upper Galilee. The Ottomans developed Safed into a center for Sunni Islam to counterbalance the influence of non-Muslim communities in its environs and the Shia Muslims of Jabal Amil. Along with the three major landowning families, the Muslim "ulema" (religious scholarly) families of Nahawi, Qadi, Mufti and Naqib comprised the urban elite ("a'yan") of the city. The Sunni courts of Safed arbitrated over cases in Akbara, Ein al-Zeitun and as far away as Mejdel Islim. The government settled Algerian and Circassian exiles in the countryside of Safed in the 1860s and 1878, respectively, possibly in an effort to strengthen the Muslim character of the area. At least two Muslim families in the city itself, Arabi and Delasi, were of Algerian origin, though they accounted for a small proportion of the city's overall Muslim population. According to the late 19th-century account of British missionary E. W. G. Masterman, the Muslim families of Safed originated from Damascus, Transjordan and the villages around Safed. When Baybars conquered Safed in 1266 he settled many Damascenes in the city. Until the late 19th century the Muslims of Safed maintained strong social and cultural connections with Damascus. Masterman noted that the Muslims of Safed were conservative, "active and hardy", who "dress[ed] well and move[d] about more than the people from the region of southern Palestine". They lived mainly in three quarters of the city: al-Akrad, whose residents were mostly laborers, Sawawin, home to the Muslim "a'yan" households and the city's Catholic community, and al-Wata, whose inhabitants were largely shopkeepers and minor traders. The entire Jewish population lived in the Gharbieh (western) quarter.


title: Safed

text: Safed's population reached over 15,000 in 1879, 8,000 of whom were Muslims and 7,000 Jews. A population list from about 1887 showed that Safad had 24,615 inhabitants; 2,650 Jewish households, 2,129 Muslim households and 144 Roman Catholic households. Arab families in Safed whose social status rose as a result of the Tanzimat reforms included the Asadi, whose presence in Safed dated to the 16th century, Hajj Sa'id, Hijazi, Bisht, Hadid, Khouri, a Christian family whose progenitor moved to the city from Mount Lebanon during the 1860 civil war, and Sabbagh, a long-established Christian family in the city related to Zahir al-Umar's fiscal adviser Ibrahim al-Sabbagh; many members of these families became officials in the civil service, local administrations or businessmen. When the Ottomans established a branch of the Agricultural Bank in the city in 1897, all of its board members were resident Arabs, the most influential of whom were Husayn Abd al-Rahim Effendi, Hajj Ahmad al-Asadi, As'ad Khouri and Abd al-Latif al-Hajj Sa'id. The latter two also became board members of the Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture branch opened in Safed in 1900. In the last decade of the 19th century, Safed contained 2,000 houses, four mosques, three churches, two public bathhouses, one caravanserai, two public "sabils", nineteen mills, seven olive oil presses, ten bakeries, fifteen coffeehouses, forty-five stalls and three shops.


title: Safed

text: Safed was the centre of Safad Subdistrict. According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Safed had a population of 8,761 inhabitants, consisting of 5,431 Muslims, 2,986 Jews, 343 Christians and others. Safed remained a mixed city during the British Mandate for Palestine and ethnic tensions between Jews and Arabs rose during the 1920s. During the 1929 Palestine riots, Safed and Hebron became major clash points. In the Safed massacre 20 Jewish residents were killed by local Arabs. Safed was included in the part of Palestine recommended to be included in the proposed Jewish state under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.


title: Safed

text: By 1948 the city was home to about 12,000 Arabs and about 1,700 Jews, mostly religious and elderly. On 5 January 1948, Arabs attacked the Jewish Quarter. In February 1948, during the civil war, Muslim Arabs attacked a Jewish bus attempting to reach Safed, and the Jewish quarter of the town came under siege by the Muslims. British forces that were present did not intervene. According to Martin Gilbert, food supplies ran short. "Even water and flour were in desperately short supply. Each day, the Arab attackers drew closer to the heart of the Jewish quarter, systematically blowing up Jewish houses as they pressed in on the central area."


title: Safed

text: On April 16, the same day that British forces evacuated Safed, 200 local Arab militiamen, supported by over 200 Arab Liberation Army soldiers, tried to take over the city's Jewish Quarter. They were repelled by the Jewish garrison, consisting of some 200 Haganah fighters, men and women, boosted by a Palmach platoon.


