By Yossi Ginossar and Raphael Malka
Traditional Safed cheese (not the semi-hard Bulgarian cheese sold under the name “Safed cheese”) is a salty, hard and dry cheese suitable for Israel’s hot climate. This is a cheese that was easy to carry on long journeys. It could be grated on foods that require added salt, thus obtaining additional protein, even when meat or fresh milk were not available, and to enjoy an upgrade of the flavors of the food.
Today, two families, Kadosh and Hameiri, produce the traditional Safed cheese in Safed. Both immigrated to Israel after the great earthquake of 1837, one from Persia and the other from Morocco. Neither knows the origin of the cheese, with each family claiming to have originated it. It seems that the cheese is intertwined with ancient traditions that developed in Safed and have been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years.
The uniqueness of Safed cheese
Traditional Safed cheese differs from other cheeses produced in Israel today. In Arab society, a traditional cheese is produced that resembles traditional Safed cheese – Afig cheese – also known as Jameed, Laban Nashef, Kishk and Ja’ajil. This cheese based on salted and sun-dried labaneh and is also dry and salty. However, an examination of the cheese preparation process (see Appendix) shows that the Afig and Safed cheeses are made by different production processes. Afig is a dried yogurt, the production of which uses thermophilic culture, made from skim milk that has been curdled without an enzyme. Safed cheese, on the other hand, is made from whole milk fermented with a mesophilic culture and enzymatically curdled. These two production processes are completely different, despite the similarity in the final product, and they apparently developed simultaneously.
An examination of the types of traditional cheeses produced in Iran and Morocco shows that no similar product is produced in these countries. Even an examination of the types of cheese traditionally produced in the Middle East revealed no cheese similar to Safed cheese. Our analysis has led us to the conclusion that Safed cheese is unique from a cheesemaking perspective, and that the Safed cheese production technique was a local development.
History of cheese production and supervision
There is evidence that in the Middle Ages, Musta’arabi Jews – Arabic-speaking Jews who lived in the Land of Israel and its neighboring countries – were engaged in cheese production. Mordechai Narkis published a seal for cheese from Egypt from the Fatimid period (10th–11th centuries), bearing an inscription in Hebrew-Arabic, which is evidence of the existence of Jewish halachic supervision over cheese production. In the words of the 11th-century Rabbi Hai Gaon: “Israel, who was a dweller in the village, sent cheese by a gentile and added a letter with him, and with each cheese and cheese he signed with Hebrew script: Bracha [blessing].” This was also the case in the Land of Israel.
The Musta’arabi Jews strictly observed halacha according to which the kashrut of milk depended on a Jew supervising the milking. Halacha imposed another restriction on the Jews of the Land of Israel (Baba Kama, 79, 2: “There is no raising a thin beast [goats and sheep] in Israelite territories, but [these] can be raised in Syria and in the deserts of the Land of Israel.” By “deserts” they meant uncultivated areas outside of settlements.
Due to these halachic restrictions, Jews would approach the owners of herds in Arab villages and Bedouin encampments and make a contract with them: A Jew would pay for the future milk, and when spring came, he went to the village and stayed there for many weeks, during which he supervised the milking and cheese making, and when the cheeses began to dry, he stamped them with a special seal. If he left for a short time and returned, he feared that in his absence a non-Jew would stamp cheeses that were not supervised, or that a non-Jew had mixed in non-kosher milk. Rabbi Yosef Matrani of Safed in the 16th century determined that cheese stamped with a Jewish seal could be eaten, if the Jewish supervisor was absent for a short time. The long stay in the village was intended to cover the period when the cheese was ripened by drying and salting so that it would not spoil when transported on the roads for many days on mules and donkeys. Cooperation between Jewish cheesemakers and Arab herd owners was maintained until the end of the British Mandate period.
During Mamluk rule, Safed was the capital of a large province called the Kingdom of Safd (Chafd). Shams al-Din al-Othmani, a 14th-century judge in Safed, mentions cheese production in his book Thari’ih Safed (History of Safed). In 1495, at the end of the Mamluk period, a disciple of Rabbi Ovadia of Bartanura visited Safed, describing it thus: “Safita is built on the slope of the mountain, and is a big city, and the houses are small and despicable […] In any case, the land is good and healthy, and the water is perfectly good […] and there is a holy congregation, some three hundred homeowners, and most of the Jews make shops selling perfumes and cheese and oil and kinds of legumes and fruits”. In those days, people flocked from all the villages of the Galilee, from Syria and southern Lebanon to the “Friday Market” in Safed, which operated there until 1948, to buy cheese and other products.
