First Aliyah


The First Aliyah, also known as the agriculture Aliyah, was a major wave of Zionist immigration to Ottoman Palestine between 1881 and 1903. Jews who migrated in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen. An estimated 25,000–35,000 Jews immigrated. Many of the European Jewish immigrants during the late 19th-early 20th century period gave up after a few months and went back to their country of origin, often suffering from hunger and disease. Because there had been immigration to Palestine in earlier years as well, use of the term "First Aliyah" is controversial.
Nearly all of the Jews from Eastern Europe before that time came from traditional Jewish families. The immigrants that were part of the First Aliyah came more out of a connection to the land of their ancestors. Most of these immigrants worked as artisans or in small trade, but many also worked in agriculture. Only some of them came in an organized fashion, with the help of Hovevei Zion, but most of them were unorganized, in their 30s, and had families. Most settlements met with financial difficulties and most of the settlers were not proficient in farming.
The First Aliyah was considered a success through the eyes of some historians since Zionists were able to migrate and thrive economically in Palestine. Others may say the First Aliyah was not a success because many of these immigrants did not stay and there was a shortage of funds necessary to sustain the movement.
Only a small minority of the 6,000 who emigrated, about 2%, remained in Ottoman Palestine. The Jewish Virtual Library says of the First Aliyah that nearly half the settlers did not stay in the country.

From Eastern Europe

Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine from Eastern Europe occurred as part of the mass emigrations of approximately 2.5 million people that took place towards the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. A rapid increase in population had created economic problems that affected Jewish societies in the Pale of Settlement in Russia, Galicia, and Romania.
Persecution of Jews in Russia was also a factor. In 1881, Tsar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated, and the authorities blamed the Jews for the assassination. Consequently, in addition to the May Laws, major anti-Jewish pogroms swept the Pale of Settlement. A movement called Hibbat Zion spread across the Pale, as did the similar Bilu movement. Both movements encouraged Jews to emigrate to Ottoman Palestine.

From Yemen

The first group of immigrants from Yemen came approximately seven months before most of the Eastern European Jews arrived in Palestine.

History

The First Aliyah occurred from 1881 to 1903 and did not go as planned as Zionists ran out of funds. The Rothschild organization rescued the Zionist movement by funding Zionists and by purchasing large settlements and by creating new settlements. At the closure of the first Aliya, the Jews had purchased 350,000 dunams of land.
The first central committee for the settlement was established by a convention of "Unions for the Agricultural Settlement of Israel" held on January 11, 1882, in Romania. The committee was the first organization to organize group aliyahs, such as the Jewish passenger ships that set sail from Galaţi.
After the first wave in the early 1880s, there was another spike in 1890. The Russian government officially approved the activity of Hovevei Zion in 1890. The same year, the "Odessa Committee" began its operation in Jaffa. The purpose of this organization was to absorb immigrants to Ottoman Syria who came as a result of the activities of Hovevei Zion in Russia. Also Russian Jewry's situation deteriorated as the authorities continued to push Jews out of business and trade and Moscow was almost entirely cleansed of Jews. Finally, the financial situation of the settlements from the previous decade improved due to the Baron Edmond James de Rothschild's assistance.
The relationship of the members of the First Aliyah with the Old Yishuv was strained. There were disagreements about economic and ideological issues. Only a few groups from the Old Yishuv sought to take part in the First Aliyah's settlement effort, one such group being the Peace of Jerusalem.
Israeli historian Benny Morris wrote:
But the major cause of tension and violence throughout the period 1882-1914 was not accidents, misunderstandings or the attitudes and behaviors of either side, but objective historical conditions and the conflicting interests and goals of the two populations. The Arabs sought instinctively to retain the Arab and Muslim character of the region and to maintain their position as its rightful inhabitants; the Zionists sought radically to change the status quo, buy as much land as possible, settle on it, and eventually turn an Arab-populated country into a Jewish homeland.

For decades the Zionists tried to camouflage their real aspirations, for fear of angering the authorities and the Arabs. They were, however, certain of their aims and of the means needed to achieve them. Internal correspondence amongst the olim from the very beginning of the Zionist enterprise leaves little room for doubt.

Settlement

The First Aliyah laid the cornerstone for Jewish settlement in Israel and created several settlements - Rishon LeZion, Rosh Pinna, Zikhron Ya'akov, Gedera, among others. Immigrants of the First Aliyah also contributed to existing Jewish towns and settlements, notably Petah Tikva. The first neighbourhoods of Tel Aviv were also built by members of the aliyah, although it was not until the Second Aliyah that Tel Aviv was officially founded.
The settlements established by the First Aliyah, known in Hebrew as moshavot are:
The five ephemeral settlements of the First Aliyah in the Hauran are not included.