Giscala
GISCALA
GISCALA (Gush Halav ; Heb. גּוּשׁ חָלָב), ancient Jewish city in Upper Galilee, today the Christian-Arab village of al-Jish, 5 mi. (c. 8 km.) N.W. of Safed. According to the Mishnah, "the acropolis of Gush Ḥalav" was surrounded by a wall built in the time of Joshua (Ar. 9:6). Canaanite and Israelite remains from the Early Bronze and Iron Ages have been uncovered there but the city is first mentioned (as Giscala) in connection with the history of the Jewish War (66–70/73). It was the birthplace of the Zealot leader *John (Johanan) b. Levi of Giscala, a dealer in oil, who fortified the city at his own expense and escaped to Jerusalem with his followers when the Romans surrounded it; Giscala thereupon surrendered – the last city in Galilee to fall to the Romans (Jos., Wars, 2:275, 590; 4:92–120, 208; Life, 70, 75, 189). After the destruction of the Second Temple, during the days of the amoraim and tannaim, Jews also lived there. The city was situated in the center of an olive-growing district and derived its main livelihood from oil; the inhabitants also engaged in the production of silk (Tosef., Shev. 7:15; Eccl. R. 2:8, no. 2). A Jewish community continued into the Middle Ages, at least until the 13th century. The village was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1873.
On the summit of the hill on which Giscala stands is a Maronite church with the remains of an ancient synagogue beneath it and, at its foot, near a spring, are the ruins of a second synagogue, excavated by H. Kohl and C. Watzinger in 1916, in which an Aramaic inscription was found on a column mentioning a certain Yose son of Tanhum. The latter synagogue was excavated in 1977–78 by E. Meyers, J.F. Strange, and C. Meyers, and dated to between 250–551 c.e. A hoard of Roman coins was also found in the village. Numerous rock tombs are scattered through the village and its vicinity; according to an unsubstantiated local tradition, these include the graves of *Shemaiah and *Avtalyon. A monumental tomb built of masonry and with a large sarcophagus was excavated in 1973 by G. Edelstein and F. Vitto.
[Michael Avi-Yonah /
Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)]
Modern Period
In October 1948 when it was taken by the Israeli army, the Muslims left and the Christian inhabitants of the neighboring Kafr Birʿim came to settle in the village soon afterwards. Since then, the village population has been made up almost exclusively of members of the Maronite sect, forming Israel's major Maronite community. In 1968, it had 1,650 inhabitants. Its economy was based on olives, figs, deciduous fruits, vineyards, tobacco fields, and beef cattle. The historical name Gush Ḥalav ("Milk Clod") assumedly points to the production of milk and cheese for which the village has been famous at least since the early Middle Ages; some scholars, however, assume that the name refers to the light color of the local limestone, in contrast with the dark-reddish basalt rock of the neighboring village Raʾs al-Ahmar ("Red Mountain Top"), today moshav Kerem Ben Zimrah.
bibliography:
Y. Aharoni, Hitnaḥalut Shivtei Yisrael ba-Galil ha-Elyon (1957), 14; S. Klein (ed.), Sefer ha-Yishuv, 2 vols. (1939–44), s.v.; H. Kohl and C. Watzinger, Antike Synagogen in Galilaea (1916), 107ff.; Hamburger, in: iej, 4 (1954), 201ff. add. bibliography: S.J. Saller, Second Revised Catalogue of the Ancient Synagogues of the Holy Land (1972), 49; E. Meyers, "Ancient Gush Halav (Giscala), Palestinian Synagogues and the Eastern Diaspora," in: J. Gutman (ed.), Ancient Synagogues. The State of Research (1981), 61–77; Z. Ilan, Ancient Synagogues in Israel (1991), 25–27; Y. Tsafrir, L. Di Segni, and J. Green, Tabula Imperii Romani. Iudaea – Palaestina. Maps and Gazetteer (1994), 136; B. Bagatti, Ancient Christian Villages of Galilee (2001), 190–95.