Nes Ammim

Nes Ammim (Hebrew נֵס עַמִּים, German ensign to the nations ) is a small Christian settlement with fewer than 100 residents in the regional administration Mateh Ash in the North District of Israel. The village is located about ten kilometers northeast of Acre and eight kilometers southeast of Nahariya and is also known as a Christian kibbutz. Nes Ammim campaigns for German -Israeli and intra- Israeli dialogue.

Concept

Nes Ammim means a sign for people and is a quote from the Book of Isaiah (Isa 11,10 LUT). The logo of Nes Ammim contains the fish as a sign of Christianity and the ear as a symbol of agriculture. One condition of the settlement was the absence of missionary work among Jews. The settlement does not work as a kibbutz, but as Moshaw Shitufi with private property. The Nes- Ammim Movement receives the guiding principles which have evolved over the years:

• A Christian theology that is free of mission against Jews
• Solidarity with the Jewish population
• Learning about the origins of Christianity by studying the Jewish tradition
• At the peace process involved by organizing dialogue seminars between Jews and Arabs

History

Nes Ammim goes back to an idea of the Dutch physician John Pilon and his wife Stijn, who lived in Israel since 1950. Pilon found support for a Christian settlement as a sign of solidarity with the State of Israel, founded in 1948, after the Holocaust, particularly in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. In these countries, companies were established to support the project and in 1961 acquired a plot of 1 km ². In 1963 the first family from Switzerland to the village. They first lived in an old bus. With the help of the neighboring kibbutz Regba a water supply was created. The base of agriculture were avocados and breeding of roses in greenhouses. It worked up to 200 seasonal workers. The first German families came in 1970, the German resistance fighter Otto Busse and his wife lived here for three years. From 1978, a hotel and a hostel emerged, tourism grew strong, the population grew to 140 adults and 60 children, and thousands of volunteers came from Europe and America. After 1990, there was almost a standstill of tourism because of the intifada; at the same time agriculture was discontinued unprofitable and 2001. Today the guesthouse for pilgrims is the material basis of the settlement, which is heavily dependent on donations.

The settlement today

Nes Ammim now acts as an ecumenical meeting center. There is a church that also serves as a concert hall. It was opened in 1990 by Peter Beier, the president of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. Next there is a children's forest with a tree for every child born in the settlement as well as in the used by the first settlers bus a small museum. The hotel is surrounded by a botanical garden.