First Aliyah or ascent to Jerusalem
1857 | In small groups, Jews arrive from Central Europe and settle in Jerusalem. This was the first wave of immigration, known in Hebrew as aliyah, meaning ascent to Jerusalem. Within twelve years, the Jewish population reached 17,000 souls. The study of the sacred books in the synagogues is intimately linked to this return to the sources of faith. This is what the Lord declares: … The fallow fields will be cultivated again, those who pass by will see no more forsaken lands.37 These prophecies, familiar to young immigrants, are ancient words that motivate their faith and commitment. Agriculture and construction are the main activities. It’s about housing, rebuilding sanctuaries, feeding themselves and having reserves for new arrivals.
The wealthy Lord Moses Haïm Montefiore financed the construction of the first Jewish quarter outside the Old City walls, the Yemin Moshe district.
The enthusiasm for the Middle East experience resonates strongly with Jews who have suffered injustice and wickedness at the hands of the people among whom they live. The appeal of Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) is growing in Jewish communities around the world. The work is hard, the fields full of stones that have to be removed to enable ploughing. The earth is turned over generously, and harvests are plentiful. The swamps near the waterholes are infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Major work is needed to harness the blue gold, either for drinking or for irrigating crops.
1863 | The Jewish printing house in Jerusalem regularly issues a newsletter. Reports on the situation in Judea, news of new arrivals and the development of the community. It’s a much-appreciated link between Jews all over the world.
1871 | The first school and agricultural institute is opened by Charles Netter: Mikvé-Israël or Hope of Israel. Children receive basic schooling during the day. The same premises are used in the evenings to instruct young people and immigrants in agriculture and the usual trades. On weekends, the rooms are used for Sabbath celebrations.
Groups of young people buy uncultivated land from a sultan in Alexandria. They build houses, plant vines and other fruit trees, which grow and produce wonderful harvests. Herds proliferated. Cohabitation with the few nomadic shepherds goes well.
Echoes of success spread throughout European Jewish communities. More and more pioneers, young and old, set out for the Promised Land.
1878 | Foundation north of Jaffa of the first Jewish agricultural settlement in the Promised Land: Petah Tikva or Gate of Hope. Jewish society, well integrated and respected in Europe, saw no need to go out and get eaten by mosquitoes, plant potatoes, let alone herd cattle. Its members remain spectators of what’s going on over there. At most, they take part in it, by collecting funds for olim, Jews who have made aliyah.
Growing hostility to Jews in Russia forced them to flee to Central Europe. Many courageous young people did not stop until they reached the Promised Land.
The Jewish colony in Canaan grew with every boat that arrived. Couples are formed. As they celebrated their union, they passed on life, which required schools. Architects, doctors, nurses – all essential professions – were needed. On the spot, you have to make do with what you have. Everyone is stretched to the limit.
This society, like any living community, needs laws, ordinances, courts and political structures. Some people are thinking hard about this. The Turks are the masters of Palestine, and it’s important not to offend them. The Ottomans like to buy land; it’s an excellent business.
A language resurrected
What language do they officially speak? Some speak German, others Yiddish, Romanian, Polish, French, English, Russian and Arabic. Teachers and politicians are aware that a solution must be found, an absolute necessity if we are to get along and understand each other.
1881 | The scholar and educator Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1858-1922) arrives in Jerusalem at the age of 23. He set up a Hebrew language academy. He collected all Hebrew and Aramaic words to develop their everyday meaning in the Thesaurus. He publishes a newspaper in modern Hebrew, the Feuille de Jérusalem. He and his wife speak to their son only in the new Hebrew. He became the first citizen to speak his first words in this new language.
1882 | Foundation of the agricultural settlement of Rishon Le Zion, First in Zion, by a group of 10 immigrants.
The Jews are blamed for the assassination of Tsar AlexanderI, and violent pogroms against them undermine any hope for the future. Tens of thousands left for the Promised Land.
1884 | During particularly devastating pogroms, the Romanian poet Naftali Herz Imber wrote a song, L’Espérance (Hope), which was to become Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva.
1890 | Faced with the need to train personnel in breeding and cultivation, the first agronomic study center is opened in Rehovot. It teaches animal husbandry, market gardening and arboriculture. The center also developed research into new crops, hydrology and irrigation. Rainfall became an exact science that was closely followed. The Ezer Weismann Institute of Agricultural Research quickly gained worldwide renown.
1891 | Printing and distribution of the first Hebrew dictionary, the Thesaurus, a remarkable work by Eliezer Ben Yehuda. What defines a nation is its common language, its social practices and organization of life, its politics. Everything falls into place as needs arise.
The Dreyfuss affair
1895 | In secular France, a Jewish officer is accused of treason. The press cartoons are crude, he’s a money-hungry Jew, he has a hooked nose, he’s guilty. After a mock trial, he is publicly degraded in front of his unit and the Parisian population. He was imprisoned and sent into exile in the penal colony of French Guiana. After various twists and turns and fifteen years of procrastination, the case was retried. Dreyfuss is cleared and rehabilitated.
