Palestine Park sounds like a place that was created by Israel’s detractors in the last two years to serve as an encampment to vilify Israel. In reality it was created in 1874 by Reverend W. W. Wythe to serve as a teaching aid in the study of the Bible.

Located in Chautauqua, New York (about a three hour drive from Toronto), in an area the size of a football field a walk through model of the Holyland was created.  The shore of Lake Chautauqua serves as the Mediterranean Sea with plaster mountains and cities, and an artificial (and miniature) Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee and Jordan River, completing the experience.  

The model is built to scale of about one and three-quarter feet per mile with elevations exaggerated at a scale of two and a half feet per 1000 feet (or 13 feet of model per mile of height). 

This 1908 postcard made by the Tuck postcard company shows visitors enjoying their time in Palestine Park.

There have been at least 15 Holy Land replicas created in the United States, with this one being the first. It was built as a way for people to better understand Biblical text. It was also an early form of experiential education, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in this recreated landscape. Often visitors arrived at Palestine Park by boat and after disembarking ascended to model Jerusalem, which encouraged people to feel as if they were participating in a spiritual journey.

Palestine Park remains open to visitors and sits on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution.  

A guide book for Palestine Park published in 1920 (see https://isabellaalden.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/guide-book-to-palestine-park.pdf) describes the close connection between Biblical history and the land then called Palestine, including from a Jewish perspective it is where Abraham journeyed, Joshua fought, the Judges ruled, David wandered and reigned and the prophets preached. The guide book continues:

“…toward it have been turned the thoughts and hopes of the Jewish race for eighteen centuries. And since the [First] world-war, the eyes of all nations have been centered upon this land with a new interest.”

Many of us wonder why there is so much interest in what happens in Israel when there are many more conflicts in the world. Chautauqua’s Palestine Park is a reminder that this land has always been of great interest. At least in this Palestine Park, the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is not denied.

For more treasures from the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, which has appeared weekly in the Treasure Trove column in the Canadian Jewish News (www.thecjn.ca) since February 2021, see https://herzlcollection.com/treasure-trove

Treasure Trove is a program of The Herzl Project.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)