The Land of Promise: The Journey Home
27 Mar 2003
| INTRODUCTION | COVENANT OF ABRAHAM - DIVINE PROMISE | DARKNESS OF EXILE | RETURN TO ZION | JOURNEY HOME | STATE OF ISRAEL | ||||
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For thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: "Houses, fields, and vineyards shall again be purchased in this land... See, I will gather them from all the lands to which I have banished them... and I will bring them back to this place and let them dwell secure Fields shall be purchased, and deeds written and sealed, and witnesses called in the land of Benjamin and in the environs of Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah; the towns of the hill country, the towns of the Shfelah, and the towns of the Negev. For I will restore their fortunes" - declares the Lord.
(Jer. 32:15, 37, 44)
The First Aliya (1882-1904)
From the early 1880s until 1904, some 25,000 immigrants arrived in Eretz Israel, by sea from Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, and Romania) and by land from Yemen. The new immigrants were motivated by various reasons. Those from Russia fled in the face of an outbreak of pogroms, following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Disillusioned by their failure to integrate into Russian society, the only answer was to return to Eretz Israel. The Jews of Yemen, by contrast, immigrated because of the perceived imminent arrival of the Messiah. The Yemenite sages had interpreted the biblical verse, I say: "Let me climb the palm" (Song of Solomon 7:9), as an allusion to the year of redemption; they believed that the numerical value of the Hebrew word "the palm" - 642 - corresponded to the Hebrew year 5642 (1881/82).
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As advocates of agricultural labor, the immigrants of the First Aliya founded several new agricultural villages, including Rishon Lezion, Rosh Pina, Zichron Ya'akov, Mazkeret Batya, Yesod Hama'alah, and Gedera. The immigrants also moved to Petah Tikva and later to new settlements, including Nes Ziyona, Rehovot, Hadera, Mishmar Hayarden, and Shefaya. Jewish immigrants also continued to flow to the towns, especially Jerusalem and Jaffa.
"Nes Ziona"
Noah Rosenblum
Raise the flag of Zion high,
The standard of Judah's camp - Some by wagon, some by foot Together homeward let us tramp. Together let us all return To our ancient fathers' land To our beloved maternal country The cradle of our youthful band. Return, return from distant climes To the land our fathers trod. Escape, escape the gloomy depths Assisted by Almighty God. If we can once again set up The cornerstone and till the ground Laughter will fill up our mouths And songs of joy resound.
Life was difficult: hygiene and sanitation were primitive at best, and many of the new immigrants were stricken with malaria or suffered from malnutrition. But they refused to allow their spirit to be broken. One of the founders of Rishon Lezion wrote in his memoirs:
Among the astounding things that I still cannot comprehend is why so many people, with their alien dress and manners, strange language and absurd customs - by the lights of the locals - settled in desolate wilderness spots far from human habitation... and were not terrified by the bandits who plundered travelers... These immigrants were armored with a valiant spirit to repel their foes with their own might.
The new settlers were called on to demonstrate daily acts of bravery. Land that had been sold to them as "fertile and well-watered plots" turned out to be nests of lethal diseases. Areas advertised as having the potential of a "flowering paradise" in return for "a loving hand and appropriate agricultural investment," were discovered to be arid and stony, offering their owners only famine and death. Many were unable to endure the harsh conditions and returned to their countries of origin; however others remained, determined to keep Jewish settlement alive.
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The idea of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel began to take form in the 1890s, promulgated by Theodor Herzl (1860-1904). Herzl was an educated and assimilated Viennese Jew, a journalist by profession and by avocation a playwright. He was in Paris when the French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus was publicly disgraced after his false conviction of espionage. The event proved the turning point for Herzl. He realized that despite their efforts to assimilate, the only answer was for Jews to live together in their own homeland - an ideology which came to be known as Zionism.
Herzl disseminated his ideas at two Zionist Congresses, which brought together activists and intellectuals from various countries to promote Zionism. At the first Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, Herzl proposed a diplomatic campaign to persuade the nations of the world to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel.
