The United States provided protection for Jews arriving in the Holy Land during the Ottoman rule in the late 19th and early 20th century, according to papers based on long forgotten American Embassy records which were reported to scholars at the three-day Second International Scholars Colloquium on America-Holy Land studies which ended here last week.
More than 100 scholars from Canada, Israel, Britain, the United States and Turkey took part in the colloquium, sponsored by the American Jewish Historical Society, the National Archives and Records Service, where most sessions were held, and the Institute of Contemporary Jewry of the Hebrew University.
Officials said the centuries old relationship between America and the Holy Land, prior to 1948, when Israel was proclaimed, has been the subject of a new field of study in recent years. The first colloquium was held in 1975.
During the meeting, the scholars exchanged information on their latest findings contained in hundreds of pamphlets and books written by archaeologists, historians, scientists, Biblical scholars, American consuls, novelists, missionaries, tourists and settlers and builders of the Holy Land.
British scholars reported that British libraries have also been found to house a rich source of material about America and the Holy Land, as well as about late 19th century attitudes toward the Jewish return to Palestine in both Britain and the United States.
Israeli scholars delivered papers about the numerous documentary sources found in Israel, including items from the 19th century Eretz Yisrael Hebrew press.
Dr. Moshe Davis, director of the Hebrew University Institute, told a press conference at the Israel Embassy here that, since colonial days. Americans have been “fascinated” by the life, culture and history of the Holy Land. He said the “wealth of material” being unearthed on this topic is “a vast untapped mine.”
Davis said that “in American thought and action, Holy Land ideas have been a pervasive force since the earliest days of the American settlement.” He said the Holy Land imagery was “strongly expressed in literature hymns, spirituals, public oratory and common parlance.”
Davis told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that one of the goals of the exploration by the scholars of the current findings and research was the hope of establishing university teaching programs in this discipline.
Another session dealt with the America-Holy Land theme as expressed among different religious and cultural elements in the American society — American Jews, Blacks, Evangelical Protestants and Catholics.
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