title: Safed

text: The Palmach ground attack on the Arab section of Safed took place on 6 May, as a part of Operation Yiftah. The first phase of the Palmach plan to capture Safed, was to secure a corridor through the mountains by capturing the Arab village of Biriyya. The Arab Liberation Army had plans to take over the whole city on May 10 and to slaughter all as cabled by the Syrian commander al-Hassan Kam al-Maz, and in the meantime placed artillery pieces on a hill adjacent to the Jewish quarter and started its shelling. The Palmach's Third Battalion failed to take the main objective, the "citadel", but "terrified" the Arab population sufficiently to prompt further flight, as well as urgent appeals for outside help and an effort to obtain a truce.


title: Safed

text: The secretary-general of the Arab League Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam stated that the goal of Plan Dalet was to drive out the inhabitants of Arab villages along the Syrian and Lebanese frontiers, particularly places on the roads by which Arab regular forces could enter the country. He noted that Acre and Safed were in particular danger. However, the appeals for help were ignored, and the British, now less than a week away from the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, also did not intervene against the second and final Haganah attack, which began on the evening of 9 May, with a mortar barrage on key sites in Safed. Following the barrage, Palmach infantry, in bitter fighting, took the citadel, Beit Shalva and the police fort, Safed's three dominant buildings. Through 10 May, Haganah mortars continued to pound the Arab neighbourhoods, causing fires in the marked area and in the fuel dumps, which exploded. "The Palmah 'intentionally left open the exit routes for the population to "facilitate" their exodus...' " According to Gilbert, "The Arabs of Safed began to leave, including the commander of the Arab forces, Adib Shishakli (later Prime Minister of Syria). With the police fort on Mount Canaan isolated, its defenders withdrew without fighting. The fall of Safed was a blow to Arab morale throughout the region... With the invasion of Palestine by regular Arab armies believed to be imminent – once the British had finally left in eleven or twelve days' time – many Arabs felt that prudence dictated their departure until the Jews had been defeated and they could return to their homes.


title: Safed

text: Some 12,000 Arabs, with some estimates reaching 15,000, fled Safed and were a "heavy burden on the Arab war effort". Among them was the family of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The city was fully under the control of Jewish paramilitary forces by May 11, 1948.


title: Safed

text: Early in June, Jewish dignitaries from Safed journeyed to Tel Aviv to ask the government to block the return of Arabs to the city, threatening to abandon it if the latter were allowed back. They reasoned that since most of the Arabs' property had been seized or stolen in the meantime, the Jewish community would be unable to withstand the pressure of the returnees' demands for restitution.


title: Safed

text: In 1974, 25 Israeli Jews (mainly school children) from Safed, were killed in the Ma'alot massacre. Over 1990s and early 2000s, the town accepted thousands of Russian Jewish immigrants and Ethiopian Beta Israel. In July 2006, "Katyusha" rockets fired by Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon hit Safed, killing one man and injuring others. Many residents fled the town for the duration of the conflict. On July 22, four people were injured in a rocket attack.


title: Safed

text: The town has retained its unique status as a Jewish studies centre, incorporating numerous facilities. In 2010, eighteen senior rabbis led by the chief rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, issued an edict urging the city's residents not to rent or sell property to Arabs, warning of an "Arab takeover"; Arabs constitute a fractional proportion of the population, and the statement was generally perceived to be directed at the 1,300 Arab students enrolled at Zefat Academic College.


title: Safed

text: In 2008, the population of Safed was 32,000. According to CBS figures in 2001, the ethnic makeup of the city was 99.2% Jewish and non-Arab, with no significant Arab population. 43.2% of the residents were 19 years of age or younger, 13.5% between 20 and 29, 17.1% between 30 and 44, 12.5% from 45 to 59, 3.1% from 60 to 64, and 10.5% 65 years of age or older.


title: Safed

text: The city is home to a relatively large community of Haredi Jews. The village of Akbara in the city's southwestern outskirts, which had a population of about 500 Arab Muslims, most of whom belonged to a single clan, the Halihal, is under Safed's municipal jurisdiction.


title: Safed

text: The city is located above the Dead Sea Transform, and is one of the cities in Israel most at risk of earthquakes (along with Tiberias, Beit She'an, Kiryat Shmona, and Eilat).


title: Safed

text: Safed has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: "Csa") with hot, dry summers and cool, rainy and occasionally snowy winters. The city receives of precipitation per year. Summers are rainless and hot with an average high temperature of and an average low temperature of . Winters are cool and wet, and precipitation is occasionally in the form of snow. Winters have an average high temperature of and an average low temperature of .