Despite his valiant efforts, the best Herzl managed to obtain was a British proposal for Jewish settlement in Uganda. However, he persevered in pursuit of his vision, eventually managing to catalyze a change in the attitude of the international community. During his short life (he died at age 44 of pneumonia) Herzl managed to significantly advance the idea of the return of the Jewish people to their land.
Inspired by the same Zionist idea, the courageous members of the First Aliya arrived in the barren wastes, remembering God's promise to the Jewish people: Thus said the Lord: "I accounted to your favor the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride - how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown." (Jer. 2:2)
The Second Aliya (1904-1914)
The high hopes that Herzl's activity would obtain an international charter for a Jewish state in Eretz Israel were followed by equally deep disappointments. In 1903, the Jewish world was shocked to the core by a pogrom of unparalleled ferocity that erupted in the town of Kishinev, in southern Russia. 49 Jews were murdered, 92 seriously injured, and hundreds more suffered moderate injuries. Synagogues were set on fire and Torah scrolls desecrated; Jewish shops were looted and set alight; numerous Jewish homes were destroyed.
The catastrophe was beyond comprehension for the Russian Jewish community. Young Russian Jews decided that they had waited long enough for international approval, and a growing stream left for Eretz Israel, in order to lay the foundation for a future state. Reporting from the Land for the Warsaw Hebrew paper Hatzofeh, author Moshe Smilansky wrote: Recently we have been seeing new faces. A few young men came looking for work in Eretz Israel and hoped to support themselves by their toil... Now - after a long lapse - people are coming who want to be 'citizens.'
The Second Aliya continued for about 10 years, until the outbreak of the First World War. About 40,000 Jews immigrated to Eretz Israel, most of them from Russia. Some found their way to the Old Yishuv and Jaffa, or to the existing agricultural colonies. But many of the younger immigrants were determined to cultivate the land in new communities.
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One of the first members of the Second Aliya was the young David Joseph Green - who would later change his name to David Ben-Gurion - destined to be the first prime minister of the State of Israel. Indeed, many of the new immigrants were among the founding generation of the new state. They included the first three prime ministers, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, and Levi Eshkol; the second and third presidents, Izhak Ben-Zvi and Zalman Shazar; and other leading political and cultural figures such as Berl Katznelson, A. D. Gordon, Yitzhak Tabenkin, J. H. Brenner and S. J. Agnon.
Another member of the Second Aliya was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook, who immigrated in 1904. Rabbi Kook was admired for his Torah scholarship, gentleness and steadfast faith. For some ten years after his immigration, Rabbi Kook served as the rabbi of Jaffa and the agricultural colonies, and worked to promote settlement of the country. After the First World War he moved to Jerusalem and in 1921 was elected the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Eretz Israel. To this day Rabbi Kook is remembered for his deep respect for each and every Jew and his intense attachment to the Land of Israel. The importance that he gave to religious faith and Eretz Israel is clearly illustrated by the rubber stamps he used when he lived in Jerusalem. They read, "Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook - doing holy work on the holy land." The fact that he was a source of light, inspiration, and unity helped overcome the crises and difficulties that beset the newcomers in the years of intensified settlement.
In response to the call of educator Joseph Vitkin - who urged the immigrants to advance on two parallel tracks: "the conquest of labor and the conquest of the soil" - many young people flocked to farms set up by the Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund. Within a few years, they had acquired sufficient agricultural skills to leave the "national" farms and set up their own farming communities. Most of the new kibbutzim - such as Deganya, the "mother of communal settlements" founded in 1910 on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and the nearby village of Kinneret - were established at that time.
In addition to olim from Europe, some 1,500 Jews arrived from Yemen in 1911-1912, following joint activity by Zionist activists and Rabbi Kook to arouse interest among the Jews there. At first, attempts were made to direct the new arrivals to agriculture, but they quickly returned to their traditional occupations, such as silversmithing and weaving.
