Amuka () is a
community settlement
A community settlement (, ''Yishuv Kehilati'') is a type of town or village in Israel and in the West Bank. In an ordinary town, anyone may buy property, but in a community settlement, the village's residents are organized in a cooperative an ...
about 6 km northeast of
Safed
Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel.
Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...
in the
Upper Galilee
The Upper Galilee (, ''HaGalil Ha'Elyon''; , ''Al Jaleel Al A'alaa'') is a geographical region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Part of the larger Galilee region, it is characterized by its higher elevations and mountainous terra ...
in northern
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
. It belongs to the
Merom HaGalil Regional Council
The Merom HaGalil Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Merom HaGalil'') is a regional council in the northern Galilee of northern Israel. The regional council was established in 1950. The head of the council is Shlomo Levi.
List of settlements
Th ...
. In it had a population of .
History
An ancient site in a valley 1 km north of the community is sometimes identified as Kfar Amiko of the
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
, but that identification is generally made with
Amqa.
As
Ammuqa, it had a Jewish population in the early Islamic and Crusader periods and into the 12th century.
However, by the 16th century it was a Muslim village. In the early 19th century it was settled by Algerians.
In 1948 it was depopulated by the Israeli army.
The ancient site is best known as the traditional resting place of
Yonatan Ben Uziel who was a student of
Hillel the elder
Hillel ( ''Hīllēl''; variously called Hillel the Elder or Hillel the Babylonian; died c. 10 CE) was a Jewish religious leader, Sage (philosophy), sage and scholar associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and the founder of ...
, of the first century BCE.
The first description of the tomb was provided by
Yaakov ben Netanel HaKohen in the second half of the 12th century, where he marvels at how the Jews managed to cut the graves into the mountain.
Moshe Bassola also visited the site in 1522, and he describes that when he arrived, there was no Jewish settlement there, only graves. A tomb there is the site of annual pilgrimage.
The modern community settlement south of the ancient site was established in 1980.
Education
Children in the community attend schools in the nearby city of Safed or other nearby villages: "Nof Harim" elementary school in
Sasa, "
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...
" high school in Sasa, "Har VeGai" high school, and Einot Yarden high school.
Synagogue
There is a large ruined building above the burial place of
Jonathan ben Uzziel
Jonathan ben Uzziel () was one of the 80 ''tannaim'' who studied under Hillel the Elder during the time of Roman-ruled Judea.
Jonathan ben Uzziel is mentioned several times in the Talmud. Jonathan rendered an Aramaic translation (targum) of the ...
. In the 19th century, the explorer
Victor Guérin
Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...
saw there "the base of a pillar and a number of hewn stones - the remnants of an old structure, possibly a synagogue."
Tzvi Ilan writes that today some of the hewn stones are centralized in the center of the ruin like a platform for worship. West of the platform is a rectangular area of 20 by 30 meters appropriate for a synagogue. In the past there was a marble board with a figure of a grapevine.
Notable people
*
Atar Mayner (born 1992), rapper, singer-songwriter.
See also
*
Ammuqa
References
{{Merom HaGalil Regional Council
Community settlements
Populated places in Northern District (Israel)
Populated places established in 1980
1980 establishments in Israel