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Israel Rising: The Land of Israel Reawakens
Thousands of years ago, the prophet Ezekiel foretold a future time in which the arid land of Israel would come alive for its people. Now this breathtaking book documents the fulfillment of that vision―from the hills of Shiloh where shepherds once roamed, to the booming city of Tel Aviv, founded on sand dunes, to the stellar beaches of Caesarea, transformed from a small village into one of Israel’s most stunning coastal cities and finally to Jerusalem, the Eternal City of Peace, where in ancient times the power of worship resounded from the Temple. Here, rarely seen photographs taken between the 1880s and the 1940s juxtaposed with contemporary images of the same locations illustrate the region’s biblical history as a place of monumental battle, celebration, worship, and awesome resilience.
Whether by helicopter or on foot, on their own or with the aid of locals, author Doug Hershey and photographer Elise Monique Theriault negotiate the terrain to access the vantage points required to match the original photos―from the rooftop of Israel’s National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Haifa, to Jaffa Port’s breakwater, and much more. Their quest creates a collection that will inspire and captivate as it illuminates Israel’s foretold awakening in a new and unforgettable way.
Whether by helicopter or on foot, on their own or with the aid of locals, author Doug Hershey and photographer Elise Monique Theriault negotiate the terrain to access the vantage points required to match the original photos―from the rooftop of Israel’s National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Haifa, to Jaffa Port’s breakwater, and much more. Their quest creates a collection that will inspire and captivate as it illuminates Israel’s foretold awakening in a new and unforgettable way.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionIsrael
208 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2020
1 person is currently reading
1092 people want to read
About the author
Doug Hershey
4 books20 followersWhether writing or speaking, Doug Hershey shares from a perspective of historian and storyteller. His personal accounts of present day Israel, the Middle East and the awakening of bible prophecy are as intriguing as they are rare. Doug is also the founder of Ezra Adventures, an Israel focused travel company. Based out of Portland, Maine, when he's not in Israel he is speaking at churches, synagogues and universities.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 5, 2020
What would your home look like if you compared it to what it was one hundred years ago? What would your street look like? Your city? Your country? Would it be more beautiful? Doug Hershey has set out to show us through pictures what Israel’s home look like after a century of Jewish resettlement.
It starts out with a brief Bible lesson about the foretold rebirth of the land in Ezekiel 36. Most of the book though is pictures of the land with a few personal anecdotes of the author’s time in Israel. I wasn’t prepared for the stunning difference a hundred years has made. It’s amazing. The beauty of the new forests, lush fields, broad roads, and modern cities is a powerful contrast to the barrenness of the wastes of only a hundred years ago. It’s a more powerfully moving contrast than I thought it would be. A few things are as they have been for centuries, but this leaves no doubt that the land is coming back to life.
I would strongly recommend it to everyone I know. It is an amazingly hopeful book.
I received this as a free Arc through NetGalley and Tyndale House Publishers. No favorable review was required. It was my pleasure to provide my honest opinions.
It starts out with a brief Bible lesson about the foretold rebirth of the land in Ezekiel 36. Most of the book though is pictures of the land with a few personal anecdotes of the author’s time in Israel. I wasn’t prepared for the stunning difference a hundred years has made. It’s amazing. The beauty of the new forests, lush fields, broad roads, and modern cities is a powerful contrast to the barrenness of the wastes of only a hundred years ago. It’s a more powerfully moving contrast than I thought it would be. A few things are as they have been for centuries, but this leaves no doubt that the land is coming back to life.
I would strongly recommend it to everyone I know. It is an amazingly hopeful book.
I received this as a free Arc through NetGalley and Tyndale House Publishers. No favorable review was required. It was my pleasure to provide my honest opinions.
January 8, 2021
Israel Rising is a photography-style coffee table book that focuses on the drastic change in the nation of Israel over the past one hundred years and presents the change as the fulfillment of prophecy. Up until a few generations ago, the land of Israel was fairly desolate. It had been emptied of its people and much of the land had not been farmed or taken care of. But starting with the formation of modern Israel in 1948, all of that began to change.