The author and editor Joseph Klausner came for a visit during Passover of 1912. Soon after his arrival, Klausner met Dr. Judah Leib Magnes, a Zionist from the United States (who later became the first president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem). He asked Magnes to tell him how the country had developed over the previous few years:
"It has changed a great deal in three years - and for the better," replied Magnes. "New settlements and new farms have been founded and the old ones have expanded. The use of the Hebrew language has spread."
"But doctor," insisted Klausner, "I have heard that you came here with Mr. Nathan Strauss. You are a Zionist and perhaps see everything through rose-colored glasses. Nathan Strauss is not a Zionist. What does he think about the country and what we have done here?"
"If you want to know what he thinks," replied Dr. Magnes, "let me tell you what he said to me not long ago. 'You know,' he said to me a few days ago, 'it seems as if the Land of Israel has really come back to life. They are singing all over the country. Everywhere I go I hear Hebrew songs being sung by young men and women. And where there is singing there is life.' That is exactly what he said."
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In 1909 the first all-Jewish city in modern times was established as a "garden suburb" of Jaffa. Tel Aviv soon became the quasi-capital of Zionist activity in the country; here the Provisional Council of State had its seat, and here independence would be declared less than four decades later.
The Second Aliya strengthened and consolidated the Jewish community in Eretz Israel and by the summer of 1914 there were about 85,000 Jews living there. Members of the Second Aliya devoted themselves to farming, and also laid the foundations for the workers' parties, for mutual aid and welfare institutions (such as workers' kitchens and health funds), for self-defense groups (first Bar Giora and later Hashomer), and for literary and cultural activity.
The Third Aliya (1919-1923)
Eretz
Shaike Paikov
Eretz, eretz, eretz,
Land of cloudless blue, Land of sunshine and of milk and honey too, Land where we were born Where we'll always stay, We will be here, come what may.
Land we hold so dear,
To our hearts so near, Land that we adore, Ours for evermore Land where we were born Where we'll always stay We will be here, come what may.
Eretz, eretz, eretz,
Land of sea and sky, Where flowers and children grow so high, To the north the hills, Southern deserts wide, And borders long and narrow on each side.
Land we hold so dear...
Eretz, eretz, eretz,
Land of the Torah. You are the source of light and faith for me. Eretz, eretz, eretz, Ours you'll always be, For the legend has become reality.
Land we hold so dear...
The years of the First World War were a period of great hardship for the yishuv (Jewish community) in Eretz Israel. Plagues, deportation, conscription to the Turkish army, and economic sanctions caused the population to decline. Immigration ceased; the prime issue was survival. The yishuv dwindled from 85,000 to 56,000 by the end of the war; almost all the increase in population contributed by the Second Aliya was wiped out in four years.
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An important political watershed was reached in November 1917, when Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, recognizing the right of the Jewish people to a national home in the Land of Israel, and pledging to do what it could to promote the attainment of this goal. At the same time, British forces advanced through the country, conquering it from the Ottoman Turks. Explicit recognition of the Jewish people's rights in the Land of Israel by the power that had now occupied the country was seen as a favorable portent for the future.
Around the world, Jews prepared for immigration. Pogroms and assaults in Eastern Europe added urgency to their mission. However, only about 2000 Jews arrived in 1919, principally because despite their proclamations, the British authorities set strict limitations to Jewish immigration. Inadequate infrastructure compounded the difficulties in absorbing the newcomers. Nevertheless, many Jews managed to penetrate the wall of prohibitions, and they continued to arrive in Eretz Israel in a steady trickle.
The 35,000 immigrants of the Third Aliya had few resources, but like previous pioneers, they soon established firm ties with the veteran communities. The high esteem in which the new immigrants held their predecessors was returned in kind by the value placed on the newcomers as the spiritual and practical heirs to the Land.
