The ForeRunners

By Reed M Holmes, Ph.D.
Introduction by Dr. Carney Gavin.
Epilog 2003: A Dream in the Making by Jean L. Holmes, M.A.

The story of this pioneer venture of American families from the state of Maine in the USA. They established a neighborhood outside the walled city of Jaffa in 1866, forty-three years before the founding of Tel Aviv in 1909. They experienced heartbreaking tragedies with the death of 22 of the 157 people in the first six months. Many of the rest returned to Maine before 1870, but those who remained accomplished wonders.

Their determination was to encourage the Return. It is pertinent to recall that this was their objective and not the conversion of the Jewish people.

50 sheqelim. 303 pages. Second edition 2003. First edition 1981. ISBN 0-8309-0315-1

HaNachshonim

Dreamers of Zion

Reed M Holmes' Ph.D. dissertation from Haifa University, Israel compares the beliefs and actions of Joseph Smith and George J. Adams in relation to early Zionism. The book includes a well documented bibliography and notes.

From the back cover:

Joseph Smith, Jr, founder of the Mormon movement, and George J. Adams, one of his least known followers--two Gentile dreamers of Zion--were instrumental in encouraging Jews and Christians to support the restoration of Israel.

For Joseph Smith, Jewish responsibility for establishing Zion had not been forfeited or terminated. It was continuous: the Jews would return as Jews; they would rebuild Jerusalem as Jews. In his view, neither the denigration of Jews so often characteristic of Christianity, nor supersession by the Church, was tenable. According to Joseph's perception of the Scriptures, and his own prophetic insights, there are to be two strategic centers--Zion at historical Jerusalem, and Zion in a New Jerusalem in the heartland of America. He believed that a renewed Israel and a church, restored to its primal purpose, shared a mandate to body forth in society the dream of the Kingdom of God. He called this dream the cause of Zion, which became a major emphasis of the Mormon movement.

Adams, separated from the Mormons following the assassination of Joseph Smith in 1844, founded his own Church of the Messiah. Most of his congregations were in Maine, where he readied his followers for a mission as the "Children of Ephraim," which he explicated with persuasive skill from the Old Testament. Later he led 156 of his followers to found an agricultural and commercial colony in Jaffa, Israel.

This book explains the rejection by Smith and Adams of "normal" Christian replacement theology and sets out the apologetics by which Smith and Adams promoted courage and conviction in all who joined them in encouraging the ingathering of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem.

55 US dollars. 234 pages. Sussex Academic Press, 2003. ISBN 1-903900-62-X

Authors

Reed M Holmes, Ph.D. received his doctorate from Haifa University, Israel, is a historian, photographer, and storyteller. The storytelling comes naturally--his family lived in Maine for generations--a mix of Wentworths, Seaveys, Smalls, Fernalds, and Hopkins.

Dr. Holmes first heard the story of G. J. Adams and his courageous followers in 1943 from one of them. According to yarns about the venture from Jonesport to Jaffa in 1866 it was best forgotten. A careful search proved otherwise.

This is a compelling story, unique in the annals of American history, and a newly discovered link between Maine and the roots of modern Israel.


Jean L. Holmes is a licensed construction supervisor in Massachusetts, a theology and Holocaust scholar, an accomplished photographer, a linguist and educator. Honored as a "Friend of Israel" by the Ministry of Tourism for her direction of Friendship Journeys, she presides over the non-profit organization Keshet haShalom and View-Pax Mondiale. She was graduated Magna Cum Laude from Hebrew College, Brookline, Mass. with a M.A. in Judaic Studies.

Jean has drawn on many of her skills to rescue an American prefab house from demolition in Jaffa, Israel. She has built on its Maine heritage to found the Maine Friendship House and revitalize the Jaffa American Colony.