American Colony Hotel

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Entrance hall with a view of the inner courtyard
In the hotel garden around 1900

The American Colony Hotel , is a small luxury hotel in East Jerusalem . It has been one of the Leading Hotels of the World for several years .

history

The first owner of the building complex, built as a palace, was the Pasha Rabbah Daoud Amin Effendi al-Husseini, who used it as a family residence with his four wives. After his death, the building was sold to a religious commune of Messianic Christians.

Founders were the devout Christians Horatio Spafford , a lawyer , and his wife Anna, who came to Jerusalem from Chicago in 1881 to live in peace in the Holy City and to help people in need. They did not see themselves as missionaries, but wanted to follow the example of the early Christians. Soon they had gained the trust of the local population because of their charity towards their Jewish neighbors as well as the Bedouins from across the Jordan. They were only briefly called "the Americans" by local residents. In 1894 the family was followed by 70 Swedes , who had previously also lived in the United States . In 1896 another 55 fellow believers joined them. This Christian utopian group came to be known locally as the American Colony . This made it necessary to move to larger accommodation. The palace mentioned above was bought.

1902 the house was in cooperation with the hotel owner Baron Plato Grigorjewitsch Ustinov from Jaffa (a grandfather of Peter Ustinov ,), which in turn was looking for a suitable solution for its European and American visitors to Jerusalem in a hotel converted. The hotel, known for short as the "American Colony", soon made a name for itself among western travelers and pilgrims with its high standard of quality and comfort.

The hotel is still owned by the descendants of the Spaffords. The neutral attitude throughout the family generations made the hotel a secret meeting place for Palestinians and Israelis, for talks and negotiations. The peace talks that had led to the Oslo Treaty of 1993 began in the hotel . To this day, the American Colony Hotel sees itself as a neutral zone in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tony Blair , who represented the Middle East Quartet until June 2015 , had an office in the hotel. The employees are also relatives of Jews, Christians and Muslims and not only do not have any problems with one another, but are in part friends with one another.

Guests at the hotel included Winston Churchill , Leon Uris , Lawrence of Arabia , Joan Baez , Bob Dylan , Tony Blair , Philip Roth , Peter O'Toole , Marc Chagall , Alec Guinness , Graham Greene , John le Carré and Richard Gere . In order to protect the latter from the many female fans, according to the hotel manager in the report and travel magazine Weltreisen in November 2010, the police had to be called in to help.

Movie

  • Hotel Legends - The American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem . ARD documentary series, broadcast August 17, 2020 (45 min.)

literature

  • Article , in: Globe and Mail online (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e An oasis in Jerusalem - The American Colony Hotel. In: Weltreisen im Erste , edition November 8, 2010.
  2. ^ Helga Dudman: Street People. Jerusalem, 1982, pp. 83-104.

Coordinates: 31 ° 47 ′ 23.3 "  N , 35 ° 13 ′ 45.9"  E