Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and AfterSyracuse University Press, 2003 M04 1 - 342 pages May 1948: a dramatically reborn Israel put out the call for Jews to return to their new homeland. Between 1948 and 1951, over one million Jews from disparate nations across the world converge upon Israel, doubling its population and creating a unique, exhilarating socio-cultural quilt. But ramifications upon Israeli society and nationhood would be profound and long lasting. The new immigrants who were granted citizenship and the right to vote upon their arrival in Israel had an immense impact on Israeli politics. The relationship that developed then between immigrants and veteran Israelis left their mark on society and culture, creating fault lines that have deepened over the years: the ethnic rift between Jews of European extraction and those from Islamic countries, the rupture between religious and secular Jews, and the socio-economic polarization that ensued from these rifts. Most stunningly, Dvora Hacohen uncovers revelations about the inconsistency between grand ambitions to activate an "ingathering of exiles" and the nation's ability to handle such an event. She argues that the tidal wave of immigration in 1948 was not spontaneous as supposed, and Jewish agency executives and government officials favored gradual selective immigration over the open door policy that prevailed. She also explores the fate of Palestinian Jews and the roles played by various internal and global factions and adverse Arab neighbors. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Policy in the Making | 12 |
Policy Put to the Test | 58 |
Immigrants aboard SS Negba rejoice on arrival in Israel | 59 |
Magic Carpet airlift from Aden to Israel | 65 |
An immigrant from Kurdistan with her baby son | 81 |
New immigrants after arriving at the Shaar haAliyah camp near Haifa | 90 |
Financial Crisis and Policy Implications | 95 |
Prime Minister David BenGurion visits the school at Farradiya | 164 |
Confronting the OldTimers | 187 |
Changes in Immigration and Absorption Policy | 222 |
Rain seepage in a tent at Rosh HaAyin camp | 224 |
Immigration During 194898 and Its Ramifications | 251 |
Soviet Jews disembark at BenGurion Airport | 258 |
Appendixes | 265 |
E Number of Immigrants to Israel 15 May 194831 December 1951 | 271 |
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Common terms and phrases
absorption authorities absorption network Aden Agudat Israel Aliyah Department Arab army arrived Aviv Coordinating Committee David Ben-Gurion Divrei ha-Knesset economic elections emigration Eshkol establishment Europe families Golda Meir grants Haifa Holocaust housing Ibid immi immigrant absorption immigrant camps immigration and absorption Immigration to Israel Interior Ministry Iraq Iraqi Israel in Hebrew Israeli society Jerusalem Jewish Agency Jewish Agency Executive Jewish community Jewry Jews Joint Distribution Committee Josephthal Kelitah Department kibbutz Knesset Labor large number Law of Return Levi Eshkol ma'abara ma'abarot Mapai Mapam mass immigration Meir ment migrants minister Moshe Mossad Mossad le-Aliyah municipal newcomers number of immigrants olim organization Palestine percent Poland political population problems Raphael regional council religious parties Romania Shapira Sharett social Tel Aviv tents thousand tion Univ wave of immigration Yemen Yemenite Yemenite Jews Yishuv Zionist Actions Committee Zionist executive