Documentarian Doug Hershey and photojournalist Elise Theriault take readers through the nation of Israel, juxtaposing historical accounts from the 1800s and photographs from the late 1800s to mid-1900s with their own modern accounts and photographs. Where possible, the Hershey and Theriault attempt to recreate the old photos as closely as possible for easily comparison.
Much, but not all, of the historical accounts come from Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad. In 1867, Twain visited the Holy Land and left with rather unfavorable impressions.
• There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent—not for thirty miles in either direction.
• The further we went the hotter the sun got, and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became.
• It [The Dead Sea] is a scorching, arid, repulsive solitude.
Hershey would have benefitted from drawing on more sources and ones more academic at that. Twain was a notorious curmudgeon and comic. Part of his book seems to be a lampoon of the overly-thrilling and sensational travelogues of his day. The rest of his book reads like someone ill-informed of the area he would be touring. Twain is certainly the most popular source to quote, but hardly the best.
Hershey’s narration and storytelling could also use some work. Rather than telling us stories about the people of the land or its history, Hershey seems to enjoy telling us about how they got the shot. It’s self-centered focus really takes away from the nation of Israel and its people. I don’t need to know how the authors spent their summer vacation. I want to know about the people the land; I want context for the beautifully-shot photos.
Israel Rising’s saving grace is its photography. Elise Theriault provides stunning landscapes that truly capture the heart of modern Israel while still revealing the ancient city beneath. While she is a bit hamstrung in her technique by only seeking to recreate older shots, Theriault manages to make the photos her own. For those who may never get to see the sights in person, Theriault provides a suitable substitute.
The biblical connection with Ezekiel is a bit tenuous. Ezekiel 36 prophecies about the re-creation of Israel that coincides with the regathering of its people. However, those blessings are contingent on the people becoming once again a people of the Covenant. The restoration of the land is tied to the restoration of the nation’s soul. And that latter thing is something we have not yet seen. At best, we can say that the regathering of national Israel is a start toward the prophecy’s fulfillment, but simply because Israel has entered the 21st century along with the rest of the world doesn’t make it prophetic fulfillment.
Indeed, I would guess that if you took old, battered, low quality, black-and-white photos of landscapes from the late 1800s and compared them the same landscape photographed with modern technology in vibrant color, there’s bound to be a difference. Part of the reason Israel of the 1890s looks drab is because the colorless, blurry photos make it so.
Not all of 1800s Israel was barren wasteland. For example, Eliezer Mordechai Altschuler writes in his 1881 memoir:
“Tears of joy poured from my eyes, and fantasies were swirling deep within me, when suddenly the carter drew my attention to the fact that we had arrived at Mikveh Yisrael. I was overcome anew with astonishment. Facing us was a comely building of three sections with a charming courtyard set before it. It was surrounded by a pleasure garden planted with fruit trees, the whole area was a veritable paradise.”
Hershey’s narrative simply doesn’t hold up to the extent he claims and the book suffers as a result. With a weak biblical background, poor historical background, and shoddy storytelling, the only redeeming feature of Israel Rising is the visual aspect. Since that’s the primary use of this type of book, that gets weighted a bit heavier in my overall critique, but the written aspect leaves those photos without sufficient or sturdy context, making the book ultimately a disappointment.
Documentarian Doug Hershey and photojournalist Elise Theriault take readers through the nation of Israel, juxtaposing historical accounts from the 1800s and photographs from the late 1800s to mid-1900s with their own modern accounts and photographs. Where possible, the Hershey and Theriault attempt to recreate the old photos as closely as possible for easily comparison.
Much, but not all, of the historical accounts come from Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad. In 1867, Twain visited the Holy Land and left with rather unfavorable impressions.
• There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent—not for thirty miles in either direction.
• The further we went the hotter the sun got, and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became.
• It [The Dead Sea] is a scorching, arid, repulsive solitude.
Hershey would have benefitted from drawing on more sources and ones more academic at that. Twain was a notorious curmudgeon and comic. Part of his book seems to be a lampoon of the overly-thrilling and sensational travelogues of his day. The rest of his book reads like someone ill-informed of the area he would be touring. Twain is certainly the most popular source to quote, but hardly the best.
