Aliyah

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Aliyah

Aliyah (Hebrew: עלייה, "ascent" or "going up") is a term widely used to mean Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel (and since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel). The opposite action, Jewish emigration away from Israel, is called Yerida ("descent"). When someone reads the Torah prayers before and after the reading, they are making aliyah, or "going up" (spiritually and literally, as usually the bimah is raised.)

Aliyah 1948-2000: by numbers and by source.

Aliyah is an important Jewish cultural concept and a fundamental concept of Zionism that is enshrined in Israel's Law of Return, which permits any Jew the legal right to assisted immigration and settlement in Israel, as well as automatic Israeli citizenship. A Jew who makes aliyah is called an oleh (m. singular) or olah (f. singular), the plural for both is olim. Many Jews espouse aliyah as a return to the Promised land, and regard it as the fulfillment of God's biblical promise to the descendants of the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In Zionist discourse, the term aliyah (plural aliyot) includes both voluntary immigration for ideological, emotional or practical reasons and, on the other hand, mass flight of persecuted populations of Jews. The vast majority of Israeli Jews today trace their family's recent roots to outside of the country. While many have actively chosen to settle in Israel rather than some other country, many had little or no choice about leaving their previous home countries. While Israel is commonly recognized as "a country of immigrants", it is also, in large measure, a country of refugees.

Pre-Zionist aliyah (1200-1882)

The number of Jews returning to the Land of Israel from the Jewish diaspora rose significantly between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, mainly due to the resurgence of messianic fervor among the Jews of Spain, France, Italy, the Germanic states, Russia and North Africa. This belief in the imminent coming of the Jewish Messiah, the ingathering of the exiles and the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel encouraged many to make the perilous journey to the Holy Land.

Aliyah was also spurred during this period by a general decline in the status of Jews across Europe and an increase in religious persecution. The expulsion of Jews from England (1290) France (1391), Austria (1421) and Spain (the Alhambra decree 1492) were seen by many as a sign of approaching redemption and contributed greatly to the messianic spirit of the time.

Pre-Zionist resettlement in the region of Palestine met with various degrees of success. For example, little is known of the fate of the 1210 "aliyah of the three hundred rabbis" and their descendants. It is thought that few survived the bloody upheavals caused by the Crusader invasion in 1229 and their subsequent expulsion by the Muslims in 1291. On the other hand, the immigration in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries of thousands of followers of various Kabbalist and Hassidic rabbis, as well as the disciples of the Vilna Gaon (see Perushim), added considerably to the Jewish populations in Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed.

Zionist Aliyah (From 1882)

In Zionist history, the different waves of aliyah, beginning with the arrival of the Biluim from Russia in 1882, are often categorized by date and the country of origin of the immigrants.

First Aliyah (1882-1903)

Between 1882 and 1903, approximately 35,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine, then a province of the Ottoman Empire. The majority, belonging to the Hibbat Zion and Bilu movements, came from Eastern Europe with a smaller number arriving from Yemen. Many established agricultural communities. Among the towns that these individuals established are Petah Tikva, Rishon LeZion, Rosh Pina, and Zikhron Ya'aqov. In 1882, the Yemenite Jews established a new suburb of Jerusalem called the Yemenite Village in Silwan located south-east of the walls of the Old City on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.

Approximately half of the 35,000 left by the end of the period.

Second Aliyah (1904-1914)

Between 1904 and 1914, 40,000 Jews immigrated mainly from Russia to Palestine following pogroms and outbreaks of anti-semitism in that country. This group, many of whom were infused with socialist ideals, established the first kibbutz, Degania, in 1909 and formed self defense organizations, such as Hashomer, to counter increasing Arab hostility and theft of property. The suburb of Jaffa, Ahuzat Bayit, established at this time, grew into the city of Tel Aviv. During this period, some of the underpinnings of an independent nation-state arose: The national language Hebrew was revived; newspapers and literature written in Hebrew published; political parties and workers organizations were established. The First World War effectively ended the period of the Second Aliyah.

Approximately half of the 40,000 left by the end of the period.

Third Aliyah (1919-1923)

Between 1919 and 1923, 40,000 Jews, mainly from Eastern Europe arrived in the wake of: The First World War; the British conquest of Palestine; the establishment of the Mandate; and the Balfour Declaration. Many of these were pioneers, known as halutzim, trained in agriculture and capable of establishing self sustaining economies. In spite of immigration quotas established by the British administration, the population of Jews reached 90,000 by the end of this period. The Jezreel Valley and the Hefer Plain marshes were drained and converted to agricultural use. Additional national institutions arose: The Histadrut (General Labor Federation); an elected assembly; national council; and the Haganah.

Few of these individuals left the country.

Fourth Aliyah (1924-1929)

Between 1924 and 1929, 82,000 Jews arrived, many as a result of anti-semitism in Poland and Hungary. The immigration quotas of the United States kept Jews out. This group contained many middle class families that moved to the growing towns, establishing small businesses and light industry.

