Fourth Aliyah - The Character of The Fourth Aliyah

The Character of The Fourth Aliyah

Since 1924 the character and the composition of the immigration to the Land of Israel changed, and even though this immigration wave was very close to the previous immigration wave, it has been categorized as separate.

A big immigration wave that began in 1924 and continued during two years, brought a rapid urban development mainly in Tel Aviv which absorbed a considerable amount of the immigrants. But during the years 1926 - 1927 an economic crisis occurred in the country, from the toughest which the Jewish settlement had during the period of the British mandate, and in spite of the economic comeback between the years 1928 - 1929, the crisis was identified with all of the period of the Fourth immigration. In the period of the crisis about 23,000 immigrants decided to leave the country.

In the fourth Aliyah about 80,000 immigrants came to the Land of Israel, mainly from the countries of eastern Europe, half of the immigrants from Poland and the rest from USSR, Romania and Lithuania. In addition to that 12% of all immigrants were from Asia, mainly Yemen and Iraq. From the rest of Europe and America there were only a few immigrants. Due to the 10,000 immigrants who left the Land of Israel during those years, the contribution of the immigrants who stayed in the Jewish settlement in those years was very important and decisive.