Hopes surged again in 1920, when the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers, meeting at the San Remo Conference, decided to award Great Britain a mandate over Palestine (as the Land was called at the time). The Balfour Declaration, issued a few years earlier, and the presence of the new British High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, an English Jew and sympathizer with the Zionist enterprise, revived hopes for mass immigration to Eretz Israel and the establishment of a national home for the Jews.
1920 also saw the establishment of pioneer cooperatives. The best known was Gedud Ha'avodah - the [Joseph Trumpeldor] Labor Legion - established by 80 members of the Third Aliya together with a few veterans of the Second Aliya. The Labor Legion took on many pioneering missions aimed at building up the country, including draining swamps and paving roads. Legion members also established the kibbutzim of Ein Harod and Tel Yosef. Other organized groups - including members of the Hashomer Hatzair Zionist youth movement - immigrated and devoted themselves to pioneering tasks, improving the land, and establishing cooperative and productive enterprises.
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The village of Tel Hai in the Galilee was founded by veterans of the Hashomer and Haro'eh self-defense groups in 1918. It soon came under repeated attacks by local bandits, who wanted to control the district. Initially, the community of Tel Hai managed to repulse the assaults, but by means of a ruse the attackers managed to enter the courtyard of the settlement where they opened fire, killing six of the defenders including their leader, ex-Russian officer and disabled war veteran Joseph Trumpeldor (1880-1920). Although the survivors were forced to abandon Tel Hai, the members of the community became a legend of yishuv history, on account of their steadfast defense of the place and the bravery of those who fell in battle. Trumpeldor's last words were immortalized: "It is good to die for our country."
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The years 1921-1923 saw the flourishing of the Jezreel Valley and the establishment of 12 communities in its environs. The rich fertile soil of the valley turned green and blossomed; the dream of renewed possession of the land began to be realized. At the same time, other immigrants chose to settle in the cities of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. In 1921, Arab riots in the countryside caused many more to join the city-dwellers. At first the new residents were placed in tent camps, but they soon put down more permanent roots.
The Fourth Aliya (1924-1932)
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In 1924, the British authorities opened immigration to persons with capital, and tradesmen, artisans, professionals and academics arrived in large numbers. Among the first immigrants of the Fourth Aliya was the poet Haim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934). His arrival, in March 1924, stimulated a much-needed feeling of renewal and revival among the residents of the country, and especially of Tel Aviv, where he settled.
The Fourth Aliya brought a total of 65,000 Jews to Eretz Israel. New settlements sprang up all over the country, including Herzliya and the farming village of Kfar Hasidim. The cities also flourished. By the end of 1925 - the peak of the Fourth Aliya - the population of Tel Aviv had doubled. Regular passenger services brought thousands of Jews direct from the Soviet Union by ship to the ports of Jaffa and Haifa. Unlike the previous olim, these were middle-class families, older than the earlier pioneers and most of them city-dwellers. The excitement was tangible, as more and more Jews arrived from Poland, the Soviet Union, Romania, Lithuania, Iraq and Yemen, fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah: I will say to the North, "Give back!" and to the South, "Do not withhold!" Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the end of the earth. (Isa. 43:6)
Evidence of the deep dedication to settling the Land can be found in a letter written in August 1926 by Yitzhak Binder, one of the seven founders of Herzliya, to his relatives in Germany:
To my distress, fever season has begun here. It has stricken us one after another. When the last one got up from his sickbed the first was stricken again... To this can be added the outbreak of boils, which the doctor believes we can cure easily by bathing in the sea, which is not far away. But we have no opportunity to get there because of the press of work...
Our food is simple, but we have got used to it and are satisfied, because we love the land despite all the difficulties. We are in a good mood and feel that we are free. After work and on the Sabbath we sing and enjoy ourselves. Even though our lives here are more difficult than we imagined, we have no thoughts of leaving the land for any price. Our little children have almost forgotten German and speak only Hebrew. As the first settlers we are suffering here not only for our own future but also for the future of all Jews.
