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December 19: The Third Aliyah

lawrencebush
December 19, 2013
PikiWiki_Israel_4823_Immigration_to_IsraelThe third wave of Jewish emigration to Palestine began on this date in 1921 with the arrival in the port of Jaffa of the SS Ruslam with 671 people aboard. This Third Aliyah, which lasted for four years and brought more than 35,000 Jews to Palestine, mostly from Russia and Poland, was prompted by the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed it, which cost many Jews their lives, and by the establishment of the British Mandate in Palestine and the issuance of the Balfour Declaration. Most of the emigrés were young, idealistic Zionists who built upon the achievements of the Second Aliyah (1904-1914) by building kibbutzim and moshavim in the land, built roads, drained marshes, and launched agriculture. The Histadrut was also established during this period, as well as the clandestine Haganah militia. Most of the emigres were socialists and secularists intent on building a collectivist state and a vigorous new sense of Jewish identity — and most of them stayed, despite the hardships of their lives. (Entry edited in 2014 in response to Bernie Bulkin’s comment below.) “Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.” —David Ben-Gurion JEWDAYO ROCKS! Zal Yanovsky, lead guitarist and co-founder of the Lovin’ Spoonful, was born in Toronto on this date in 1944. To see some silent footage of New York City from a Harold Lloyd film, set to the Spoonful’s “Summer in the City,” look below.