Thursday, May 24, 2007

Safed Israel, My Home


Nadene Goldfoot
The year is 1980. This is the Rimon Inn in Safed, Israel, where I lived for almost five years. This inn was marvelous. We went here for special dinners. All the food was kosher and delicious. We came to Safed on a field trip with our school in 1980 and later moved here in 1981. The brochure says that Safed is high in the mountains, and it is at the same level pretty much as Jerusalem. We had dry, cool mountain air in the Spring, and it was hot and dry in the summer. You could sit out at the inn amid gnarled olive trees. People came here to explore this medieval city of Jewish mysticism. 

 The Cabbalists lived and prayed here. It is written about in James Mitchner's "The Source" with the chapter about the Saintly Men of Safed. Nearby is the Artists' Quarter which called to me as I do oil painting. The Rimon Inn is one of the fine hotels in the IRH Israel Resort Hotels chain. It was damaged in the recent shelling from Lebanon.

No comments: