Hall of Fame

The Pietist movement arose in Germany in the late 17th century out of the Lutheran Church. This movement greatly influenced the Moravian Church, as well as John Wesley and the Methodist movement in England. The pietists were fascinated with their Jewish heritage. Many became Hebrew scholars. They believed that they were meant to play a key role in a divine universal plan alongside the Jews.

Thomas Brightman (1552-1607) was an English clergyman and Puritan Bible commentator. His work Shall They Return to Jerusalem Again? advocated for the return of the Jews to the Holy Land. It said, "There is nothing more certain: the prophets do everywhere confirm it and beat upon it."

Henry Finch (1558-1625) was a Member of the British Parliament, Puritan, jurist and legal scholar. His seminal work,The World's Great Restoration, published in 1621, is considered to be the first clearly articulated plan for restoration. Finch taught that the biblical passages that describe a return of the Jews to their own land should be taken literally, not as allegorical references to the Church. At the time of the publication of this work he was a Member of Parliament and one of the most highly respected legal scholars in England. King James of England was offended by Finch's statement that all nations would become subservient to the Nation of Israel at the time of her restoration. As a result, Finch was stripped of his status and possessions.

Anders Pederson Kempe (1622-89) was a German theologian forced out of Stockholm because of his outspokenness regarding German Messianism. In his book, Israel's Good News, he wrote, "You heathen Christians, you let yourselves be persuaded by false teachers, ... to believe that the Jews were forever disinherited and rejected by God and that you were now the rightful Christian Israel, to possess the Land of Canaan forever."

Ebenezer and Joanna Cartwright (1649) were English Puritans living in Amsterdam, who petitioned the British Government to lift the ban on Jews settling in England, and to assist them in moving to Palestine. They wrote, "That this Nation of England, with the inhabitants of the Netherlands, shall be the first and the readiest to transport Israel's sons and daughters on their ships to the land promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for an everlasting inheritance."

John Tolland (1670-1722) was an Irish participant in England's theological and political debates. In 1714, he publishedReasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland on the Same Footing with all Other Nations. This work paved the way for Jews to enter Parliament.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was a world-famous 17th century scientist, who discovered gravity and revolutionized mankind's understanding of physics. Newton studied Hebrew and believed the prophecies in the Old Testament about the Jews' return to Israel. He thought that the rebuilding of Jerusalem would take place in the late 19th century, and that the Temple would be rebuilt in the 20th or 21st century.

Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling (1740-1817) was a famous eye specialist and pietist. In his influential book, Das Heimweh von Heinrich Stilling, Jung-Stilling wrote, "God has proclaimed through the prophets of old that the people of Israel would be scattered throughout the world. Who can deny that this has taken place? Yet the same prophets have prophesied that in the latter days God would gather his people again from the four corners of the earth, and bring them back to the land which he promised to their fathers long ago to be an everlasting possession....The land of Palestine will again become the possession of the Jewish people."

Joseph Eyre (1754-1803) was an English Evangelical leader and clergyman who founded a number of Evangelical institutions, such as The Evangelical Magazine and the London Missionary Society. He drew public attention to the ancient biblical promises that God made to Abraham, publishingObservations upon Prophecies Relating to the Restoration of the Jews.

John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet and scholar, who wrote of Israel's restitution in his celebrated Paradise Regained. He wrote, "Yet He at length, time to himself best know remembering Abraham, by some wondrous call may bring them back." De Doctrina Christiana - which was not published until nearly 150 years after Milton's death - provides further evidence of the author's millenarian convictions and belief in Israel's revival.

George Gawler (1796-1869) was a senior British commander at the Battle of Waterloo and the first Governor of Australia. His wrote at length about establishing Jewish agricultural colonies in the Holy Land - and worked with Sir Moses Montefiore to develop Jewish settlements there. These projects included Yemin Moshe - the first modern Jewish neighborhood to be built in Jerusalem outside of the Old City walls. His son, John Cox Gawler, took up his father's cause and published a detailed plan for settlement, which formed the basis for the first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine, Petah Tikvah.

Robert Browning (1812-1889) was a well-known English poet - and an expert in Jewish literature, who often read the Old Testament in the original Hebrew. He wrote in 1855, in "The Holy Cross Day", "The Lord will have mercy on Jacob yet, And again in his border see Israel yet, When Judah beholds Jerusalem, The strangers shall be joined to them; To Jacob's House shall the Gentiles cleave, So the Prophet sayeth and the sons believe."