Of these approximately 23,000 left the country.

Fifth Aliyah (1929-1939)

Between 1929 and 1939, with the rise of Nazism in Germany, a new wave of 250,000 immigrants arrived, the majority of these, 174,000, arrived between 1933-1936, after which increasing restrictions on immigration by the British made immigration clandestine and illegal, called Aliyah Bet. The Fifth Aliyah was again driven mostly from Eastern Europe as well as professionals, doctors, lawyers and professors, from Germany. Refugee artists introduced Bauhaus (Tel Aviv has the highest concentration of Bauhaus architecture in the world) and founded the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra. With the completion of the port at Haifa and its oil refineries, significant industry was added to the predominantly agricultural economy. The Jewish population reached 450,000 by 1940.

At the same time, tensions between Arabs and Jews grew during this period, leading to a series of Arab riots against the Jews in 1929 that left many dead and resulted in the depopulation of the Jewish community in Hebron. This was followed by more violence during the "Great Uprising" of 1936-1939. In response to Arab pressure, the British issued the White Paper of 1939, which severely restricted Jewish immigration to 75,000 people for five years, just as the Second World War was about to begin.

Aliyah Bet: Illegal immigration (1933-1948)

The British government limited Jewish immigration to Palestine with quotas, and following the rise of Nazism to power in Germany, illegal immigration to Palestine commenced. The illegal immigration was known as Aliyah Bet ("secondary immigration"), or Ha'apalah, and was organized by the Mossad Le'aliyah Bet, as well as by the Irgun. Immigration was done mainly by sea, and to a lesser extent overland through Iraq and Syria. Beginning in 1939 Jewish immigration was further restricted, limiting it to 75,000 individuals for a period of five years after which immigration was to end completely. The British made it illegal to sell land to Jews in 95% of the Mandate. During World War II and the years that followed until independence, Aliyah Bet became the main form of Jewish immigration to Palestine.

Following the war, Berihah ("flight"), an organization of former partisans and ghetto fighters was primarily responsible for smuggling Jews from Poland and Eastern Europe to the Italian ports from which they traveled to Palestine.

Despite British efforts to curb the illegal immigration, during the 14 years of its operation, 110,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine.

Immigration from 1948-1950

After Aliyah Bet, the process of numbering or naming individual aliyot ceased, but immigration did not. A major wave of immigration of over half a million Jews went to Israel between 1948 and 1950, many fleeing renewed persecution in Eastern Europe, and increasingly hostile Arab countries.

Middle Eastern Jews

See main article: Jewish exodus from Arab lands. In the course of Operation Magic Carpet (1949-1950), the entire community of Yemenite Jews (about 49,000) emigrated to Israel. Most of them had never seen an airplane before, but they believed in the Biblical prophecy that according to the Book of Isaiah (40:31), God promised to return the children of Israel to Zion on "wings".

In three and a half years, the Jewish population of Israel had doubled, inflated by nearly 700,000 immigrants, which was one of the causes of the austerity. Huge numbers of Jewish refugees were temporarily settled in "cities of tents" called Ma'abarot. Their population was gradually absorbed into Israeli society. The Ma'abarot existed until 1958.

Many Israeli immigrants were Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews who left Arab countries to move to Israel. In many of these cases they had been persecuted and sometimes forced to leave their homes. 114,000 Jews came from Iraq in 1951 in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.

Over 30,000 Iranian Jews immigrated to Israel following the Islamic Revolution. Most Iranian Jews, however, settled in the United States (especially in Los Angeles).

Ethiopian Aliyah

The massive airlift known as Operation Moses began to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel on November 18 1985 and ended on January 5. During those six weeks, some 6,500-8,000 Ethiopian Jews were flown from Sudan to Israel. An estimated 2,000-4,000 Jews died en route to Sudan or in Sudanese refugee camps.

In 1991, Operation Solomon was launched to rescue the Beta Israel Jews of Ethiopia. In one day, May 24, 34 aircraft landed at Addis Ababa and brought 14,325 Jews from Ethiopia to Israel.

Since that time, Ethiopian Jews continued to immigrate to Israel bringing the number of Ethiopian-Israelis today to nearly 100,000.

Aliyah from the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states

A mass emigration was politically undesirable for the Soviet regime. The only acceptable ground was family reunification, and a formal petition ("вызов", vyzov) from a relative from abroad was required for the processing to begin. Often, the result was a formal refusal. The risks to apply for an exit visa compounded because the entire family had to quit their jobs, which in turn would make them vulnerable to charges of social parasitism, a criminal offense. Because of these hardships, Israel set up the group Lishkat Hakesher in the early 1950s to maintain contact and promote aliyah with Jews behind the Iron Curtain.

In the wake of Israel's victory in the Six-Day War in 1967, the USSR broke off the diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. Anti-Zionist propaganda campaign in the state-controlled mass media and the rise of Zionology were accompanied by harsher discrimination of the Soviet Jews. By the end of 1960s, Jewish cultural and religious life in the Soviet Union had become practically impossible, and the majority of Soviet Jews were assimilated and non-religious, but this new wave of state-sponsored anti-Semitism on one hand, and the sense of pride for victorious Jewish nation over Soviet-armed Arab armies on the other, stirred up Zionist feelings.

