Warder Cresson

Warder Cresson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Quaker parents John Elliott Cresson (1773–1814) and Mary Warder (1776-1863). He was descended from Pierre Cresson, one of the early settlers of Harlem, New York, whose grandson, Solomon, moved to Philadelphia in the early 18th century. In 1815, he was apprenticed (probably to the Elliott family of Darby & Kingsessing) to learn farming; and is listed in the records of the records of the Darby Meeting. In March 1819, he moved with his family to Bensalem, where he attended the Byberry Meetinghouse. In 1821, Cresson married Elizabeth Townsend, with whom he had six children, and ran a farm in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. In 1830 he published a pamphlet entitled Babylon the Great Is Falling! The Morning Star, or Light from on High, in which he deplored the extravagance and evil tendencies of the times, and exhorted all Quakers to lead a better and less wayward life. He went through a period of strong religious upheaval, joining a series of sects that appeared to him to represent true religion. In 1840, he met Isaac Leeser and became deeply interested in Judaism. Cresson was also influenced by the writings of Mordecai Manuel Noah, who believed that the Jews would soon return to live in Palestine, their national homeland. ==First visit to Palestine==

On May 17, 1844, Cresson was appointed American consul at Jerusalem, the first person to hold this office. However, the Secretary of State John C. Calhoun rescinded the appointment only 8 days later, after being told by Samuel D. Ingham that Cresson was "a very weak-minded man and his mind, what there is of it, quite out of order". Nevertheless, Cresson continued to claim the rights of a consul until 1846, even though the US minister Constantinople confirmed his lack of credentials. He used a fake consular stamp to provide protection to persons not eligible for American assistance. While in Jerusalem he became close to the Sephardic community. He was a friend of Chacham Yehiel Cohen and the next chief rabbi, Elyashar. In 1848, against the wishes of the Chief Rabbi and Beth din, he converted to Judaism and adopted the name Michael Boaz Israel. The circumstances of his conversion provoked a dispute over whether a convert should keep the laws of Shabbat in the interval between circumcision and immersion in the mikveh. ==Return to the United States==

Cresson returned to the United States in September 1848. ==Later life in Palestine==

In 1852, Cresson returned to Jerusalem and actively supported efforts then being made towards Jewish settlement in Palestine. In the fall, he announced his intention of establishing an agricultural colony in the Valley of Rephaim, though it never eventuated. In March 1853, he began writing for The Occident and sent a circular from Jerusalem soliciting assistance for his projects. Though interspersed with theology and quotations from the Bible, the circular is one that only a practical farmer and educator could have produced. Cresson believed that the prevailing distress could be relieved by the establishment of agricultural colonies, and that oppressed Jews from all parts of the world should return to Zion. Cresson married a Sephardic Jewish woman, Rachel Moledano (or Moleno or Moleano), with whom he had two children, Abigail Ruth and David Ben-Zion. It is generally believed that Cresson was the model for the central character Nathan in Melville's epic poem Clarel. In 2013, Cresson's lost gravesite was rediscovered in the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery. ==Published works==

• The Two Witnesses, Moses and Elijah, London, 1844 • The Good Olive-Tree, Israel, 1844 • Jerusalem, the Center and Joy of the Whole Earth, Philadelphia, 1844 • The Key of David; David the True Messiah, Philadelphia, 1852 ==References==