title: Safed

text: According to CBS, the city has 25 schools and 6,292 students. There are 18 elementary schools with a student population of 3,965, and 11 high schools with a student population of 2,327. 40.8% of Safed's 12th graders were eligible for a matriculation (bagrut) certificate in 2001. The Zefat Academic College, originally an extension of Bar-Ilan University, was granted independent accreditation by Israel's Council of Higher Education in 2007. For the 2011–2012 school year, the college began a program designed specifically for Haredi Judaism. It was created in order to allow haredi women living in the Upper Galilee access to higher education, while still maintaining strict religious practice. The program accomplishes this goal through separate classes for male and female students. The classes are also taught during certain hours as to allow women to fulfill other aspects of their religiosity.


title: Safed

text: In October 2011, Israel's fifth medical school opened in Safed, housed in a renovated historic building in the centre of town that was once a branch of Hadassah Hospital.


title: Safed

text: The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine opened in 2011 as an extension of Bar-Ilan University, created to train physicians in the Upper Galilee region. The schools conducts clinical instructions in six hospitals in the region:


title: Safed

text: The Livnot U'Lehibanot program in Safed provides an open, non-denominational atmosphere for young Jewish adults that combines volunteering, hiking and study with exploring Jewish heritage.


title: Safed

text: Sharei Bina is a program for women who have just finished high school and want to study in a seminary in Safed for one year that teaches young women who want to experience Jewish spirituality in the mystical city of Safed. In comparison to other seminaries, Sharei Bina includes the study of the shekhinah and other Kabbalist rituals in the learning.


title: Safed

text: On March 8, 2021, the Israeli Prime-Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel is to establish its 10th university in Safed, after a growing need for a university in the northern district of Israel. Plans have been in place to establish a University in the Galilee since 2005, but no progress was made until 2015 when Netanyahu vowed to start working on the project during a Galilee Conference.


title: Safed

text: In the 1950s and 1960s, Safed was known as Israel's art capital. An artists' colony established in the old Arab quarter was a hub of creativity that drew artists from around the country, among them Yitzhak Frenkel, Yosl Bergner, Moshe Castel, Menachem Shemi, Shimshon Holzman and Rolly Sheffer. In honor of the opening of the Glitzenstein Art Museum in 1953, the artist Mane Katz donated eight of his paintings to the city. Today the area contains a large number of galleries and workshops run by individual artists and art vendors. There are several museums and galleries that function in the historical homes of major Israeli artists such as the Frenkel Frenel Museum and the Beit Castel gallery


title: Safed

text: In the 1960s, Safed was home to the country's top nightclubs, hosting the debut performances of Naomi Shemer, Aris San, and other singers. Nowadays,


title: Safed

text: The Citadel Hill, in Hebrew HaMetzuda, rises east of the Old City and is named after the huge Crusader and then Mamluk castle built there during the 12th and 13th centuries, which continued in use until being totally destroyed by the 1837 earthquake. Its ruins are still visible. On the western slope beneath the ruins stands the former British police station, still pockmarked by bullet holes from the 1948 war.


title: Safed

text: Before 1948, most of Safed's Jewish population used to live in the northern section of the old city. Currently home to 32 synagogues, it is also referred to as the synagogue quarter and includes synagogues named after prominent rabbis of the town: the Abuhav, Alsheich, Karo and two named for Rabbi Isaac Luria: one Ashkenazi, the other Sephardi.


title: Safed

text: Southeast of the Artists' Quarter is the Saraya, the fortified governor's residence built by Zahir al-Umar (1689/90–1775).


title: Safed

text: A report about the "obliteration of non-Jewish historic sites in Safed" mentions a mausoleum, an ancient grave and an ancient mosque that was converted into a clubhouse.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington is a city in the Regional Municipality of Halton at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Along with Milton to the north, it forms the western end of the Greater Toronto Area and is also part of the Hamilton metropolitan census area.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Before the 19th century, the area between the provincial capital of York and the township of West Flamborough was home to the Mississauga nation. In 1792, John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, named the western end of Lake Ontario "Burlington Bay" after the town of Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The British purchased the land on which Burlington now stands from the Mississaugas in Upper Canada Treaties 3 (1792), 8 (1797), 14 (1806), and 19 (1818). Treaty 8 concerned the purchase of the Brant Tract, on Burlington Bay which the British granted to Mohawk chief Joseph Brant for his service in the American Revolutionary War. Joseph Brant and his household settled on this tract of land around 1802. Brant is accordingly often referred to as the founder of Burlington, and the city of Burlington still celebrates an annual Joseph Brant Day in early August. Subsequent disputes between the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Canadian government over payment for the Brant Tract and the Toronto Purchase were settled in 2010 for the sum of $145 million (CAD).


