Nes Ammim

Nes Ammim is situated in Israel's Northern District, in the Akko subdistrict, within the Mateh Asher Regional Council.[5] It lies near Nahariya, at the foot of a mountain ridge between Acre and Nahariya.[2]

The settlement is organized as a moshav — a cooperative farm village — and has been described variously as a Christian moshav and, by some sources, as a Christian kibbutz.[1][2] It is one of three Protestant communal agricultural settlements established in different parts of Israel.[3] A 1983 workshop program described Nes Ammim as a "Christian Settlement in Israel," founded by Christians from different countries and churches, existing "to contribute to the understanding and realization of new relationships with the Jewish people whose covenant with God continues and who live in the land of Israel."[6]

The idea for Nes Ammim originated with Johan Pilon, a Dutch doctor who worked at the Scottish Hospital in Tiberias and sought to open a new chapter in Jewish-Christian relations in the aftermath of the Holocaust.[2] Dr. Franklin Littell described Pilon as a former Hebrew-Christian missionary whose outlook changed in 1948, during the Holocaust's aftermath and the War of Independence; Pilon called this transformation a "second conversion," after which he and his wife dedicated their lives to helping build up the land.[4]

In 1963, two volunteer families arrived at the site by bus from Nazareth. The bus served as their first home and was still being used as a museum when the account was published in 2012.[2] The settlement faced substantial early opposition, particularly from neighboring Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot.[2] German volunteers, who later became the majority of the community, received permits for permanent residence in Israel in 1970.[2]

There is a discrepancy in the founding date: The Jerusalem Post states that Nes Ammim was founded in 1963, while the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics' 2022 locality table lists its establishment year as 1964.[7][5] The sources do not explain the difference, which may reflect different definitions of founding and formal establishment.

In 1975, Nes Ammim inaugurated a center for seminars and study projects intended to advance its ideal of promoting understanding between Jews and Christians through constructive coexistence.[1] That year, the settlement's pastor, Rev. Simon Schoon, joined seven other Christian clergy in Israel in signing a telegram to UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim protesting the UN General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism.[8] The telegram described Zionism as a living link between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland and asserted that Israel had made serious efforts to ensure equality for its inhabitants.[8]

The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics recorded a total population of 457 in 2022, comprising 431 Jews and others, including 395 Jews, and 26 Arabs.[5] A 2012 profile described the community at that time as roughly 100 Protestant Christians from Germany and the Netherlands, alongside several dozen volunteers.[2]

The community relied substantially on volunteer labor. Young Dutch and German visitors typically stayed for about a year, retirees sometimes came for shorter visits and remained for years, and adults in their thirties to fifties — often with professional skills such as gardening or renovation — also participated.[2] Community members and clergy alike carried out ordinary service work, including cleaning, gardening, waiting tables, and washing dishes.[2]

Agricultural activity was significant in Littell's account of the settlement. He reported that Nes Ammim had developed long-stem roses with stems approximately 30 inches long, shipped by the tens of thousands each morning to Frankfurt and Rotterdam, and had more than 30 acres of avocado trees under development.[4]

Administrative director Plaus Bloom stated that Nes Ammim had no missionary activity and did not seek to convert Jews, describing this as a commitment formalized in an agreement with then-prime minister Levi Eshkol.[2] Bloom also reported that the settlement had begun admitting Jewish and Arab families and described plans for a kindergarten and a bilingual Jewish-Arab elementary school. These were intentions at the time of reporting, and the source does not establish whether they were subsequently realized.[2]

The original bus that housed Nes Ammim's first two volunteer families was later preserved as a museum.[2] The settlement's guesthouse was described as central to daily life and hosted workshops for mixed groups, supported by European Protestant communities interested in historical reconciliation.[2]

Nes Ammim uses the term "house of prayer" rather than church. Its services were held on Saturdays, and Christian symbols and icons were largely absent from the prayer hall — practices presented as efforts to avoid provoking surrounding communities and to connect with local customs.[2] The seminar and study center inaugurated in 1975 provided another institutional focus for Jewish-Christian understanding.[1]

Community leaders documented in the sources include Christine Pilon, identified as Johan Pilon's widow and a community leader, and Dr. Simon Schoon, who served as the settlement's pastor and seminar leader.[6] Schoon was also a signatory of the 1975 protest telegram to the United Nations.[8]

Nes Ammim also figures in a Holocaust-era story of rescue and reunion. Haika Grossman arranged for Otto Busse — a German who had aided Bluma and other Jews during the Holocaust — and his wife Erna to live at Nes Ammim. The settlement agreed to raise money to provide the couple with a home.[7] Otto had discovered broken silverware in the rubble of Bluma's bombed-out home in Bialystok in 1944, kept the utensils while searching for her, and eventually sent them to her through the Red Cross.[7] In 1971, Bluma, her son Barry, and his wife Carol visited Otto at Nes Ammim, reuniting with him for the first time.[7] Otto and Erna returned to Germany in the late 1970s because of health difficulties acclimating to Israel's warm climate.[7]

A 2012 Calcalist profile described Nes Ammim as the first Christian communal settlement established in the State of Israel and linked its founding purpose to post-Holocaust Christian self-examination and confrontation with the Nazi past.[2] Permanent pastor Rainer Stuhlmann described the community's daily presence in Israel as a form of atonement for the Holocaust and noted that Protestant theology had shifted away from holding Jews responsible for the death of Jesus.[2]

During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, 63 Nes Ammim members signed a declaration supporting a statement prepared by the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel.[9] The signatories said Palestinian claims were legitimate and should be addressed through negotiations involving Israel, the Palestinians, and neighboring Arab states, while rejecting the idea that Christians should impose those claims on the Jewish government as a Christian demand.[9]

Littell's characterization of the community's method — "They’re not preaching, they’re not talking, they’re simply being present" — reflects the way he understood Nes Ammim's central contribution: not theological argument, but sustained physical solidarity with the Jewish people in their own land.[4]