In addition to the difficult conditions in the countryside, the new immigrants faced severe unemployment in the major population centers. At a meeting of several thousand unemployed persons, David Ben-Gurion, who was the secretary of the Histadrut (the General Federation of Labor) at the time, addressed the crowd. Someone in the audience called out to Ben-Gurion, "Leader, give us bread!" Ben-Gurion replied, "I don't have any bread, but I do have a vision."
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By 1928, there were encouraging signs of stabilization in the immigrants' situation. Despite a sweeping ban on immigration imposed by the British authorities in response to Arab rioting, small groups continued to arrive. For those already in the country, major construction projects - such as the electric power plant at Naharayim - provided plenty of work.
During the period following the end of the Fourth Aliya, the Jewish community in Eretz Israel grew stronger and more powerful. Large enterprises were set up all over the country and many new buildings were erected in the cities. The citrus industry developed and there were great hopes for future progress.
The Arab riots of 1929 dealt a harsh blow to the sense of stability. After the savage massacre of the 67 members of the long-settled Jewish community of Hebron, progress was replaced by concern for bare survival. The British authorities clamped down even more tightly on immigration, sparking a wave of protests by the Jewish community. Despite the demonstrations, immigration remained regulated by strict quotas and proceeded at a rate of only a few thousand per year. There was no choice for the Jewish community but to gather all its strength and work on further improving the country, until they could be reunited in their ancient homeland with their brothers and sisters in the Diaspora.
In 1932 a new British high commissioner arrived in the country opening a new page in the history of immigration. Jews began to arrive from Poland, the United States, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. The rising tide of immigrants augmented expectations for the future, and these hopes were not disappointed.
The Fifth Aliya (1933-1939)
The Song of Freedom
Yitzhak Shenhar
Our faces to the rising sun,
Our path again turns eastward. We look ahead to the great hour, Heads held high, our souls unbowed. With steady hand we carve our fate, Fierce hopes beat in our hearts. Remembering that we have a people, Knowing that we have a homeland. The exile's final hour draws near, The dream of freedom will be real. Hold strongly to tomorrow's flag, As row on row we march ahead.
After Hitler came to power in 1933, Jewish emigration became a matter of survival. Despite strict immigration quotas and fierce Arab unrest, troubling reports about the deteriorating situation of the Jews in Europe accelerated the urgency of providing a safe haven, and the idea of the state advanced steadily. Between 1933-39, some 250,000 Jews from Germany, Poland, the Soviet Union, Greece, and Yemen immigrated to Eretz Israel - the largest wave before independence - increasing the Jewish population to some half a million.
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Although only about one fifth of the olim were from Germany, the Fifth Aliya soon became known as the "Yekke" (slang term for a German Jew) immigration. The German immigrants exerted a disproportionate influence on culture and society: they continued to speak and publish in their mother tongue, and they introduced cultural events and activities familiar to them from Germany. In addition, they brought with them considerable amounts of capital, which significantly contributed to the economic consolidation of the yishuv. The Yekkes, like other immigrant groups of previous years, excelled in their devotion to Eretz Israel and in their determination to make it their home.
In 1937, a British commission of inquiry studied the situation in Eretz Israel and the Jewish right to a home there. David Ben-Gurion, who was the chairman of the Jewish Agency executive at the time, testified before the committee. He said:
Our right to Eretz Israel does not derive from the mandate and the Balfour Declaration. It predates those. At one of the sessions, the honorable chairman of the Royal Commission or one of his colleagues said that the mandate is the bible of Zionism... But in the name of the Jewish people I can say just the opposite: The Bible is our mandate. The Bible, which was written by us, in our own Hebrew language and in this very country, is our mandate. Our historical right exists from the dawn of the Jewish people and the Balfour Declaration and mandate were meant to recognize and affirm this right.