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: By the turn of the 19th century, the name "Burlington" was already in common use. With the completion of the local survey after the War of 1812, the land was opened for settlement. Early farmers prospered in the Burlington area because the area had fertile soil and moderate temperatures. Produce from the farms was shipped out via the bustling docks of the lakeside villages of Port Nelson and Wellington Square, as well as Brown's Wharf in the nearby village of Port Flamborough (which was to become Aldershot). Lumber taken from the surrounding forests also competed for space on the busy docks. In the latter half of the 19th century, increased wheat production from Western Canada convinced local farmers to switch to fruit and vegetable production.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: In 1874, Wellington Square and Port Nelson were incorporated into the Village of Burlington. The arrival of large steamships on the Great Lakes made the small docks of the local ports obsolete, and the increased use of railway to ship goods marked the end of the commercial wharves.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Farming still thrived though, and the resultant growth resulted in continued prosperity. By 1906, the town boasted its own newspaper—the "Burlington Gazette"—as well as a town library and a local rail line that connected Burlington to nearby Hamilton. During the First World War, 300 local men volunteered for duty in the Canadian Expeditionary Force—38 did not return. In 1914, Burlington was incorporated into a town.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: As more settlers arrived and cleared the land, cash crops replaced subsistence farming. Gradually, mixed farming and market gardens became the dominant form of agriculture, and in the early 20th century the area was declared the "Garden of Canada". The first peaches grown in Canada were cultivated in the Grindstone Creek watershed in the city's south-west part. The farming tradition has passed down through the generations. Today over forty percent of the Grindstone Creek watershed is still devoted to farms, orchards and nurseries.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Following the Second World War, cheap electricity from nearby Niagara Falls and better transportation access due to the new (1939) Queen Elizabeth Way encouraged both light industry and families to move to Burlington. The population skyrocketed as new homes were built, encouraging developers to build even more new homes. On 1 January 1958, Burlington officially annexed most of the Township of Nelson, as well as Aldershot, formerly a part of East Flamborough Township. By 1967, the last cash crop farm within the city had been replaced by the Burlington Centre.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington was the site of the Brant Inn built by the lake in 1917, which became famous during the ’40s and ’50s for showing big-band performers.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: By 1974, with a population exceeding 100,000, Burlington was incorporated as a city. The extremely high rate of growth continued, and between 2001 and 2006, the population of Burlington grew by 9%, compared to Canada's overall growth rate of 5.4%. By 2006, the population topped 160,000.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington is at the southwestern end of Lake Ontario, just to the north east of Hamilton and the Niagara Peninsula, roughly in the geographic centre of the urban corridor known as the Golden Horseshoe. Burlington has a land area of . The main urban area is south of the Parkway Belt and Hwy. 407. The land north of this, and north Aldershot is used primarily for agriculture, rural residential and conservation purposes. The Niagara Escarpment, Lake Ontario and the sloping plain between the escarpment and the lake make up the land area of Burlington. The city is no longer a port; sailing vessels in the area are used for recreational purposes and moor at a 215 slip marina in LaSalle Park.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington's climate is humid continental (Köppen climate classification "Dfa") with hot, humid summers and cold and snowy winters. The climate is moderated somewhat by its proximity to Lake Ontario. Monthly mean temperatures range from in July to in January. The average annual precipitation is of rain and of snow.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Although it shares the continental climate found in Southern Ontario, its proximity to Lake Ontario moderates winter temperatures and it also benefits from a sheltering effect of the Niagara Escarpment, allowing the most northerly tracts of Carolinian forest to thrive on the Escarpment that runs through western sections of city. Several species of flora and fauna usually found only in more southern climes are present in Burlington, including paw-paw, green dragon ("Arisaema dracontium"), tuckahoe ("Peltandra virginica"), American columbo ("Frasera caroliniensis"), wall-rue ("Asplenium ruta-muraria"), plus the Louisiana waterthrush, the hooded warbler, the southern flying squirrel and the rare eastern pipistrelle. Near the visible promontory of Mount Nemo that rises some 200 m (650 ft) above the lake level, a "vertical forest" of white cedar clinging to the Escarpment face includes many small trees that are more than a thousand years old.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Hamilton Harbour, the western end of Lake Ontario, is bounded on its western shore by a large sandbar, now called the Beach strip, that was deposited during the last ice age. A canal bisecting the sandbar allows ships access to the harbour. The Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway (part of the Queen Elizabeth Way), and the Canal Lift Bridge allow access over the canal.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Burlington had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: According to the 2016 census, Burlington's population was 183,314 where 48% of residents were male and 52% female. Minors (individuals up to the age of 19) made up 22.6% of the population (almost identical to the national average of 22.4%), and seniors (age 65+) were 19.2% (higher than the national average of 16.9%). This older population was also reflected in Burlington's median age of 43.3, which was higher than the Canadian median of 41.2.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The top 11 ethnic origins from the 2016 Census are listed in the accompanying table. Percentages add up to more than 100% because respondents can report more than one ethnicity.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: According to the 2011 Census, 70% of Burlington residents identify as Christian, with Catholics (31.5%) making up the largest denomination, followed by Anglican (10%), United Church (9.2%), and other denominations. Others identify as Muslim (2%), Hindu (1.1%), Sikh (1%), Buddhist ( 0.4%), Jewish (0.4%), and with other religions. 25% of the population report no religious affiliation.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: According to the 2016 Census, the most common mother tongue in Burlington is English (78.7%), followed by French (1.6%), Spanish (1.5%), Polish (1.3%), and Arabic (1.2). The three most commonly known languages are English (99.1%), French (9%), and Spanish (2.5%).


