A little background
The First Aliyah started the realization of the Zionist vision. The Jewish people began the changeover to a people of farmers who worked the land in their own country. However , this aliyah also bequeathed serious problems to the future waves of aliyah. There was the problem of
Hebrew labor and alongside that, there was the problem of Hebrew guards.
The Baron’s system of
guardianship
caused despair among the farmers. They didn’t have the strength to continue the momentum of Hebrew settlement. A basic change was needed. A new kind of immigrant was needed; ones who had a different kind of social vision. Those were the people of the Second Aliyah.
The Third Aliyah
The Workers’ Aliyah
(1919-1923)
The year was 1919. World War I had ended in Europe and a large wave of immigrants arrived in Israel. Most of them were young people between the ages of 18 and 22. They left Europe because they felt the Jews of Europe had no alternative. They had to leave. 35,000 Jews came to Israel in that period. A number of factors led to the aliyah of the Jews of the Third Aliyah at the end of World War I.
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The Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate taking control of the land of Israel led the people to believe that the Jewish state would become a reality in the Land of Israel.
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The Jewish youth was very excited about the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and believed that they could realize the dream of a socialist society in the Land of Israel.
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There was a wave of pogroms in Russia at the time of the Russian Civil War.
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The Jews were influenced by the rise of nationalist struggles in Europe after World War I and by the establishment of new states – Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
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They were influenced by the Second Aliyah, which the pioneer youth of East Europe found ideologically attractive.
The Institutions of the Yishuv
One of the most important processes during the Third Aliyah was the yishuv’s establishment of independent institutions. In establishing these institutions they laid the foundation of the state-in-the-making. From 1918-1919, representatives of the Yishuv convened several times. They decided to hold elections for the Assembly of Representatives. In April, 1920, the elections were held and in October of the same year the Assembly met. They were called Knesset Israel. The Assembly of Representatives was a body that set policy and chose from its members the Jewish National Council, which was the executive branch. These were secular bodies. In addition to them, there were rabbinical courts, and a chief rabbi to whom the British Mandate had given the authority to judge in personal and religious matters.
New Kinds of Settlements
In 1920, Yehoshua Hankin, a Zionist activist, completed the purchase of the lands in the Valley, paying with Jewish National Fund money. That was the start of a new settlement momentum which was different in character than the previous one. Two different kinds of settlements appeared in the Valley: the kibbutz and the workers’ moshav. The kibbutz was always willing to accept new members, which enabled it to grow and develop financially. On the other hand, the workers’ moshav belonged to people who worked independently and built their own farms on national land.
So, what else should you know about the third aliya?
The Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration is the name given to the document signed by the British Foreign Minister, Lord Harold Arthur James Balfour on November 2, 1917. Its main point was that Britain would support the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
Joseph Trumpeldor
The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia
While World War I was raging, a revolution was being carried out in Russia. The leaders of the revolution, headed by Lenin, wanted Russia to adopt Karl Marx’s ideology. They wanted to do away with private ownership of the means of production: land, factories and private capital. They hoped to wipe out class differences and dreamed of building a new world, based on equality and social justice. The leaders of the revolution turned to means of terror that increased in the days of Stalin’s rule of terror.[/fusion_toggle][/fusion_accordion]
Settlements that were Established during the Third Aliyah
Atarot
Balfouriya
Bet Alfa
Binyamina
Ein Harod
Geva
Ginegar
Heftzibah
Kfar Gidon
Kfar Yehezkel
Mizra
Nahalal
Ra’anana
Ramat Gan
Shconat Borochov
Tel Adashim
Tel Yosef
Yagur
The Yemenite Jews in the Third Aliyah
A number of factors resulted in another wave of immigration of Yemenite Jews to the Land of Israel: an increase in acts of terror against them, the strengthening of Messianic hopes following World War I and the collapse of the Turkish Empire. An additional motivating factor was the encouragement that they got from the Yemenite Jews that were already living in the Land of Israel. Despite their difficult situation they encouraged the Yemenite Jews to come and take part in building the Land.
At the end of World War I, there were 4500 Yemenite Jews in the Land of Israel. By the eve of World War II, there were 28,000. In addition to the Yemenites, 2000Jews from Kurdistan arrived in Israel, about 1000 came from North Africa and about 200 Jews from Iraq arrived after Zionist organizations had begun to operate there.
SONG OF THE VALLEY
Lyrics: Natan Alterman | Music Daniel Samburski
and finish their labors.
Pale night covers
The fields of the Jezreel Valley.
Dew underneath and moonlight above,
From the Beit Alpha to Nahalal.
Oh, what a night of nights
Silence over Jezreel
Sleep dear Valley, land of glorious beauty
We will guard you.
the song of the flocks rings out,
This is my country and her fields,
This is the Jezreel Valley.
Bless my country reveler
From Beit Alpha to Nahalal.
Mount Gilboa is darkened
A horse gallops from shadow to shadow.
A voice is carried high.
Over the fields of the Jezreel Valley.
Who is shot? who has fallen?
Between Beit Alpha and Nahalal.