Zammarin is far different from the squalid Arab towns of Palestine. Its houses are of German architecture and many of its people speak German. It has a hotel run by an American Jew and planned upon Jewish lines. Outside the door of my room is fastened a tube of olive wood containing the Ten Commandments, and similar tubes are to be found at every door of the hotel, as well as on the doors of every house in the place. The Jews kiss these tubes as they go in and out.
Zammarin has sidewalks, and there is a tower into which water is pumped to supply every house. There is a synagogue, which is well attended, and a town hall, where the officials of the colony meet and decide all matters of local government.
Indeed, the colony is a little republic with a president and other officials elected by its members. It settles its own disputes, and makes assessments for special taxes for such things as schools and village improvements. When Zammarin was started it was supported by Rothschild. Later on it was turned over to the Anglo-Israelite Colonization Society founded by Baron Hirsch. It was then supported from Europe, but this did not work and it is now running itself. Every family works for itself and has its own property. As a result the people are becoming independent. The standard of self-respect has risen, and all seem to be prospering.
We cross the Sea of Galilee where Christ stilled the sudden tempest and walked on the waters. On its shores He spoke many of His parables and wrought a number of His miracles
Through the arched Gate we catch a glimpse of the ruins of ancient Tiberias, the once proud city of Herod, in the neighbourhood of which Christ spent much of his active life. For years Tiberias was the seat of Jewish learning
CHAPTER XXII
WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD
To-day I am in Nazareth, the home of Christ’s boyhood. Here He was brought as a baby after the flight into Egypt to escape the bloodthirsty Herod, and here He spent all but about four years of His life. The town is situated high up in the mountains of Galilee, within sixty miles of Jerusalem as the crow flies and sixty-seven miles from Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. It is within a day’s ride on horseback of Mount Carmel and within four hours of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee from which our Saviour called His apostles and where He first preached.