Jaffa Community


The community in Tel Aviv-Jaffa is the oldest one among our communities.

Father Bruno Hussar, a Dominican brother who was born in Egypt to a Jewish family of Hungarian origin and who immigrated to Israel at the beginning of the 1950s, was the first to celebrate the mass in Hebrew in Jaffa in 1955. After he moved to Jerusalem, he was replaced, as head of the community, by Father Alfred Delmée, a Belgian priest who consecrated his life to the service of the Hebrew-speaking community in the city. He died in a car accident in 1985. In 1970, Father Gregor Pawlowski, a Polish Jew, and survivor of the Shoah arrived in Jaffa and began to work with the Polish community in Israel, some of whom were married to Jewish partners. Their children were educated in Hebrew schools and spoke Hebrew. That is how, out of the Polish community, another Hebrew-speaking community grew. Today, Father Apolinary Szwed, a Franciscan priest from Poland, serves as the head of the Hebrew-speaking community in the city.


The community of Tel Aviv-Jaffa congregates in a chapel within the monastery of the Franciscan Fathers, alongside the Church of Saint Peter in Jaffa.

Jaffa is mentioned twice in the Bible. Jonah the Prophet sailed from Jaffa as he fled from God who commanded him to go and bring His Word to the people of Nineveh. In his concern for all peoples, God asked a prophet from Israel to go and warn a nation who did not know God, lest they perish. Jonah’s own salvation is tied to his mission to the people of Nineveh, and this biblical tale evokes the universal mission of the people of Israel. Many years later, Simon Peter, he too a member of the people of Israel and a disciple and apostle of Christ, came to Jaffa. There, it was made known to him that he had to go to the home of Cornelius, a non-Jew who lived in Caesarea, in order to proclaim to him and to his household the good news of salvation in Jesus (Acts 10-11). Jaffa thus represents something important in our history – that salvation is meant for one and all, Jews and non-Jews.


Address: Mifrats Shlomo Promenade 1, Jaffa


Priest in charge: Fr. Apolinary Szwed, OFM



Mass Schedule

Saturday, Mass in Hebrew at 18.30

Sunday, Mass in Hebrew at 19.15


Interior of the chapel in Saint Peter's Church, Jaffa



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