The First Aliyah
(1882 - 1903)
The First Aliyah followed pogroms in Russia in 1881-1882,
with most of the olim (immigrants) coming from Eastern
Europe; a small number also arrived from Yemen. Members of Hibbat
Zion and Bilu, two early Zionist movements that were the mainstays
of the First Aliyah, defined their goal as "the political,
national, and spiritual resurrection of the Jewish people in Palestine."
Though they were inexperienced idealists, most chose agricultural
settlement as their way of life and founded moshavot — farmholders'
villages based on the principle of private property. Three early
villages of this type were Rishon Lezion, Rosh Pina, and Zikhron Ya'akov.
The First Aliyah settlers encountered many difficulties, including
an inclement climate, disease, crippling Turkish taxation and
Arab opposition. They required assistance and received scanty
aid from Hibbat
Zion, and more substantial aid from Baron Edmond
de Rothschild. He provided the moshavot with his patronage and
the settlers with economic assistance, thereby averting the collapse
of the settlement enterprise. The Yemenite olim, most of whom
settled in Jerusalem, were first employed as construction workers
and later in the citrus plantations of the moshavot.
In all, nearly 35,000 Jews came to Palestine during the First
Aliyah. Almost half of them left the country within several years
of their arrival, some 15,000 established new rural settlements,
and the rest moved to the towns.
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