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Aliyah to Israel
Pre-Zionist Aliyah
The Return to Zion Old Yishuv
Before 14 May 1948
First Aliyah · Second Aliyah During World War I Third Aliyah · Fourth Aliyah Fifth Aliyah During and after World War II Bricha
After 14 May 1948
Operation Magic Carpet Operation Ezra and Nehemiah 1968 Polish aliyah 1970s Soviet Union aliyah Aliyah from Ethiopia 1990s CIS aliyah 2000s Latin America aliyah
Concepts
Judaism · Zionism Jewish homeland Jewish messianism Law of Return Galut · Yerida
Persons and organizations
Theodor Herzl · Knesset El Al · Nefesh B'Nefesh World Zionist Organization
Related topics
History of Israel History of Zionism Israeli Jews Jewish diaspora Jewish history Jews in the Land of Israel Religious Zionism Revival of the Hebrew language · Yishuv
v t e

The Second Aliyah was an important and highly influential aliyah that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Palestine, mostly from the Russian Empire^[1], some from Yemen.

The prime cause for the aliyah was mounting antisemitism in Russia and pogroms in the Pale of Settlement, notably the Kishinev Pogrom and the Pogroms that attended the 1905 Russian Revolution.

Although the aliyah contributed to Jewish settlement in Palestine in many ways, many see it as a failure, as nearly half of the immigrants left Palestine by the time World War I started.

Settlement[link]

The Second Aliyah immigrants were primarily idealists, inspired by the revolutionary ideals then sweeping the Russian Empire who sought to create a communal agricultural settlement system in Palestine. They thus founded the kibbutz movement. The first kibbutz, Degania, was founded in 1909.

Those among the immigrants who preferred to settle in cities created Ahuzat Bayit near Jaffa, which was later renamed to Tel Aviv.

Culture[link]

The Second Aliyah is largely credited with the Revival of the Hebrew language and establishing it as the standard language for Jews in Israel. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda contributed to the creation of the first modern Hebrew dictionary. Although he was an immigrant of the First Aliyah, his work mostly bore fruit during the second.

Ya'ackov Ben-Dov became the first film maker to work in Hebrew.

The Second Aliyah also established the first Hebrew high school in Israel, the Herzliya Hebrew High School, Tel Aviv.

Defense[link]

The Second Aliyah created the security organization, HaShomer, which became the precedent for future Jewish defense organizations such as the Haganah.

References[link]

1. ^ Israeli government site on the Second Aliyah

Further reading[link]

• Ben-Gurion, David, From Class to Nation: Reflections on the Vocation and Mission of the Labor Movement (Hebrew), Am Oved (1976)