First Aliyah
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The First Aliyah is the first Zionist aliyah, having taken place between 1882 and 1903. [1] An estimated 25,000[1]-35,000[2] Jews immigrated to Ottoman Palestine during the First Aliyah, mostly from Eastern Europe, but also from Yemen.
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[edit] Background
In 1881, the czar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated, and the ruling bodies blamed the Jews for the assassination. Consequently, major anti-Jewish pogroms swept the Pale of Settlement. A movement called Hibbat Zion (love of Zion) spread across the Pale (helped by Leon Pinsker's pamphlet Auto-emancipation), as well as the similar Bilu movement, which both encouraged Jews to immigrate to Palestine.
[edit] Settlement
The First Aliyah laid the cornerstone for Jewish settlement in Israel and created several settlements - Rishon LeZion, Rosh Pina, Zikhron Ya'aqov, Gedera etc.
Most settlements met with financial difficulties and most of the settlers were not proficient in farming. Baron Edmond James de Rothschild took several of the settlements under his wing, which helped them survive until more settlers with farming experience arrived in subsequent aliyot.
Immigrants of the First Aliyah also contributed to existing towns and settlements, notably Petah Tikva. The first neighbourhoods of Tel Aviv (Neve Shalom and Neve Tzedek) were also built by members of the aliyah, although it was not until the Second Aliyah that Tel Aviv was officially founded.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Scharfstein, Sol, Chronicle of Jewish History: From the Patriarchs to the 21st Century, p.231, KTAV Publishing House (1997), ISBN 0-88125-545-9
[edit] Further reading
- Ben-Gurion, DavidFrom Class to Nation: Reflections on the Vocation and Mission of the Labor Movement (Hebrew), Am Oved (1976)
