It is believed that Najara's grandfather R' Levi Najara, was born in Spain and fled to Damascus due to the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain. His father R' Moshe ben Levi Najara was born in Salonica, and in his later years moved with his family to Safed and was involved with the kabbalistic circles of the Arizal. Rabbi Israel Najara was born in Safed around 1555. He lived most of his life between Safed, Damascus, and Gaza. Many details of his life can be inferred from his poetry. After an attack on the Jews of Safed in 1579, Najara left with his family and settled in Jobar on the outskirts of Damascus, where he served as a sofer and rabbi. He experienced unusual personal tragedy; his first wife died at a young age, and his only daughter from this marriage died at the age of ten. He eventually remarried, and some of the children from his second marriage survived into adulthood. In his later years, he was a rabbi in Gaza, where he is buried. One of his sons, Moses Najara, was also a poet, and succeeded his father as the chief rabbi of Gaza. His grandson Yaakov Najara was embroiled in the Sabbatean controversy.