where did most of the jewish population of Israel immigrate from?

Question

In the early years.......which countries? and why did they leave those countries?

was the land before 1948 a wasteland with no inhabitants??

Answer 1

Mostly from europe.

I read somewhere once that around 1900 or so that the jewish population of the land now know as the country of Israel was about 6% jewish. That number started to grow in the early part of the 20th century as the zionist movement moved ahead. Around this time many of the immigrants were from russia. The bulk of the immigrants came over of course after world war 2, when there was a rush to flood the country with as many jews as possible to make the land a jewish homeland.

Of course this flood of immigrant jews from europe, there was also a movement to remove as many of the arabs from the land as possible from either buying their lands or outright use of violence to evict them...even terrorism. Some conflicts erupted as you can imagine as no one likes to be bullied around, and have their villages razed and bulldozed.

The land had not been a wasteland, it was occupied mostly by nonjews who mostly had lived side by side with the jews peacefully for many centuries. All this changed of course, and took a very ugly turn in the middle of the 20th century and we are still seeing that conflict going on today as we speak.

Answer 2

First the land before 1948 was also occupied and never was a wasteland. 68% of the population is Israeli born, 22% from Europe and the Americas, and 10% from Asia, Africa and the Arab countries.

Answer 3

During Israel's first years (1948-1961) over one million Jews immigrated to Israel . The Jewish population in 1948 was abour 600,000.
About 45% were from Europe, 28% from Asia,24% from Africa, 1% from America and Australia.
The specific countries which "contributed " the most immigrants were:
In Europe -Romania( 37% of the immigrants from Europe).
In Asia- Iraq (45% of Asian immigrants)
In Africa - Morocco (52% of immigrants from Africa)
In the Americas - Argentina (36%)
The immigrants came for a variety of reasons : Holocaust survivors seeking a new beginning in their ancestral homeland; the Jews from the Moslem countries, found themselves in an untenable situation after the establishment of Israel and the collapse of British/ French colonialism in those countries.
Of course the land was populated: The Jewish population was, as I mentioned , about 600,000 and the Arab population around twice that figure, approximately 1,200,000.

Answer 4

Many of the Israeli immigrants are originally from Muslim countries. Apart from Iran, all Muslim countries kicked out the jewish citizens; it was very sad because in Egypt and Iraq there were fairly large and vibrant jewish communities. But Jews in Muslim countries were always second class citizens with less rights than their Muslim peers.

There are also many people from Russia in Israel; for many years they were forbidden to leave the country, and were treated terribly in Russia, so it was a happy event when they finally began to get permission to leave and go to Israel.

There are people from all over the world in Israel: Germany, Austria, France, Poland, Hungary, Morocco, China, Italy, Spain, Yemen, and more.

Over 20 per cent of Israelis are NOT Jewish. They have exactly the same rights as the Jewish citizens.

Prior to 1948, the term 'Palestinians' referred to Jews - they were the people living in Palestine, formerly Judea, the homeland of the Jewish people.

Jews have had a continuous presence in Palestine for almost four thousand years.

Mark Twain, returning from a trip to Palestine in the 19th century, said: 'Apart from the jews, there are just a few wandering Arab nomads there.'

Because the Jews transformed Palestine from desert into a beautiful and viable piece of land, Muslims from the neighbouring Arab states began moving into the area; so the first Muslims in the area, now called Palestinians, were from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq.

There is no ancient race of Muslim Palestinians. The area was always the spiritual and physical Jewish homeland, Eretz Yisrael.

Answer 5

I believe Russia is where most of them came from. persecution is what they claim as the reason for leaving,some probably just wanted to segregate themselves though. there were Muslims,Jews and Christians living in the area prior to to 1948,it wasn't a wasteland. Prior to British occupation it was fairly peaceful there.

Answer 6

Most came from Muslim countries. Sephardic Jews are the majority in Israel

Answer 7

The majority of the population was (and remains) indigenous, believe it or not.