1784 | Meanwhile, what happens to Jerusalem after centuries of Muslim rule? A first witness, Constantin Volney, French philosopher and orientalist, went there. In 1784, the scientific traveler noticed …the destroyed walls of Jerusalem, its moats full of garbage, its drains strewn with debris.18
1789 | The French Revolution does not improve the dramatic situation. The Catholic Church considers Jews harmful to the community. It was better to get rid of them, as they carried diseases and could not be assimilated. The National Assembly of Paris accepts the Rights of Man, Catholics and Protestants are equal before the law, but Jews are not included.
The majority (around 60%) of Jews live outside the cities. They gather in groups of fifty to one hundred to protect each other from bandits. They spend the night in the forests and move frequently. During the day, they go to the markets to offer their services. Music is one of their arts, practiced with delicacy and appreciated by the local population. In return, they receive food and sometimes silver or gold. The remaining 40% are citizens integrated into the towns, often working as independent traders.
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte made a gesture in favor of the Jews by abolishing the requirement to wear a yellow hat.
1791 Touched by the unequal treatment of certain French citizens, Maximilien de Robespierre calls for mutual responsibility. He was in favor of abolishing slavery, against the death penalty, and for equal and identical rights for all. The Jews of France are recognized as full citizens.
Hope will spread to Jewish communities in other nations.
Visit to the Holy Land
If I forget you Jerusalem, let my right hand forget me ! Let my tongue stick to my palate, if I do not remember you, if I do not make Jerusalem the main subject of my joy.19
Towards the end of the 18th century, men were wondering about Jerusalem. Many set out to visit the city, so aroused was their curiosity and spiritual call. This is what the Lord, the master of the universe, says: In this desolate place, there will still be no man or beast, and in all the towns that depend on it, there will still be a domain where shepherds can rest their flocks. In the cities of the mountains, in those of the plain and of the south, in the land of Benjamin, the outskirts of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, the sheep will still parade before the one who counts them, says the Lord.20
1796 | Tsar PaulI, Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, wonders about the fate of the city. He sent a delegation of 22 servants to investigate the situation on site. They met pilgrims from 17 nations. But the city was in ruins, and everything had to be rebuilt. The tsar was assassinated before he could make a gesture in Jerusalem’s favor.
1806 | After arriving in the port of Jaffa in October 1806, François-René de Chateaubriand, French politician and writer, continued his journey towards the divine city, of which he would later exclaim: “I’m so happy! Jerusalem, … its church steeples, its minarets, its square stone houses. … Enter the city, and nothing will console you for the gloomy exterior: you wander through small, unpaved streets, up and down on uneven ground, and walk through streams of dust or among rolling pebbles. Cloths thrown from one house to another increase the darkness of this labyrinth, vaulted and vile bazaars take the light away from the desolate city, a few puny stores display nothing but misery, and often these very stores are closed in fear of a cadi passing by. No one in the streets, no one at the city gates; sometimes only a peasant slips into the shadows, hiding the fruits of his labor under his clothes, for fear of being robbed by the soldier. .21
1841 | Inauguration of a printing press in Jerusalem. This was proof of an intense intellectual and, above all, spiritual life, as he sought to disseminate his thoughts and reflections on the Torah to his co-religionists. From time to time, a letter from Jerusalem is sent to Jewish communities in the Diaspora. The aim is to remind them of the sacred texts And he gave their land as an inheritance to Israel, his people. Eternal, your name endures forever, Eternal, your memory endures from generation to generation. House of Israel, bless the LORD…From Zion bless the LORD who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! 22 A special intonation is given to the value of the divine city, the jewel of Jewish worship.
1844 | Pastor Alexander Keith visits Jerusalem and the region. He writes The Holy Land has reached the state of total desolation described by the prophets. 23 His son was one of the first photographers to immortalize the country of Israel.
1845 | In an attempt to answer the important question of the return of Jesus Christ, Pastor Emil Guers wrote in 1845: The long-awaited parousia of our Lord will not take place until his people, the people of Israel, form a nation. There will be a literal re-establishment of the nation of Israel, in the land given to it by the Eternal.24 In the books of the prophets, there are many quotations that speak of the return of the Jews to their land. Certainly, they returned from the south, from Egypt, or from the north, from Syria, and they returned from the east, from Babylon. But they never returned from the west, from the setting sun, as predicted by Zechariah or this text Fear not, for I am with thee; I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather them from the west; I will say to the north, Give! And to the South, “Do not withhold! Bring my sons from distant lands and my daughters from the ends of the earth.25
A remnant had always remained in the country. The towns of Safed, Hebron, Beersheba and Tiberias have always been inhabited, mostly by Jewish families. But many Jews had to return home.
