PHOTOS: Revealed – The Last Letter Of The First American Consul To Jerusalem (1860): “The Turks Will Soon Be ‘Cast-Out’ From This Land”

(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Until recently, what is known about the story of Warder Cresson, First US consul to Jerusalem – American Evangelist, Quaker and Adventist whose conversion to Judaism resulted in the “trial of the century” in Philadelphia – ended in 1852, the year he published a book about his ordeal (Key of David) and withdrew to anonymity as part of the Jewish community in Jerusalem.

But a recently discovered letter, hand-written a month before Cresson passed away and offered for sale by Kedem Auction House, reveals the reflections of the first US consul to Jerusalem on Muslims in the Holy Land, early Zionism, the USA, conversions to Judaism and daily rituals in mid-19th century Jerusalem.

Key quotes from the letter:
Page 1 of the 4-page hand-written letter by Warder Cresson, written just a month before his death (September 1860) and sent to a Quaker Minister in Pennsylvania.

(About the Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem): “…as their Koran fully testifies and very soon, they will be ‘cast-out’ from this land, as the 52nd Chapter of Isaiah declares, and not return to Zion with the Redeemed of the Lord, with songs and everlasting joy, upon their heads. Because, they are ‘Unclean’ & Egyptians…” (more inside the letter).

(About his trial and return to Jerusalem): “in the year, 1848, I returned, at the particular request of my family to America, I very soon found, that I had got out of the “Field of Boaz” (of Strength) for I found that all their Conversations; their Places of Diversion; – Their Fashions, Their Pleasures – their Love of mammon, would eventually land me in the Field of Weakness and sin, and I therefore determined to return to Jerusalem, at every sacrifice, as soon as possibly could; which I did and thank God, I am here; where I hope to lay my Bones; if our blessed Messiah does not come before that period, and give me Eternal Life”.

About other converts to Judaism at the mid-19th century):
“Think of this, Dear friend, I am now in my 63rd year, and thee must be Older; lately there was a Wise-Woman, came to our Rabbies, from the Latin or Roman Catholic church & declared it to be her wish to become a Jewess. The rabbies questioned her very closely & found that the Truth and Light of God, had been doing their work, & therefore they could not reject her; & 4 males also lately joined us’.