Aliyah is widely regarded as 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

Religious 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. Aliyah

is included as a commandment by some opinions on the

enumeration of the 613 commandments.

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.

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).


 Historical background
 
 
Aliyah 1948-2000: by numbers and by source.
It should be noted that although mass return to the

Land of Israel was a recurring theme among

generations of diaspora Jews, particularly in

Passover and Yom Kippur prayers which traditionally

concluded with, "Next year in Jerusalem", and in the

thrice-daily Amidah (Standing prayer), [1] this

return was specifically conceived in terms associated

with the coming of the Jewish Messiah. Jews prayed

for their Messiah to come, who was to redeem the Land

of Israel from gentile rule and return world Jewry to

the land under a Halachic theocracy.


 Pre-Zionist aliyah (1200-1882)
The number of Jews returning to the Land of Israel

from the Jewish diaspora rose significantly between

the 13th and 19th centuries, mainly due to 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 of 1492) were

seen by many as a sign of approaching redemption and

contributed greatly to the messianic spirit of the

time.

Aliyah was also spurred during this period by the

resurgence of messianic fervor among the Jews of

France, Italy, the Germanic states, Russia and North

Africa. The 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 who had few other options to make the perilous

journey to the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael).

Pre-Zionist resettlement in 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. After the fall of

the Byzantine Empire in 1453 and the expulsion of

Jews from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1498), many Jews

made their way to the Holy Land. Then the immigration

in the 18th and early 19th centuries of thousands of

followers of various Kabbalist and Hassidic rabbis,

as well as the disciples of the Vilna Gaon (see

Perushim) and the disciples of the Chasam Sofer,

added considerably to the Jewish populations in

Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed.

There were also those who like the British mystic

Laurence Oliphant tried to lease Northern Palestine

to settle the Jews there (1879).


 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)
Main article: First Aliyah
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 the Russian Empire

with a smaller number arriving from Yemen. Many

established agricultural communities. Among the towns

that these individuals established are Petah Tikva

(already in 1878), 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.


 Second Aliyah (1904-1914)
Main article: Second Aliyah
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 to

help Jews to protect their communities from Arab

bandits. 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.


 Third Aliyah (1919-1923)
Aliyah to Israel and settlement

 
 Third Aliyah
Between 1919 and 1923, 40,000 Jews, mainly from the

Russian Empire arrived in the wake of World War I,

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)
Main article: Fourth Aliyah
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)
Main article: Fifth Aliyah
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.

Shortly after their rise to power, the Nazis

negotiated The Transfer Agreement with Zionists under

which 50,000 Jews and $100 million of their assets

would be moved to Palestine.[4]


 Aliyah Bet: Illegal immigration (1933-1948)
Aliyah Bet: Illegal immigration (1933-1948)
 
July 15, 1945. Buchenwald survivors arrive in Haifa

to be arrested by the BritishMain article: Aliya Bet
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.[citation needed] 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.

In 1945 reports of the Holocaust with its 6 million

Jewish dead caused many Jews in Palestine to turn

openly against the British Mandate, and illegal

immigration escalated rapidly as many Holocaust

survivors joined the Aliyah.


 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.

This period of immigration is often termed kibbutz

galuyot (literally, ingathering of diasporas), due to

the large number of Jewish diaspora communities that

made aliyah. However, kibbutz galuyot can also refer

to aliyah in general.


 Middle Eastern Jews
Main article: Jewish exodus from Arab lands
 
Yemenite Jews on their way to IsraelIn 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".

 
1952. Ma'abarah, a tent city for Jewish refugees in

IsraelIn 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
Main article: The Aliyah of the Jewish Ethiopians
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 have continued to

immigrate to Israel bringing the number of Ethiopian

-Israelis today to over 100,000.

 Aliyah from the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states
Main articles: Aliyah from the Soviet Union in the

1970s and Aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1990s
 
January 10, 1973. Soviet authorities break up a

demonstration of Jewish refuseniks in front of the

Ministry of Internal Affairs for the right to

immigrate to IsraelYear Exit visas
to Israel Olim from
the USSR[2]
 
A mass emigration was politically undesirable for the

Soviet regime. The only acceptable ground was family

reunification, and a formal petition ("?????", 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 [3].

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.


 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 [4].

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.

In early 2007 Haaretz reported that aliyah for the

year of 2006 was down approximately 9% from 2005.

They state that: "Only 19,264 people immigrated to

Israel in 2006, down nine percent from 2005. It is

the lowest number of immigrants recorded since 1988"

[5].

On 20th April 2007, the Israeli daily Yedioth

Ahronoth reported that 14,400 immigrants are expected

in 2007 while 20,000 are expected to leave the

country [6]. The reports also state that:

"...approximately a quarter of the Israeli population

was considering emigration" and that "Almost half of

the country's young people were thinking of leaving

the country."

In 2007 The Jerusalem Post reported that: "For the

first time in over two decades, it was reported last

week, Israel will likely experience a net negative

migration rate in 2007" [7]. The same article the The

Jerusalem Post also wrote:

"...it is estimated that more Jews will actually

leave Israel than move here this year - something

that hasn't happened since 1984."
"...a total of just 14,400 new immigrants are

expected here [in Israel] this year, or 5,000 less

than the number anticipated to relocate abroad."
"[This] marks the continuation of an alarming trend

that began seven years ago, when the number of people

making aliya began spiraling downward, falling from

61,542 in 2000 to just 19,267 last year."
"...various Israeli public figures have been sounding

the alarm in recent years, stressing the need to

bolster Israel's Jewish population through

immigration and absorption by calling on Diaspora

Jewry to come home to Israel ... But with the pool of

potential immigrants from Russia and the former

Soviet states shrinking rapidly, and large-scale

aliya from the West not yet at hand, the prospects of

this occurring appear marginal at best."

 Argentine Aliyah
Main article: Aliyah from Latin America in the 2000s
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. The crisis in Argentina also

affected its neighbour country Uruguay, from which

over 500 Jews made aliyah in the same period. During

2002 and 2003 the Jewish Agency launched an intensive

public campaign to promote aliyah from the region,

and offered additional economical aid for immigrants

from Argentina. Although the Argentinean economy

improved, Jews continue to immigrate to Israel,

albeit in smaller numbers than before.


 French Aliyah
See also: History of the Jews in France
From 2000 to 2005, 11,148 Jews made Aliyah from

France, including a 35-year high in 2005, with 3,300

immigrants.[citation needed] With the start of the

Second Intifada in Israel, anti-Semitic incidents

increased in France. In 2002, the Commission

nationale consultative des droits de l'homme (Human

Rights Commission) reported six times more anti-

Semitic incidents than in 2001 (193 incidents in

2002). The commission's statistics showed that anti-

Semitic acts constituted 62% of all racist acts in

the country (compared to 45% in 2001 and 80% in

2000). The report documented 313 violent acts against

people or property, including 38 injuries and the

murder of someone with Maghrebin origins by Muslims

and white power skinheads.[5] Since 2005, the number

of acts dropped but is still at a significantly

higher level than during the previous decade.


 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 1960s after

the Six-Day War, and in the 1970s. Many immigrants

began arriving in Israel after the Intifada, with a

total of 3,052 arriving in 2005 — the highest number

since 1983. Like Western European 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. Nefesh B'Nefesh, founded in 2002

by Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart, works to

encourage Aliyah from North America and the UK by

providing free flights, as well as other legal,

financial and logistical assistance to potential

olim.