Hershey’s narration and storytelling could also use some work. Rather than telling us stories about the people of the land or its history, Hershey seems to enjoy telling us about how they got the shot. It’s self-centered focus really takes away from the nation of Israel and its people. I don’t need to know how the authors spent their summer vacation. I want to know about the people the land; I want context for the beautifully-shot photos.
Israel Rising’s saving grace is its photography. Elise Theriault provides stunning landscapes that truly capture the heart of modern Israel while still revealing the ancient city beneath. While she is a bit hamstrung in her technique by only seeking to recreate older shots, Theriault manages to make the photos her own. For those who may never get to see the sights in person, Theriault provides a suitable substitute.
The biblical connection with Ezekiel is a bit tenuous. Ezekiel 36 prophecies about the re-creation of Israel that coincides with the regathering of its people. However, those blessings are contingent on the people becoming once again a people of the Covenant. The restoration of the land is tied to the restoration of the nation’s soul. And that latter thing is something we have not yet seen. At best, we can say that the regathering of national Israel is a start toward the prophecy’s fulfillment, but simply because Israel has entered the 21st century along with the rest of the world doesn’t make it prophetic fulfillment.
Indeed, I would guess that if you took old, battered, low quality, black-and-white photos of landscapes from the late 1800s and compared them the same landscape photographed with modern technology in vibrant color, there’s bound to be a difference. Part of the reason Israel of the 1890s looks drab is because the colorless, blurry photos make it so.
Not all of 1800s Israel was barren wasteland. For example, Eliezer Mordechai Altschuler writes in his 1881 memoir:
“Tears of joy poured from my eyes, and fantasies were swirling deep within me, when suddenly the carter drew my attention to the fact that we had arrived at Mikveh Yisrael. I was overcome anew with astonishment. Facing us was a comely building of three sections with a charming courtyard set before it. It was surrounded by a pleasure garden planted with fruit trees, the whole area was a veritable paradise.”
Hershey’s narrative simply doesn’t hold up to the extent he claims and the book suffers as a result. With a weak biblical background, poor historical background, and shoddy storytelling, the only redeeming feature of Israel Rising is the visual aspect. Since that’s the primary use of this type of book, that gets weighted a bit heavier in my overall critique, but the written aspect leaves those photos without sufficient or sturdy context, making the book ultimately a disappointment.
November 11, 2020
One of the most striking and powerful books I've read in 2020 (at least 300), Israel Rising beautifully documents Biblical prophecy in words and astounding photography. Re-reading Ezekiel's prophecy in the book combined with photographs from the 1880s to 1940s and then comparing those taken in 2016 gave me chills! Meaningful chills.
The author, along with a photographer, traveled throughout Israel in 2016 to capture the exact photograph vantage points from the older photography to compellingly illustrate how prophecy is being fulfilled. Communities have sprung up and what was inhospitable land is now fertile and green, more people and more animals.
Nazareth's population was 400 in the late 19th century but is now 75,000! Jezreel Valley then looks bleak and rocky but now is verdant and productive! Aphek then and now couldn't look more different. So much has changed yet many photographs show the same historic buildings in both eras such as Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs. How fascinating to see that with modern surrounding changes...time also seems to stand still.
Personal anecdotes of acquiring access to take photographs are brilliant as are descriptions of the people. I really like that many obscure places are highlighted in addition to a few you may expect. Prophecy conclusions at the back are listed. It's true. People ARE returning. And it's exciting!
The reference information has been so helpful for me today. Anyone intrigued by the history of Israel will love this book.
My sincere thank you to Tyndale House Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this enthralling book in exchange for an honest review. I will buy the hard copy for my mom for Christmas. And borrow it!
The author, along with a photographer, traveled throughout Israel in 2016 to capture the exact photograph vantage points from the older photography to compellingly illustrate how prophecy is being fulfilled. Communities have sprung up and what was inhospitable land is now fertile and green, more people and more animals.
Nazareth's population was 400 in the late 19th century but is now 75,000! Jezreel Valley then looks bleak and rocky but now is verdant and productive! Aphek then and now couldn't look more different. So much has changed yet many photographs show the same historic buildings in both eras such as Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs. How fascinating to see that with modern surrounding changes...time also seems to stand still.