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington's economic strength is the diversity of its economic base, mainly achieved because of its geography, proximity to large industries in southern Ontario (Canada's largest consumer market), its location within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and proximity to Hamilton, and its transportation infrastructure including the Port of Hamilton on Burlington Bay. This diversity has allowed for sustained growth with regards to the economy. The city has a robust economy with potential for growth – it is at the hub of the Golden Horseshoe, is largely driven by both the automotive and manufacturing sectors.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: No single employer or job sector dominates Burlington's economy. The leading industrial sectors, in terms


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: of employment, are food processing, packaging, electronics, motor vehicle/transportation, business services,


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: chemical/pharmaceutical and environmental. The top five private sector employers in Burlington are Fearmans Pork Inc, Cogeco Cable, Evertz Microsystems, Boehringer Ingelheim and EMC2. Other notable business include The EBF Group, ARGO Land Development, The Sunshine Doughnut Company and TipTapPay Micropayments Ltd. The largest public sector employers in the city are the City of Burlington, the Halton District School Board, the Halton Catholic District School Board and Joseph Brant Hospital.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington Centre and Mapleview Centre are popular malls within the city. The city's summer festivals include Canada's Largest Ribfest, and the Burlington Sound of Music Festival which also attract many visitors.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington is primarily served by media based in Toronto (other than those noted below), as it is geographically in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington is part of the Hamilton radio market. One radio station, FM 107.9 CJXY, is licensed to Burlington and another, FM 94.7 CHKX, to "Hamilton/Burlington." Both presently broadcast from studios in Hamilton. Burlington listeners are also served by stations licensed to Toronto, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Several publications are either published in or around Burlington, or have Burlington as one of their main subjects, including "Burlington Post" and "View Magazine".


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington's public elementary and secondary schools are part of the Halton District School Board. Burlington's Catholic elementary and secondary schools are part of the Halton Catholic District School Board. French public elementary and secondary schools are part of the Conseil scolaire Viamonde and French catholic elementary and secondary schools are part of the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir. Several private schools are also available in the city.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: There are six public high schools and three Catholic high schools in the area. There are also 10 private schools in Burlington.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington Transit, the public transport provider in the city, provides service on a transportation grid centred on three commuter GO Train stations: Appleby, Burlington and Aldershot.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Major transportation corridors through the city include the Queen Elizabeth Way, Highway 403, Highway 407, and Dundas Street (former Highway 5). Commuter rail service is provided by GO Transit at the Appleby GO Station, Burlington GO Station and the Aldershot GO station. Intercity rail service is provided by Via Rail at Aldershot, which also serves Hamilton. Rail cargo transportation is provided by both Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington Airpark in the city's north end is a thriving general-aviation without regular commercial passenger flight service. Some charter operations are provided.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: On 26 February 2012, a Via Rail train traveling from Niagara Falls to Toronto Union Station derailed in Burlington, with three fatalities.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The city is divided into six wards, each represented by a city councillor. The mayor, who chairs the city council, is Marianne Meed Ward.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Provincially, the city is represented by three MPPs, whose ridings are geographically contiguous with their federal counterparts:


