An outbreak of plague decimated the population in 1742 and the Near East earthquakes of 1759 left the city in ruins , killing 200 town 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 , and , in 1819 , the remaining Jewish residents were held for ransom by Abdullah Pasha , the Acre-based governor of Sidon . During the period of Egyptian domination ( ca. 1831 – 1841 ) , the city experienced a severe decline , with the Jewish community hit particularly hard . In the 1834 looting of Safed , much of the Jewish quarter was destroyed by rebel Arabs , who plundered the city for many weeks
Near East earthquakes of 1759
Near East earthquakes of 1759
Safed