Justice always triumphs in the end, but this dark affair demonstrates the anti-Semitism of French society in the early 20th century. Judaism is the enemy”, proclaimed a certain A. Willette, a candidate in the legislative elections.
Other French people have a heart for pilgrims to Jerusalem. Inauguration of the Saint Louis Hospital in Jerusalem. It is the first healthcare facility in the city.
Theodore Herzl
1897 | In Basel, Theodore Herzl convenes the first World Zionist Congress. He wrote in his diary: I have just created the Jewish state! In five years perhaps, in fifty surely, everyone will understand.
In an article published in Ecoute Israël that same year, the young German politician Walther Rathenau warned Jews not to step too far out of line. He also wrote: In his youth, every German Jew experiences a painful moment that he will never forget, the moment when he realizes that he has come into the world as a second-class citizen, which he will always be, whatever his worth and merits.38
The Jewish National Fund, Keren Kayemet Leisraël, KKL, buys up available land in Canaan, and new arrivals are directed to settlements in need of labor.
The jobs assigned to the immigrants do not usually correspond to their initial training, but they all participate with a heartfelt commitment to the realization of the Jewish dream of creating their own nation, which is slowly becoming a reality.
Planting a tree becomes a symbolic act of rebuilding the land of ancestors, which every immigrant or visitor must perform. It’s a joyful and intense moment of connection with the land of one’s ancestors.
1901 | On December 29 at the Casino de Bâle, participants in the 5th Zionist Congress decided to create the Jewish National Fund. In addition to the purchase of land in Judea-Samaria, the founders were clear about the need to reforest the land: ” We owe it to ourselves to create a national forestry company, which will be responsible for planting trees in the country,” proposes Theodore Herzl.
1902 Share Zedek medical center founded along the Jaffa road, 3 km from Jerusalem’s Old City. The necessary infrastructure for the inhabitants is put in place. A land without a people for a people without a land is frequently repeated at the 6th Jewish Congress. The numerous pogroms in Russia and Central Europe encourage young people to make Aliyah.
1906 | The total population of the city of Jerusalem is estimated at 60,000 inhabitants, including 40,000 Jews (66%), 7,000 Muslims (12%), and 13,000 Christians.39
1908 | A settlement that had ventured near the sources of the Jordan, just north of Galilee, was destroyed, all the pioneers killed. Tel Haï was too far from any military post that could bring it help.
From now on, new settlements must be of a certain size, organized from day one. They must have weapons to defend themselves until help arrives. These agricultural military camps were called kibbutzim (kibbutz in the singular). Over the years, 270 kibbutzim were established, forming the backbone of the country’s economy. 8% of the population lived in them, generating 40% of the national economy. At the same time, these huge farms are almost impregnable strongholds. Everyone knows how to handle a gun, including women and girls.
Tel Aviv Foundation
1909 | All the land north of Jaffa is bought from an Alexandrian sultan. The price per m2 is identical to that of a m2 plot of land in New York. It’s an immense territory of desert dunes, which became the property of the Jewish National Fund. We’ll buy fields in this country that you say is a desert, without men or beasts … We’ll buy fields with money, we’ll write contracts on them! 40
The ports of Haifa and Jaffa were overloaded, so a new one had to be built. Between the dunes emerges a city with the gentle name of Spring Hills or Tel Aviv. The very name reflects the optimism of the city’s builders.
Kibbutz
In the same year, 250 young men and women from various countries will realize their dream: to open a community of life. Far from other settlements, they moved to the shores of Lake Tiberias, where the Jordan River flows south again. Kibbutz Degania was born.
It’s not just the hostile brigands they have to contend with, but above all the mosquitoes that cause them so much trouble and health problems.
1910 | The industrial revolution hits the country. Building roads in rocky terrain is slow and arduous. Clearing fields by hand is thankless. Housing construction had to be speeded up. To offer young people vocational options other than agriculture, a specialized technical training center was built in Haifa, in the north.
The economic boom required a large workforce. Jewish workers were not enough; Arab workers were welcome.
1912 | In Haifa, the Technion national center for technical training and research is inaugurated. All young people in the country with a basic school education can study there.
Hebrew as a national language
1914 | Europe goes to war. In the Holy Land, the war of languages begins. No language of the Old Continent is favored. The young Jewish generation wants to be independent. Their enthusiasm for Hebrew, that dead language resurrected from the dead, is such that pupils in Haifa’s German and French classes go on strike. The youngsters wanted to be taught in Hebrew, and got their wish.
When the Ottomans (Turks) were driven out by the British in 1917, Hebrew became the official language of the Jewish National Home, alongside English and Arabic.