Robert Murray M' Cheyne (1813-1843) was a Presbyterian minister in the Church of Scotland, who authored a Church report along with Andrew Bonar on "the Condition of the Jews in their Land." Their report was widely publicized in Great Britain. It was followed by a "Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine", which was printed verbatim in the London Times, igniting an enthusiastic campaign in Britain for the restoration of the Jews to their land.

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) was the Bishop of Liverpool and one of the most authoritative Anglican leaders of the nineteenth century. In his sermon, "Scattered Israel to be Gathered," he argued that the national restoration of Israel was so clear in scripture that denying it would be as incomprehensible as denying the divinity of Christ.

John Stoddard (1850-1931) was a famous American travel and hymn writer who wrote in 1897: "In a place so thronged with classic and religious memories as Palestine, even a man who has no Hebrew blood in his veins may indulge in a dream regarding the future of this extraordinary people....'Take again the land of your forefathers. We guarantee you its independence and integrity. It is the least that we can do for you after all these centuries of misery. All of you will not wish to go thither, but many will. At present Palestine supports only six hundred thousand people, but, with proper cultivation it can easily maintain two and a half million. You are a people without a country; there is a country without a people. Be united. Fulfill the dreams of your old poets and patriarchs. Go back - go back to the land of Abraham.'"

Jean Henri Dunant (1828-1910) was a Swiss Protestant humanitarian and the driving force behind the creation of the International Red Cross. In 1901, he was awarded the first Nobel Peace prize. Dunant was an ardent supporter of Jewish settlement in the Holy Land and attended the first Zionist Congress in 1897. In Herzl's closing speech at the Congress, he referred to Dunant as a Christian Zionist, which was the first time that the term was used. The State of Israel honored Dunant by planting a grove in the Jerusalem Forest just below Mt. Herzl in his name.

John Wesley (1703-1791) was an Anglican cleric credited with founding the Methodist denomination. His preaching notes on Romans 11:12 say "So many prophecies refer to this grand event, that it is surprising any Christian can doubt it. And these are greatly confirmed by the wonderful preservation of the Jews as a distinct people to this day. When it is accomplished, it will be so strong a demonstration, both of the Old and New Testament revelation...."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England's most influential preacher and one of the most widely read men of his era. In a famous sermon in 1864, he said, "If there is anything clear and plain, the literal sense and meaning of this passage - a meaning not to be spirited or spiritualized away - it must be evident that both the two and the ten tribes of Israel are to be restored to their own land and that a king is to rule over them."

Lord Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930) was a British Prime Minister, statesman, and the author of the seminal Balfour Declaration, which was credited as the legal foundation for the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. A deeply religious man steeped in the Bible, Balfour convinced the British War Cabinet to issue the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." When speaking with Louis Brandeis about Christians who were in favor of the Zionist movement, Balfour proclaimed "I am a Zionist." Read More

President Woodrow Wilson (1854-1924) was the U.S. President who guided American policy through World War I - and was the son, and grandson, of Presbyterian ministers. The British government refused to issue the Balfour Declaration without his support. He gave his support with reservations, concerned that there could be serious political consequences for such a declaration. Yet, he believed that returning Palestine to the Jews had divine ramifications. He told his friend, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, "to think that the son of the manse (parsonage) should be able to help restore the Holy Land to its people."

Charles Orde Wingate (1903-44) was a British officer and devout Bible believer. In 1936, he began training the Haganah - the main military force of the Jewish community in British Palestine. He used the Hebrew scriptures as a training manual and created the night squads, which included future Israeli commanders Yigal Allon and Moshe Dayan. In 1939, the British transferred him out of Palestine because of his Zionist sentiments. At his farewell he quoted Psalm 137: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem..." and promised to return. Yet, he died before the State was born in 1948. Read More

John Grauel (1917-1986) was a Methodist minister, who volunteered on the Exodus-1947 - a ship packed with 4,500 Holocaust survivors that was assaulted by the British en-route to Palestine. Grauel was the ship's only non-Jewish crew member. He rushed to Jerusalem and gave compelling testimony about the incident before the UN Special Committee On Palestine, which was charged with presenting the UN with a solution to the Arab-Jewish conflict. Grauel testified that the ship was rammed seven times, and then boarded by armed soldiers who shot and clubbed to death defenseless boys. The refugees eventually were returned to Germany. Read More