Third Aliyah

The Third Aliyah (Hebrew: העלייה השלישית) was a continuation of the Second Aliyah, which was halted by the outbreak of the First World War.  During the Third Aliyah, some 35,000 Jews arrived, the majority from Russia and Poland, with a smaller number from Lithuania and Rumania.

A symbol of the start of the third immigration wave is the arrival of the boat “Roselan” in the Jaffa Port on December 19, 1919. The boat had 650 new immigrants and other returning inhabitants on board.

Most members of the Third Aliyah were young halutzim (pioneers) from Eastern Europe. Although the British Mandatory regime imposed aliyah quotas, the Jewish people in Israel numbered 90,000 by the end of this period. The new immigrants built roads and towns, and projects such as the draining of marshes in the Jezreel Valley and the Hefer Plain were undertaken.

There are some causes of this Aliyah:

-The Balfour Declaration of 1917, along with the beginning of the British mandate inspired hope and opened the way to officially sanctioned colonization in Palestine.

-The social concussions in Europe.

-The revolution and the Russian civil war led to a wave of pogroms. An estimated 100,000 Jews were killed and 500,000 left homeless.

-In the new countries which were formed after World War I there was the “problem of the minorities”. Battles erupted between small ethnic groups which had cliquish aspirations.

-The economic crisis in Europe provided an additional motivating factor for Jews leaving with the hope of starting a new life in Israel.

In Israel’s history, this Aliyah was very significant and important.

Credits:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Immigration/Third_Aliyah.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Aliyah