After the Dymshits-Kuznetsov hijacking affair and the crackdown that followed, strong international condemnations caused the Soviet authorities to increase the emigration quota. In the years 1960-1970, the USSR let only 4,000 people leave; in the following decade, the number rose to 250,000 ИСТОРИЯ ИНАКОМЫСЛИЯ В СССР (The History of Dissident Movement in the USSR) by Ludmila Alekseyeva. Vilnius, 1992 ^*. Many of those allowed to leave to Israel chose other destinations, most notably the United States. In 1989 a record 71,000 Soviet Jews were granted exodus from the USSR, of whom only 12,117 emigrated to Israel. Since the dissolution of the USSR, over one million Soviet Jews have emigrated to Israel. See The collapse of the Soviet Union and Jewish emigration to Israel and Jackson-Vanik amendment.

Year	Exit visas to Israel	Olim from the USSR
1968	231	231
1969	3,033	3,033
1970	999	999
1971	12,897	12,893
1972	31,903	31,652
1973	34,733	33,277
1974	20,767	16,888
1975	13,363	8,435
1976	14,254	7,250
1977	16,833	8,350
1978	28,956	12,090
1979	51,331	17,278
1980	21,648	7,570
1981	9,448	1,762
1982	2,692	731
1983	1,314	861
1984	896	340
1985	1,140	348
1986	904	201

Source: ^*

Recent Trends

Since the mid 1990s, there has been a steady stream of South African Jews, American Jews, and French Jews who have either made aliyah, or purchased property in Israel for potential future immigration. Specifically, many French Jews have purchased homes in Israel as insurance due to the rising rate of anti-Semitism in France in recent years.

The Bnei Menashe Jews from India, which were only recently discovered and recognised by mainstream Judaism as descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes, slowly started their Aliyah in the early 1990s and continue arriving in slow numbers.

Organizations such as Nefesh B'Nefesh and Shavei Israel help with aliyah by supporting financial aid and guidance on a variety of topics such as finding work, learning Hebrew, and assimilation into Israeli culture.

Argentine Aliyah

In the 1999–2002 Argentine political and economic crisis that caused a run on the banks, wiped out billions of dollars in deposits and decimated the country's middle class, most of Argentina's estimated 200,000 Jews were directly affected. Some chose to start over and move to Israel, where they saw opportunity.

More than 10,000 Jews from Argentina immigrated to Israel since 2000, joining the thousands of previous olim already there. Although the Argentinean economy improved, Jews continue to immigrate to Israel, however, in smaller numbers than before.

French Aliyah

With the start of the Second Intifada in Israel, Jews in France began to see a rise in anti-semitic violence as well. With incidents like torching synagogues, beating up persons who appeared to be Jewish, and in some cases even murder, Anti-Semitic incidents rose to numbers not seen in France since World War II . Although the Muslim community within France was largely blamed for the anti-Semitism, Jews often complain of the general French populations pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel position, and that police are soft on anti-Semite offenders. With the Muslim and Arab population of France growing, Jews felt threatened and uneasy. Aliyah became a priority for many French, especially the youth who are generally very Zionist .

In the period 2000–2005, 11,148 Jews made Aliyah from France. Including a 35-year high in 2005, with 3,300 immigrants.

North American Aliyah

There are approximately 110,000 North American immigrants in Israel. There has been a steady flow of olim from North America since Israel’s inception in 1948. Record numbers arrived in the late 1960’s after the Six-Day War, and the 1970’s. Many immigrants began arriving in Israel after the intifada, with a total of 3,052 arriving in 2005-the highest number since 1983.

Unlike other olim, North Americans tend to immigrate to Israel more for religious, ideological and political purposes, and not financial ones; many of them are relatively well off to begin with.

Synagogue Aliyah

Aliyah also refers, in synagogue life, to the honor of being "called up" to read a section of the Torah during a service. For example, the relevant section of the Torah reading for each shabbat is divided into seven aliyot.

Trivia

According to the most common traditional Jewish ordering of books of the Bible, the very last word of the Bible (i.e. the last word in the original Hebrew of verse 2 Chronicles 36:23) is veya`al, a "jussive" verb form derived from the same root as aliyah, meaning "let him go up" (to Israel).

Notes

External links

"Aliyah" - the word and its meaning
Dispersion and the Longing for Zion, 1240-1840, by Arie Morgenstern
Aliyah - Moving to Israel - Resource Directory
Nefesh b'Nefesh advocating aliyah from North America
Kumah, a self-described "Neo-Zionist" group, calling for mass aliyah of American Jews.
Podovitz, site, including podcast of Liel Liebovitz, author of Aliya.

Hebrew words | History of Israel | Human migration | Israel and Zionism | Jews in Ottoman and British Palestine

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