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: On the shore of Lake Ontario, Spencer Smith Park features an expansive shoreline walking path. The park was renovated in 2006, with the addition of an observatory, water jet play area and restaurant. The park includes the Burlington Rotary Centennial Pond, a 10,000 square-foot water feature, used for model sail boating in the spring, summer and fall. In winter, it offers free recreational ice-skating. Many annual free festivals take place in Spencer Smith Park, including Canada's Largest Ribfest and the Sound of Music Festival, Canada Day, Children's Festival and Lakeside Festival of Lights. There is also the semi-annual prix fixe Taste of Burlington dining event.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The Brant Street Pier opened in Spencer Smith Park during the Sound of Music Festival on Father's Day weekend 2013. Thousands of people from Burlington and beyond flocked to the pier to enjoy sunshine and scenic views. The pier extends 137 metres over Lake Ontario and provides views of the lake and Burlington's shoreline. In the evenings, the entire pier is lit, making it a major attraction to both tourists and residents. Generally, the lighting choices are based on nationally recognized holidays or events, but also invite special requests.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The Art Gallery of Burlington is adjacent to Spencer Smith Park, and contains diverse permanent and changing exhibits. The Gallery houses a prominent collection of Canadian ceramics. The Gallery's exhibition spaces, which feature new exhibitions every eight to ten weeks, are fully accessible and are free to visitors.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: "Royal Canadian Naval Association Naval Memorial (1995)" by André Gauthier is a high cast bronze statue of a World War II Canadian sailor in the position of attention saluting his lost shipmates, which was erected in Spencer Smith Park. The model for the statue was a local Sea Cadet wearing Mike Vencel's naval service uniform. On the black granite base, the names of Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Merchant Navy ships sunk during World War II are engraved. On the granite wall, the names of all Royal Canadian Navy ships and Canadian Merchant Marine vessels which saw service in World War II are engraved. Atop the wall is the ship's bell from . A monument commemorating the Korean War was erected in the summer of 2014 to mark the 61st anniversary of the armistice to end the war.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington is home to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which has the world's largest lilac collection. Ontario's botanical garden and National Historic Site of Canada features over of gardens and nature sanctuaries, including four outdoor display gardens, the Mediterranean Garden under glass, three on-site restaurants, the Gardens' Gift Shop, and festivals.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Lasalle Park, in the Burlington neighbourhood of Aldershot, is owned by the city of Hamilton but is leased by Burlington, which also assumes responsibility for maintenance.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Several conservation areas are minutes away and feature year round activities. Mount Nemo Conservation Area is the only area in Burlington that is operated by Conservation Halton. Bronte Creek Provincial Park, along the city's eastern boundary, features a campground and recreational activities and events year-round.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The local sections of the Bruce Trail and the Niagara Escarpment, which is a UNESCO designated World Biosphere Reserve, provide hiking trails. Kerncliff Park, in an abandoned quarry on the boundary with Waterdown, is a naturalized area on the lip of the Niagara Escarpment. The Bruce Trail runs through the park, at many points running along the edge of the cliffs, providing a clear overlook of Burlington, the Burlington Skyway Bridge, Hamilton, and Oakville. On a clear day, one can see the CN Tower in Toronto, approximately from the park.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The Joseph Brant Museum and Ireland House are also local attractions. Joseph Brant Museum has ongoing exhibits on the history of Burlington, the Eileen Collard Costume Collection, Captain Joseph Brant and the visible storage gallery. Ireland House at Oakridge Farm is a history museum depicting family life from the 1850s to the 1920s. In 2017 the Freeman Railway Station, originally built 1906 for the Grand Trunk Railway was reopened as an interpretive center.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington offers four indoor and two outdoor pools, one splash park, nine splash pads, seven arenas and ice centres, six community centres and nine golf courses. The Appleby Ice Centre is a 4-pad arena, used year-round for skating and ice hockey.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The Burlington Performing Arts Centre opened in 2011. This 940-seat facility is on Locust Street in the downtown core with a main theatre featuring a six-story fly tower, a community studio theatre, and a family lobby.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington Centre is a two-storey mall at Guelph Line and Fairview Street. Opened in 1968, several renovations have been completed at various intervals over the years.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Mapleview Centre is a two-storey mall, which opened in 1990 and is located at the intersection of Fairview Street and Maple Avenue. Only 45 minutes from downtown Toronto, Mapleview leases retail space to over 165 upscale and destination stores including Banana Republic, H&M, Bath & Body Works.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The Burlington Teen Tour Band has operated in the city since 1947, including members between the ages of 13 and 21. The marching band, nicknamed "The Redcoats" due to the colour of its uniforms, are regular participants in major international parades. They are also referred to as "Canada's Musical Ambassadors" and have represented Canada all over the world. One such occasion was during the 2018 Tournament of Roses Parade, where the band represented Canada for the fifth time in the band's history.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The Junior Redcoats are the younger version of the Teen Tour Band. The band includes children between the ages of 9 to 12. The Junior Redcoats' major performances are most commonly at the Burlington Santa Claus Parade, the Waterdown Santa Claus Parade, the Burlington Performing Arts Centre (along with the Teen Tour Band) and the Sound of Music Parade. They are directed by Caroline Singh.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The Burlington Concert Band has been in operation since 1908. The band, composed of local volunteer musicians, plays a wide variety of musical styles and repertoire. It primarily performs to raise money for charitable causes. The Burlington Concert Band is a participating member of Performing Arts Burlington as well as the Canadian Band Association. The band maintains an open membership policy, allowing anyone who feels they can handle the music competently to join without an audition. Its primary venue has been the Burlington Performing Arts Centre since it opened in 2011. Zoltan Kalman is the former director of the Burlington Concert Band that is led by an elected board headed by Steven Hewis. The current musical director is Joanne Romanow.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The current Burlington Area Scouts came into existence in 1958 as "Burlington District" with amalgamation of several groups from Burlington and surrounding area. There are 17 active groups within the Area, providing Scouting to over 700 members. The Area stretches outside the city limits of Burlington and encompasses the additional communities of Waterdown, Kilbride, and Carlisle.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: The Burlington Symphony Orchestra, formed in 1973, is a community orchestra under the direction of Denis Mastromonaco.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: NEXXICE is a synchronized skating team associated with the Burlington Skating Club (and the Kitchener Waterloo Skating Club). They were the 2018 Canadian Senior champions, and were the first (and only) Canadian team to win a world championship.


