By September 27, 2017 Read More →

1751 Jewish community estimated to be 20,000

IsraelThe Christian Swedish traveler and naturalist Frederick Hasselquist writes:

‘the twenty-two piasters which every Frank is obliged to pay… for the privilege of coming on shore and travelling in the country (Palestine)’, he adds ‘As 4,000 Christians arrive yearly, besides as many Jews, who come from all quarters of the world, this may be esteemed a considerable revenue for the Turks; and indeed they receive no other from this uncultivated and almost uninhabited country.’

Hasselquist gives the figure of the Jewish community as 20,000.

Source: Kollek, Teddy; Pearlman, Moshe. Pilgrims to the Holy Land: The story of Pilgrimage Through the Ages. p192.; “Voyages and Travels in the Levant” by Frederick Hasselquist (1766) p. 124

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