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A British Diplomat Established a Training Farm for Jews in Jerusalem in 1852
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lenny Ben-David - James Finn, the British Consul to the Ottoman Empire in Jerusalem between 1846 and 1863, established "Abraham's Vineyard" - an "Industrial Plantation for employment of Jews of Jerusalem" - in 1852. He found the terrible living conditions of the Jewish community in Jerusalem to be beyond the imaginable, as Jewish charity from the West was cut off during the Crimean War. "Parents were said to be selling their children to Muslims as the only way of preserving their lives," Finn wrote. Eventually, more than 200 men and boys worked at the "Plantation," providing support to 450 family members. The farm also produced a quality soap that was sold to tourists. However, by the time Finn left Jerusalem, the foreign contributions to Abraham's Vineyard had dried up. Yet "among the Jews of Jerusalem, the hope of cultivating the desolate soil of their own Promised land was kindled. These objects were never again lost sight of. The Jews themselves took them up." This article is part of the "Jerusalem in Historical Context" series by Lenny Ben-David, Director of the Institute for U.S.-Israel Relations at the Jerusalem Center.