In 1517, the Ottomans conquered the Land of Israel and opened its gates to exiles from Spain, many of whom immigrated to Safed. The frequent waves of immigration completely changed the composition of the Jewish population in the developing city. The well-known luxurious wool fabric industry sustained many families, but alongside it were other industries, such as those producing wine, honey and cheese. In 1521, Rabbi Moshe Bassula, one of the sages of Venice, visited Safed and found 300 Jewish homeowners: “There are also many Jews who frequently court in the villages to sell merzerea (haberdashery) and various peddlers, and fill their homes with all the goodness […] There are also Jews selling fruits and vegetables, oil and cheese, and other matters in the market.”
Due to halachic disputes between the Jews of Spanish origin (Sephardim) and Musta’arabis, which were brought before the rabbinical court in Safed in the 16th century, supervision of the cheese industry was tightened through the use of inspectors. Sometimes disputes arose between cheese producers and their customers; these were resolved by the sages of Safed and are mentioned in the Responsa (“Q& A”) literature.
Iron slotting
The “Register of Accounts of the Commissioner of Safed for the Financial Matters of the Ashkenazi Community in Jerusalem” is a document containing financial and economic statements from 1611 to 1628. Along with the documentation of the cheese business, the purchase of equipment intended for cheese production is also mentioned in the document: The “iron slotting” and ribaisin (grater, grate) mentioned in the document are indicative of hard, dry cheese similar to traditional Safed cheese.
Similar cheese was made in Jerusalem as well. For example, a travel journal written by Rabbi Poriyat of Prague (1650), states: “The season of fresh cheese begins with the month of Adar, and it is a great novelty and good as a clean cream. Such cheese costs eighteen zelmers for a rotl (unit of weight). And there is also old dry cheese, and the rotl – for three zelmers. Dry-cheese season is all year round.” According to a document from a Muslim court in the 17th century: “Whether because of its nature or because of consumption habits, Muslims bought it too. The official prices of the dry cheese were determined by the muhtaseb [the official in charge of public order in the city], like the other products sold in Jerusalem.” The document also states: “…They [the Jews] have always been engaged in cheese production in the noble Jerusalem district and sell it according to their ancient custom” (A. Cohen, Jews in the Muslim Court: Society, Economy and Community Organization in Ottoman Jerusalem – Sixteenth Century, 1993, p. 262).
The cheese industry in Safed and the Galilee villages continued in the following centuries as well. In 1824, Rabbi David Dovit Hillel visited Peki’in in the Galilee and described it as follows: “Peki’in lies in the valley. It has an abundance of lemons and sweet oranges, as well as milk, butter, cheese and honey, which are sent to the entire Land of Israel and the Mediterranean coast near Damascus […] It is home to about twenty families of native Jews, most of them with herds of sheep and goats, and [they] have a small synagogue.
In 1837, a powerful earthquake destroyed Safed and severely damaged the local cheese industry. About three years later, the philanthropist Moses Montefiore arrived in the city, and a census he conducted among its Jewish residents at that time shows that only one person was engaged in the cheese industry: “Bechor Nono, born in Safed, 40 years old, poor, makes cheese.” Montefiore’s subsequent censuses of 1855 and 1866 mention two cheesemakers in the city.
Recovery and decay
Just when it seemed that the cheese industry was declining, it flourished, this time thanks to immigrants from East and North African countries, who responded to the call of Rabbi Shmuel Abou, the leader of the Sephardim, and Rabbi Dov Mezritsh, the leader of the Hasidim, to come to the Holy Land and help restore the city. Among the families that immigrated to Safed we also find the Kadosh family, who immigrated from Morocco, and the Arzoni family (today Hameiri) from Persia; they are the last dairy owners who produce the traditional Safed cheese to this day and, as noted above, each claims the crown of primacy.
In 1868/9, a Lebanese newspaper reported that cows’ milk could not be obtained in Jerusalem, and that all the mule drivers from Jerusalem brought to the city everything that Safed and Tiberias could provide: olive oil, Safed cheese, Tiberias fish, and some Damascus wares. During this period, Safed exported its cheese all over the country and even to the neighboring countries of Lebanon and Syria. During the British Mandate, the industry recovered, and there were about 12 dairies in the city. In 1941, the Jews of Safed were engaged in crafts and small trade, but mainly in the matzah industry and cheese production. The journalist Joshua Karniel described it thus in 1918: “Its air is fresh and pure its climate healthy, its waters are good for drinking, its milk is fat and the “Safed cheese” is well known throughout the country, its wines are renowned and honey is abundant in its surroundings (East and West, 1, Jerusalem 1919, pp. 380–386).
