Falestin Naïli dates Baldensperger’s invitation to a German group to join the Artas settlement to February 1850. The invitation documents recruitment into a Christian agricultural community south of Bethlehem, rather than the first foundation of the locality.

The movement’s religious expectations belong in its history, including the place assigned to the conversion of יהודים YEHUDIM. Meshullam’s origin in a family of יהודים YEHUDIM and conversion to Anglicanism complicate a simple division between native and foreign actors. The companion concerns the recruitment act; it does not infer government direction or a particular dispossession from the invitation alone.

1

How is this dated?

Naïli’s account gives February 1850. The civil month reconstructs from 19 Shevat to 16 Adar 5610, so it cannot be represented by a single Hebrew month. The date belongs to an invitation, not proof that all invitees arrived during February. The cited letters may eventually supply a day, but none is established in the current witness.

2

Guided reflections

  • How did missionary expectations give this recruitment a particular significance for the future of יהודים YEHUDIM?
  • Why should an invitation and the subsequent arrival of settlers appear as different kinds of event?

Footnotes

  1. Falestin Naïli, Before the Templers: The millenarist settlement in Artas Part II, Jerusalem Quarterly 50 (2012) — pp. 39–42; February 1850 invitation and letters; author-uploaded text ↩
  2. Falestin Naïli, Before the Templers: The millenarist settlement in Artas Part II, Jerusalem Quarterly 50 (2012) — pp. 39–42; February 1850 invitation and letters; author-uploaded text ↩