The prophets of the Bible have written that, at the time of this return, Jews are to come from various countries: ” Behold, I will gather you from all the countries where I drove you out.26 I will bring back the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel, and restore them to their former state .I will bring back the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel; I will restore them as before. 27 Interesting details are added by the prophet Ezekiel: And you, mountains of Israel, will sprout your branches and bear fruit for my people Israel … I will put upon you men in great numbers, the whole house of Israel. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will take you from among the nations, gather you from all lands and bring you back to your own land. … I will populate the cities, the ruins will be raised up, the wasteland will be cultivated, while it was deserted in the eyes of all who passed by; And it will be said, This wasteland has become like a garden of Eden, and these ruined cities, deserted and desolate, are fortified and inhabited. 28 There was nothing in world history to suggest that these prophecies had already been fulfilled. Many theologians and pastors were aware that these events had not yet been fulfilled, so Christ’s return was for later. The Jewish people must first reconstitute themselves as a nation. This will be the most convincing sign of the imminent return of Jesus Christ or the arrival of the Messiah.
1850 | Sent by his government, Gustave Flaubert, a French minister, toured the whole of Palestine in 1850. In August, he visited the City of David and wrote: Jerusalem is a charnel house surrounded by walls. Everything rots there, dead dogs in the streets, religions in the churches. There is an abundance of filth and ruins, ruins everywhere, and the smell of tombs. … At night, jackals can be heard disturbing the silence.29 It is a sparsely inhabited desert; we met a few nomadic shepherds with their flocks. Jerusalem is immensely sad. It has a great charm. God’s curse seems to hover over this city, where all you see are ruins and garbage.30 He estimates the population of Palestine at around 4,000, generally hostile to this foreign presence.
The writer Mark Twain, as a young reporter, visited Palestine. He wrote: Jerusalem has lost all its ancient grandeur and is but a destitute village. It is a desolate region whose soil is abandoned to thorns – a bleak, silent expanse.
The present desolation is such that the most fertile imagination could not gratify this landscape with a semblance of life or movement. On our journey, we didn’t encounter a single human being. Only the occasional tree or carob. Even the olive tree and the cactus, last friends of poor soils, seem to have deserted this country. It’s nothing more than a poor, lost province whose towns are falling into ruin, abandoned to a few nomads.31
These descriptions of Jerusalem’s abandonment are sobering… For all the centuries it was a Muslim possession, it vegetated in a state of indescribable decay.
When the Jews return from among the nations, will they have to drive out other nations occupying their land of Canaan? On the day your walls are rebuilt, on that day your boundaries will be pushed back. … The land will be devastated because of its inhabitants, because of the fruit of their deeds.32 Wicked nations have no future; they destroy themselves! Abandoned by men, lands swept by sandy winds become bare soil on which only the sparse thorns grow.
As all visitors to Jerusalem have confirmed, the Jewish pioneers were to find deserts, a country sparsely inhabited. Only a few Bedouin tribes had pitched their tents in these arid places. They moved with the herds, in search of twigs of grass resistant to the sun and the abrasive power of the sandy winds. Water is scarce, mosquitoes and disease abound. Canaan, the Promised Land, Eretz Israel, is an arid, uninhabited land! As the prophet foretold: On the land of my people grow thorns and brambles. It won’t always be so. Many promises speak of renewal: … and let the desert become an orchard.33
Pogroms
1856 | The major Christian denominations, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant, had one thing in common: they considered the Jews to be deicides, responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. They were the ones who denounced and killed him. Historically, we know that it was the Romans who crucified him. Theologically, Christ died for the sins of all men. Christ offered himself once to bear the sins of many men.34 Jesus Christ gave his life to reconcile us with God.35 There’s no point in looking for someone to blame.
Unfortunately, in Central Europe, many spiritual leaders take a different view and, invested with their authority, spread a communal hatred that is difficult to manage. Pogroms, violent popular riots, take place on religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas. Groups of people attack Jews or their property. For no reason at all, the mob insults, threatens, breaks and sets fire to their property. Sometimes, the aggression escalates into a brawl, a prelude to justifying the murder of one or more Jews. For the troublemakers, the punishment was generally forgotten, the evidence lacking. Impunity encouraged more pogroms and more violence.
Young Jews feel society’s injustice towards them. They want a future, and are less and less reluctant to leave Europe for the wastelands of their ancestors, the Land of Israel. They trust in the Lord’s promises As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show you wonders. The nations will see it and be ashamed, with all their power; they will put their hand over their mouth, their ears will be deafened.36