The Fifth Aliyah
(1929 - 1939)
The signal event of this aliyah wave was the Nazi
accession to power in Germany (1933). Persecution
and the Jews' worsening situation caused aliyah
from Germany to increase, and aliyah from
Eastern Europe to resume. Many of the immigrants
from Germany were professionals; their impact
was to be felt in many fields of endeavor.
Within a four-year period (1933-1936), 174,000
Jews settled in the country. The towns flourished
as new industrial enterprises were founded
and construction of the Haifa port and the
oil refineries was completed. Throughout the
country, "stockade and tower" settlements
were established. During this period in 1929 and again in 1936-39 violent Arab attacks on
the Jewish population took place, called "disturbances"
by the British. The British government imposed
restrictions on immigration, resulting in
Aliyah Bet — clandestine, illegal immigration.
By 1940, nearly 250,000 Jews had arrived during the Fifth Aliyah
(20,000 of them left later) and the yishuv's population reached
450,000. From this time on, the practice of "numbering"
the waves of immigration was discontinued which is not
to say that aliyah had exhausted itself.
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