Personal anecdotes of acquiring access to take photographs are brilliant as are descriptions of the people. I really like that many obscure places are highlighted in addition to a few you may expect. Prophecy conclusions at the back are listed. It's true. People ARE returning. And it's exciting!
The reference information has been so helpful for me today. Anyone intrigued by the history of Israel will love this book.
My sincere thank you to Tyndale House Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this enthralling book in exchange for an honest review. I will buy the hard copy for my mom for Christmas. And borrow it!
January 12, 2026
Obviously, this one is a photo book and I personally am fascinated with history. Doug Hershey gathered photos from the late 1800's till around the 1940's from various locations in Israel. Then, in 2016, he set about to recreate those shots. Now, my first trip to Israel was in 1999. From that time till present, Israel has dramatically changed. Yet this book takes you on a trip back in time to Israel over 100 years ago!
It is amazing seeing photos showing barren land with no vegetation to land that is transformed and blooming in 2016. Young saplings that were planted in the 1920's and 30's are now massive trees! It's a great book and feels like a vacation without even leaving the house!
It is amazing seeing photos showing barren land with no vegetation to land that is transformed and blooming in 2016. Young saplings that were planted in the 1920's and 30's are now massive trees! It's a great book and feels like a vacation without even leaving the house!
December 10, 2020
This is a different type of coffee table book about the changes to the land of Israel since independence.
There is some minor narrative between the photos, but it is the pictures themselves that tell the real story.
The premise is to show the same places (and shot from the same place), some over one hundred years apart. The most impressive ones to me are where the first pictures only show scrubland or marshes and now an area of green and agriculture. Of course the pictures of Tel Aviv show sand dunes and nothing else and then the modern metropolis are really striking.
It a book for people who like comparative history, but they will be happy to see this.
There is some minor narrative between the photos, but it is the pictures themselves that tell the real story.
The premise is to show the same places (and shot from the same place), some over one hundred years apart. The most impressive ones to me are where the first pictures only show scrubland or marshes and now an area of green and agriculture. Of course the pictures of Tel Aviv show sand dunes and nothing else and then the modern metropolis are really striking.
It a book for people who like comparative history, but they will be happy to see this.
December 12, 2020
"Israel Rising" compares black and white photographs of Israel taken between 1880 and the 1940s with full color photographs taken in 2016 from the same locations. The author started by talking about the prophecy in Ezekiel about Israel blooming again and then provided quotes from travelers from around 70 AD until the mid-1900s describing how desert-like and desolate the land had become. The modern pictures show a land full of green and people, the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophesy. The author also included some accounts about the people they encountered as they took the pictures throughout Israel. If you like then-and-now photography books, then you'll enjoy this interesting book.
I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
December 27, 2023
Other reviews sum it up pretty well. This is a coffee table book showing 19th century pictures of Israel, along with 21st century pictures taken from as close to the same spot as possible. Having toured Israel last year, and having just finished Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad, which is heavily focused on the Holy Land and occurred when some of the earliest pictures in the book were taken, this was a very interesting book for me.
December 22, 2020
This is a fascinating look at Israel “back then” and now. I loved looking at the pictures and comparing the two; it brought back so many delightful memories of my trip there in 2010. I’m officially ready to go back!
I enjoyed the historical quotes, both biblical and not, and how the author placed each location in its historical context.
I enjoyed the historical quotes, both biblical and not, and how the author placed each location in its historical context.
March 30, 2020
Made me think of Israel in a whole new light. The then and now photos are incredible and beautiful (some of the old photos are magically endearing) - add the narrative of Israel’s history, and you end the book with an expectation around what to look for in Israel in the coming years.
June 6, 2018
Amazing, beautiful book.Pictures are amazing.
August 16, 2018
Beautiful book calling me to return to the Holy Land.
May 19, 2021
Stunningly beautiful "then and now" photos. I love the seldom seen historical photos. This book gives a wonderful visual story of Israel's miraculous journey from a desolate desert to thriving land.
December 21, 2021
Beautiful photos of Ancient Israel and modern day comparisons of the same locations!
January 24, 2022
Loved this book. The photo comparisons were amazing. Great way to see what you read about in the Bible.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews