Divine Expectations: An American Women in 19th-Century Palestine (review)

Kreiger and Goldman pieced together various sources to create a riveting and easy reading of one woman's personal quest to facilitate the return of the Jewish people to their restored homeland. This biography of Mrs. Clorinda Strong Minor spans just over a decade, opening in 1844 when she was about thirty-five years old. Details of her life prior to this date were not found. She appeared on the scene among the followers of William Miller, who, based on his interpretation of the scriptures, prophesied the Second Coming of Christ in 1843. Afterwards Miller concluded that there had been an error in the calculation and reset the date for Yom Kippur (October 24-25), 1844. Clorinda Minor strongly believed in Miller's prediction and placed the following advertisement in a Philadelphia newspaper.

Warning-I believe, according to the Scriptures, that the Lord Jesus Christ, will be revealed, in the clouds of Heaven, on the tenth day of the seventh month, which agrees with the 22d [sic] instant, I therefore entreat all whom this may reach, to prepare to meet their God. Clorinda S. Minor. (p. 15)

But Minor was devastated by the failed prophecy, and for two years grappled with the meaning of the event as it took its toll on her physically and psychologically. She arose with a new belief that "she was Esther, summoned by God to go to Mount Zion and 'make ready the land of Israel for the King's return'" (p. 17).

All her subsequent activities were focused on this purpose. Clorinda Minor set sail for Palestine in 1849, and, until her death six years later, she was involved in two agricultural projects whose purpose was to hasten the Second Coming.

The first project at Atras, south of Bethlehem, was in partnership with John Meshullam, a Jewish convert to Christianity. The project had limited success. An extremely complex series of events leading up to and following the dissolution of the partnership involved the British consul in Jerusalem, James Finn, and the American consul in Beirut, J. Horsford Smith, and continued through the diplomatic hierarchy to the American Department of State and British Foreign Office.

The vicinity of Jaffa was the second venue for Minor's attempt at agriculture. The short-lived Mount Hope farm waned after Clorinda Minor's death from dysentery in 1855, closing its doors in 1858 following a Bedouin attack.

This biography provides a detailed account of Minor's activities in Palestine, but often the author does not ground the events with details of exact dates. For example, Minor's journey to Jerusalem started on May 15, 1849 (p. 18); she reached the shores of Beirut 73 days later (p. 23); and toward the end of September (p. 32) she had been in Jerusalem for a number of days. This hinders the understanding of the chronology of events.

The "Sources and Chapter Notes" provide an extensive annotated list of works that relate to Clorinda Minor's activities and background information dealing with mid- nineteenth century American society, the American Jewish community, and the history and conditions in Palestine. A major deficiency is the lack of footnotes or endnotes, which does not allow the reader the opportunity to easily locate sources or challenge the authors' interpretation of them. Quotes are included without references to when these utterances were made and in what context (p. 145). The lack of notes sometimes lends to a lack of clarity. For example, Minor met with Sir Moses Montefiore in Beirut in 1849. It is not clear whether Minor was the sole source for this meeting, or did Montefiore provide his impressions as well (p. 26)? This is of interest since Montefiore and Minor interacted again with his purchase of property in the vicinity of Jaffa in 1855 (pp. 140-141).

Certain aspects of Minor's activities...