In January 1945, Safed was connected to electricity, allowing milk and milk products to be kept refrigerated. Yosef Benderly established the first modern industrial dairy in the city, where, in addition to Safed cheese, various cows’ milk cheeses were produced. Arie Benderly, Yosef’s son, wrote: “In the mid-1930s, the family, with Yosef’s encouragement, decided to establish a modern dairy, alongside a modern dairy farm for ten to twelve cows, a corral for carts and warehouses for fodder. It was the first industrial dairy in Safed” (A. Benderly, Safed Patriot 1998, p. 137).
The father of Mahmoud Abbas, current head of the Palestinian Authority, owned a herd in the village of Tuba Zangaria, and was one of the milk suppliers to the Benderly cheese factory. The Benderly Dairy was established in partnership with veteran cheesemaker Shlomo Mizrahi, who was responsible for the production of traditional Safed cheese. They worked together until 1954, when they parted ways. The Benderly family turned to the hotel business, and Mizrahi’s son, Meir Hameiri, continued to own the dairy and produce Safed cheese. During the War of Independence, when Safed was under siege, Yosef Benderly took advantage of his connections with government officials and Arab dignitaries to maintain his associations with the villages and provide the city’s residents with milk and its products. His partner Shlomo Mizrahi also benefited from his connections and continued to produce Safed cheese in partnership with the villages. In the first decades of the State of Israel, the decline of the original traditional cheese industry continued, together with the development of the dairy industry and its products, which even dared to offer its customers substitutes called by the same name.
Conclusions
Safed cheese is unique, and its unique cheesemaking technique apparently stemmed from the halachic ban on the Jews of the Land of Israel raising goats and sheep, or eating cheese made from non-Jewish milk without supervision. Therefore, during the milking period, for a month or more, the cheesemaker supervised the cheese production process in the villages, and when the cheeses began to dry out, he sealed them with a special seal. This technique dictated the nature of the product that, in order to survive transport from the village to Safed, had to be hard, dry and salty. From a review of the cheesemaking technique unique to Safed cheese, the salting phase takes place close to the curdling phase and includes wrapping the cheese in salt in order to speed up the drying process. It also creates resistance to spoilage during the journey. With the rise of the Kadosh and Hameiri families in the 19th century, there is clear evidence that they continued the method of tenure in the villages, residing in them during cheese production and cheese supervision, as had been the custom in the Middle Ages in Safed. Therefore, in our opinion, it can be assumed that the early evidence of cheese production in the Galilee and Safed in the Middle Ages by the Musta’arab community, attests to the local tradition that has persisted ever since.
In the Bible, two types of cheese are mentioned: 1 Samuel 17:18 states: “Take these ten haritzei halav to the captain the thousand,” and 2 Samuel, 17:29 describes “honey and curds served to David and his men.” The word haritzei comes from a Hebrew word meaning to slice something hard. It can be understood that these were hard cheeses, similar to the Safed cheese. Did Safed cheese originate in biblical times, and has its production persevered in the Land of Israel to this day?
In France, Italy and many other places around the world where the production of artisanal cheeses has almost disappeared with the transition to industrialized cheese production, extensive funds are being invested to encourage the preservation of tradition and to revive cheeses whose production has almost ceased. Safed cheese in Israel also has a glorious history and its production is declining. If efforts are not invested in its preservation, it may become extinct within a generation or two.
For further reference:
- 1. Abraham Yaari, Travels in the Land of Israel, Masada, 1976 (Hebrew).
- 2. Cohen, A., 1998. The History of Eretz Israel under the Mamluk and Ottoman Rule, Jerusalem (Hebrew).
- 4. Benderly, Joseph Benderly – Safed Patriot, Shabtai Gal-On, Kfar Tavor, 1998 (Hebrew).
- Y. Hacohen Miller, Key to the Answers of the Gaonim, Zvi Hirsch, Berlin, 1891), p. 266 (Hebrew).
Appendix
The production process of Safed cheese differs completely from a similar cheese produced in the Palestinian/Bedouin sector.