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The Fifth Aliya also saw the establishment of a new and unique enterprise. In cooperation with the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor) and the kibbutz movement, thousands of young people were brought to Eretz Israel as part of the Youth Aliya project. The first group arrived in 1932, settling in the Ben Shemen youth village. Despite difficulties in absorbing people from such a variety of cultures, Youth Aliyah proved to be a great success. The organization established many new communities in Israel, both for the newcomers and for local youth.
The members of this wave of immigration displayed great courage. In their countries of origin, they had been merchants, academics, intellectuals and industrialists. When they arrived in Eretz Israel, their status changed overnight. Many retrained in construction, metalwork, carpentry and other manual professions, in the firm belief that their adaptation helped augment production and promoted their integration. Consequently, the country developed at a rapid pace; agricultural settlements blossomed and new industries were established. The mood of the immigrants is best illustrated by an exhilarating picture of stevedores dancing as they unloaded sacks of cement in the new Tel Aviv port, which circulated throughout the country at that time.
The following passage was written by Rabbi Kook to Moshe Gottlieb of the Mizrachi religious Zionist movement in 1935:
Dear brethren! Be strong and steadfast in the holiness of Israel, the holy path that our holy rabbis and ancestors have taught us. But supplement it with the bond to the holy land and its rebuilding, which has been renewed in accordance with the wondrous ways of the Lord in our day - what was not possible in earlier times, before the epoch arrived to be gracious Zion and the season that was foretold, "Your servants take delight in its stones, and cherish its dust" (Ps. 102:15). And may God instill in the hearts of all our children the desire to return to the Lord and to our holy Torah... and to strive in the sacred enterprise of returning the remnant of Israel to its holy land. And may we speedily merit to the full redemption.
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During the last years of the Fifth Aliya, Arab violence forced Jews to build protective settlements, with a tall watchtower in the center, to help defend themselves against gunfire and infiltrators. At first the British authorities favored these "tower and stockade" projects, believing that their establishment would deter the rioters and moderate their behavior. However, the publication of the British Government's White Paper in 1939, placing artificial limitations on Jewish immigration, seemed to deliver a fatal blow to the yishuv. But the Jewish spirit refused to be dampened. Jews continued to enter the country and build it up, illuminated by trust in the Divine promise: Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. He will bring you together again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you And the Lord your God will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. (Deut. 30:3, 5)
The Holocaust and Clandestine Immigration (1934-1948)
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The destruction of European Jewry during the Second World War (1939-1945) was an atrocity that surpasses human comprehension. Under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, the German army and its collaborators perpetrated the systematic murder of six million Jews - about one third of the world's Jewish community at that time.
Following the Nazis' ascent to power in 1933, Jews were subjected to increasing levels of persecution. They were denied citizenship, work and personal property; they were expelled from their homes and herded into ghettos, where they lived in subhuman conditions, falling victim to famine and disease; and they were deported to slave labor camps and concentration camps where they were starved, tortured and murdered. The Holocaust terminated with the end of the Second World War in Europe on May 8, 1945.
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The special bond between the Jewish people and their land characterizes the heroic chapter of clandestine ("illegal") immigration to Eretz Israel. From early 1934 until the establishment of the State in 1948, potential immigrants, as well as those already in the country and gentile sympathizers abroad risked - and sometimes lost - their lives on behalf of the lofty goal of free Jewish immigration to their homeland.
Organized clandestine immigration brought Jews from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East by sea, land and air. Over 14 years, some 122,000 Jews, excluded from every approved avenue of immigration by the British mandatory authorities, made their way to Eretz Israel. The years of clandestine immigration can be divided into three periods: 1934-1939, when 21,630 immigrants arrived; 1940-1944, (16,456 immigrants); and 1945-1948, (84,333 immigrants).
