Christian Communes in Israel: Past, Present and Future

The life style of the first Christian community of Jesus` disciples in Jerusalem, Jacob, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, became a model for Christians across the globe. Based on the New Testament and Christian tradition, this community, as well as others outside the Holy Land, lived as communes.

From the beginning of the twentieth century onward various types of Jewish communes and cooperatives were established by the Zionist movement in Palestine/ Israel, as Kibbutzim, Moshavim and other unique modes of settlement. The Holy Land, home of the first Christian commune, saw renewal of Christian communal settlement only after close to 2 millennia, the first being the two Jaffa American Colonies and the American-Swedish Colony in Jerusalem from the mid-nineteenth century. The establishment of the State of Israel brought about both successful and failed attempts to build new Christian communes.

Our paper, based on the analysis of primary sources of the communes, fieldwork and interviews, focuses on several of the new Christian settlements in Israel, that evolved from the model of communal life of the first Christians. We discuss each commune individually and also compare between them, taking account of their leaders` initial vision and motivation, their past history, present demographic and economic condition, longevity of the commune, and the future long term prospects of communes that persisted.