Years: c. 1555–c. 1625
Primary city: Gaza
Rabbi Yisrael ben Moshe Najara was a leading paytan and darshan of the late Ottoman period, known for his extensive corpus of Hebrew liturgical poetry collected in his sefer Zemirot Yisrael. He served as rabbi and preacher of the Jewish community in Gaza, where his integration of biblical, rabbinic, and contemporary melodies into piyyut influenced later Sephardi and Eastern Jewish song traditions. His writings also include halachic and exegetical works.