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Burlington, Ontario, founded the "Burlington International Games" (B.I.G.). The games were first held in 1969 "to offer an athletic and cultural exchange experience for the youth of Burlington".


title: Burlington, Ontario

text: Until recently, the games took place between Burlington, Ontario, and Burlington, Vermont, United States. But, other cities from places such as Quebec, Japan, the Netherlands, and the U.S. have all had athletes compete since 1998. The games celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2009 and the competition ceased in 2010 due to limited participation in later years.


title: U.S. Route 20

text: U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. Spanning , it is the longest road in the United States, and, in the east, the route is roughly parallel to that of the newer Interstate 90 (I-90), which is the longest Interstate Highway in the U.S. There is a discontinuity in the official designation of US 20 through Yellowstone National Park, with unnumbered roads used to traverse the park.


title: U.S. Route 20

text: US 20 and US 30 break the general U.S. Route numbering rules in Oregon, since US 30 actually starts north of US 20 in Astoria, and runs parallel to the north throughout the state (the Columbia River and Interstate 84). The two run concurrently and continue in the correct positioning near Caldwell, Idaho. This is because US 20 was not a planned coast-to-coast route while US 30 was. US 20 originally ended at the eastern entrance of Yellowstone Park; it was extended in 1940.


title: U.S. Route 20

text: The highway's eastern terminus is in Boston, Massachusetts, at Kenmore Square, where it meets Massachusetts Route 2. Its western terminus is in Newport, Oregon, at an intersection with US 101, within a mile of the Pacific Ocean.


title: U.S. Route 20

text: US 20 begins at an intersection with US 101 in Newport, Oregon, and runs generally eastward towards Idaho. On the way it goes over the Central Oregon Coast Range, through several Willamette Valley cities including Corvallis and Albany, climbs the Cascade Mountains over Santiam Pass, goes through Bend, and traverses the Oregon High Desert after passing through Burns. It eventually overlaps US 26 in Vale, and the two highways continue concurrently to the Idaho border.