The catastrophe of the Holocaust shook the Jewish People to the core. Many sank into profound thoughts about existence; others committed their thoughts to writing, for the benefit of future generations. One of the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis was young Moshe Palinker, who wrote in his diary in 1943:
There is nothing finer in the world than to hold... the steadfast belief that we have in our people, the chosen people, the eternal people, whose suffering will only intensify our stubbornness and our strength. The faith that we have in our land, the land that was ours and will be ours, the land that was sanctified by our very faith in it, the land that gives us new strength every day The belief that will accompany us forever until we are permitted, with the help of our God, to go up to our land and live there as one people, in one land, the people of the one and only God. And so, Lord, have mercy on your people and have mercy also on me...
The strength of his belief in the Jewish bond to Eretz Israel is astounding. In the inferno of Europe, and at a time of unbearable personal agony, Palinker was able to look to the future and see the Jewish people returning to their land.
In the years preceding the outbreak of the Second World War, immigration was organized and conducted by three main groups: the Haganah (the pre-State Jewish defense organization), which operated in coordination with the official Zionist institutions; Betar and the organs of the Revisionist movement; and private organizations. At first, clandestine immigration was limited in scope, focusing on rescuing Jews in danger. Most of the ships were chartered or purchased, and their captains and crews were composed of non-Jewish sailors seeking work. The ships were in poor condition and packed to maximum capacity. The Haganah twice commissioned the Vellos to sail from Greece with Polish refugees; Betar operated a smaller ship called the Union. Each turbulent journey brought another group of immigrants determined to make their home and rebuild their lives in Eretz Israel.
During the war, Jewish institutions willingly offered their services to the British authorities in their fight against the Nazis. At the same time, clandestine immigration continued, in an effort to save European Jews from annihilation. Although it soon became almost impossible to make contact with and organize ships of refugees from Europe to Eretz Israel, a total of about 16,000 immigrants nevertheless reached the country during the war years. The story of immigration in those years is a catalogue of traumatic incidents. Seven immigrant ships were sunk, including the Struma, which was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea on February 23, 1942 killing all but one of the 769 passengers.
From the end of the war until independence was declared, clandestine immigration rapidly developed into a vast organization based on several components: the support of the Jewish community in Eretz Israel; financial and political assistance from abroad - especially Europe; the encouragement of Zionism worldwide; and the garnering of sympathetic world public opinion. The clandestine immigration network stretched across Europe, with additional branches in North Africa, the Middle East and the United States as well.
Jews from Arab countries made their way to Eretz Israel overland through the deserts of Iraq to Syria, where they slipped across the border. Jewish soldiers serving in the British army in Palestine - especially drivers - provided major assistance in transporting these immigrants across the border, in one case smuggling in some 1,350 Jewish children. In addition to the sea and overland routes, some immigrants arrived by air. In 1947, a campaign known as "Winged Immigration" brought immigrants to Eretz Israel from Iraq and Italy on an American military plane, flown by two volunteers. It landed at a specially prepared strip near Yavne'el in Lower Galilee.
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Although the mandatory authorities fought clandestine immigration fiercely, the Jewish community viewed their efforts as vital steps towards restored national sovereignty. The sense of unity among the people reached its peak expression in the way the Jewish community welcomed the immigrants. It was not uncommon to see a large crowd congregating near the shore, waiting for the arrival of an immigrant ship. As the ship neared the coast and the immigrants disembarked, they were greeted with embraces and love, like long-lost brothers and sisters. When the British police arrived to check their documents, it was often impossible to distinguish the newcomers from the locals - all claimed simply: "I am Jew from the Land of Israel." However, the British did succeed in sending some ships back to exile before their passengers had disembarked. The last of the passengers deported to Cyprus were not released until February 1949, after the establishment of the State.
The period of clandestine immigration was one of the most crucial chapters in the history of the struggle for an independent Jewish state in Eretz Israel. The Jewish People, who had never forgotten God's promise to Abraham, made every effort to return to their beloved homeland. The tribulations of the journey, the fear of hostile authorities, the pain of leaving a familiar life behind, and the difficulties of absorption did not deter tens of thousands of immigrants from packing their few belongings - as their ancestors had done at the time of the exodus from Egypt - and setting out on their journey home.
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