r/JewsOfConscience • u/ArmyOfMemories Jewish Anti-Zionist • Sep 27 '24

History During the first few decades of Zionist immigration to Palestine, Zionist leaders rejected ~61% of immigrant applicants on the basis of their 'economic situation'.

https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/1839340554347270415
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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Sep 27 '24

This was pre-WW1, before Zionism in Palestine was even considered viable or sustainable.

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u/Adept_Thanks_6993 Orthodox Sep 27 '24

Yeah but there was still plenty of reason for certain Jews to get the hell out of the places there were. Russia, Yemen, etc. I'm sure the Yishuv was well aware of that

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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Sep 27 '24 edited Sep 27 '24

This was still the Old Yishuv era, where most Jews in Palestine lived in poverty and subsided on charity from Jews abroad (which included the "old" Old Yishuv population as well as recent immigrants from the First Aliyah who were in over their heads). During those years many from Old Yishuv communities emigrated to the US due to the devastation of WW1. The Zionist infrastructure that enabled mass immigration was established later after the end of the Ottoman Empire.

there was still plenty of reason for certain Jews to get the hell out of the places there were. Russia, Yemen, etc.

And many of these Jews still did move to Palestine at this time despite the known challenges. There was a particularly significant wave of Yemeni Jewish immigration to Palestine in the 1890s.

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u/Javrambimbam Jewish Sep 27 '24

And a Russian Jewish immigration in the 1900s post-Kishniev