CJPME on the increase in Jewish immigration to Palestine after World War I

Why did Jewish immigration increase again after WWI?

Stronger immigration: The third and fourth aliyot brought 35,000 Jews from the Soviet Union, Poland and the Baltic countries between 1919 and 1923, and 82,000 Jews from the Balkans and the Near Orient between 1924 and 1931, respectively.  By the end of 1931, 174,600 Jews were living in Palestine, 17 percent of the population.  During this period, 15 percent of the transoceanic Jewish migration was to Palestine.  There were many reasons for this surge in migration.

The Balfour Declaration: At the end of WWI, the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and Palestine came under the British mandate.  Great Britain was in favour of establishing a Jewish national homeland in Palestine.  In a letter written in 1917, Lord Balfour expressed this agreement, with the proviso that “… nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine ...”.  The Balfour Declaration gave a legal basis for Jewish immigration, thus encouraging it. 

The rise of anti-Semitism and Nazism: The increase in anti-Semitism in Europe led many Jews again to leave their countries.  At the same time, the US Immigration Act of 1924 would greatly slow immigration from Europe by setting strict quotas per country.  Diverse limitations on immigration were also implemented in Europe.  This also explains in part Jewish migrants’ choice of Palestine.  From 1932 on, with the Nazi victory in Germany and the intensification of persecution in Austria and Czechoslovakia, Jewish immigration to Palestine increased dramatically.  Between 1932 and 1939, Palestine absorbed 247,000 newcomers, 46 percent of Jewish emigration from Europe.  In the European political context, this fifth aliya constituted a flight rather than a “Zionist choice.”

~ Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, "Jewish Immigration to Historical Palestine," CJPME Factsheet 181, November, 2013