Traveler Discovers Kadesh-barnea in Sinai Wilderness

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

Kadesh-Barnea, the camping place of the wandering Israelites in the Sinai wilderness and the spot where Moses miraculously struck water from the rock, has been discovered.

Dr. William T. Ellis of Swarthmore, journalist and traveler, in an address at the United Presbyterian Church of Myerstown, near here, told of discovering sufficient evidence to prove that the way at what is known today as Ain Guderat which now serves as a place of rest for travelers, was put to the same use by the children of Israel thousands of years ago.

The valley of Kadesh-Barnea is spoken of in the Book of Numbers as the King’s Highway and today the valley at Ain Guderat is known to the Arabs by the same name. Dr. Ellis declared that the maps which have identified Kadesh with the present-day Ain Kadeis, were wrong. The scarcity of water, vegetation, and camping space, he said, made this impossible.

Dr. Ellis said water still flows from the wady at Ain Guderat, the only spring of its kind in Sinai. So copious is the flow that the Turks piped the water more than twenty miles into the desert to supply their troops who were menacing the Suez Canal during the war.

The ruins of the ancient city of Kadesh mentioned in the Bible and situated at the mouth of the wady at Ain Guderat “exactly conform” to the Old Testament narrative, Dr. Ellis said.

Dr. M. Krainen, head of the United Jewish Immigration Committee of Berlin and member of the Praesidium of the European Ort, will address the conference of the American Ort at the Pennsylvania Hotel on Sunday, Oct. 24th.

Meyer Weisgal. Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America and Managing Editor of the “New Palestine,” upon his return from a visit to Palestine, was tendered a luncheon by the staff of Zionist Headquarters on Oct. 8, at Charles’ Restaurant. Every organization engaged in Palestine activities was well represented at the luncheon.