The First "American Colony" Was Established in the Holy Land 150 Years Ago.

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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The First "American Colony" Was Established in the Holy Land 150 Years Ago. Help Us Find It in Photographs Posted: 05 Jun 2014  The American "Colony" in the 1860s. Please help us obtain  such pictures in high-resolution digitized form We are proud that the photographs presented here are all "kosher."  They usually have lapsed copyright restrictions, but, in any case, we seek and obtain permission from the relevant collections, archives and libraries.  All pictures are presented with the links to the original source, and we find librarians and archivists thankful for our site driving readers to their material. On occasion, however, we have skipped certain collections because of requests for payment. Photograph of the colony founder, George Jones Adams, c. 1841 We believe that pictures of Americans attempting to establish a colony near Jaffa in the 1860s are worthy of an entry in these pages.   (Our research found that Mark Twain met some of the members of the failed colony and wrote about them.) Unfortunately, the photographs can only be obtained in digitized high-resolution with payment.  In one case, a small American museum contains documents and photographs, and images must be purchased.  In the case of the Library of Congress, which has been amazingly cooperative in releasing their photographs, the photograph described below has never been digitized. Title: The American Settlement, near Joppa, Palestine. Erected by the Adams Colony from Maine and New Hampshire, 1866-7  Date Created/Published: [1866 or 1867] Medium: 1 photographic print. Summary: Photograph shows buildings of the "American Colony" or "Adams City" near Jaffa, now Tel Aviv, Israel which was founded by George Jones Adams (ca. 1811-1880) in 1866. Please click on the Paypal "Donate" button on the top right of our website,www.israeldailypicture.com, to assist us in purchasing these historic, high-resolution digitized images. (We are not purchasing the originals, just digitized copies.)

Creatures - cute and wonderful in Colorado

It was fun capturing these creatures on my camera while in Colorado May 15-18, 2014. I hope to get some more to share with you.

Steve Martin

Love For His People

 

 

This is a Western Tanager. His orange head is barely visible though.

Book of Ruth Comes Alive in Antique Photos Taken 100 Years Ago

In Honor of the Jewish Holiday Shavuot, We Re-post -- The Book of Ruth Comes Alive in Antique Photos Taken 100 Years Ago Posted: 13 May 2013 11:55 PM PDT "Ruth the Moabitess" The Jewish holiday ofShavuot-Pentecost will be celebrated this week.  The holiday has several traditional names: Shavuot, the festival of weeks, marking seven weeks after Passover; Chag HaKatzir, the festival of reaping grains; andChag HaBikkurim, the festival of first fruits.  Shavuot, according to Jewish tradition, is the day the Children of Israel accepted the Torah at Mt. Sinai.  It is also believed to be the day of King David's birth and death. Ruth said, "Do not entreat me to  leave you, to return from following  you, for wherever you go, I will go... Your people shall be my people, your  God my God" The reading of the Book of Ruth is one of the traditions of the holiday.  Ruth, a Moabite and widow of a Jewish man (and a princess according to commentators), gave up her life in Moab to join her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, in the Land of Israel.  She insisted on adopting Naomi's God, Torah and religion. And Naomi and Ruth both went on  until they arrived at Bethlehem A central element of the story of Ruth is her going to the fields where barley and wheat were being harvested so that she could collect charitable handouts.  She gleans in the fields of Boaz, a judge and a relative of Ruth's dead husband (as such he has a levirate obligation to marry the widow).  The union results in a child, Obed, the grandfather of King David.  Ruth came to a field that belonged  to Boaz who was of the family of  Naomi's deceased husband  Boaz said to his servant, who stood over the reapers, "To whom does this maiden belong?" The members of the American Colony were religious Christians who established their community in the Holy Land.  They were steeped in the Bible and photographed countryside scenes that referred to biblical incidents and prohibitions. Boaz said to Ruth, "Do not go to glean in another field...here you shall stay with my maidens" Boaz said to her at mealtime, "Come here and partake of the bread..." He ordered his servants "Pretend to  forget some of the bundles for her."  We present a few of thedozens of "Ruth" photographs found in the Library of Congress' American Colony collection. Ruth carried it to the city and Naomi saw what she had gleaned Ruth came to the threshing floor and Boaz said, "Ready the shawl you are wearing and hold it," and she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley.... A major effort was made by the photographers to re-enact the story of Ruth.  "Ruth," we believe, was a young member of the American Colony community; the remaining "cast" were villagers from the Bethlehem area who were actually harvesting, threshing and winnowing their crops.  We have matched the pictures with corresponding verses from the Book of Ruth. See more of the pictures here. Unfortunately, we don't know when the "Ruth and Boaz series" was photographed, but we estimate approximately 100 years ago. Click on the caption to view the original.  Full article: Picture A Day: Book of Ruth