1. The Ethnic Perspective of the Selective Immigration in the 1950’s
Avi Picard – Rutgers University

2. Immigration policy Dilemmas
The aim of Zionism
Attitude toward Jews from Moslem countries
Rescue
Building
Reservation
Solidarity

3. Rescue Versus Building
To establish an infrastructure for a new society
Immigrants are welcomed as long as they contribute to the development of Eretz Israel
Immigration should be controlled and slow
Rescue
Zionism should provide a safe haven for persecuted Jews.
all Jews interested in Aliyah should be allowed to come.

4. The changes in the late 1930’s
The National Home Grew stronger
Antisemitism in Europe
Immigration countries close their gates
A need for a Jewish Majority in Palestine
Free immigration policy

5. Attitude toward Jews from Moslem countries
Colonial Heritage
Reservation
National Ethos
Solidarity

6. Attitude of reservation
The Colonial Heritage
Europeans
Natives
Attitude of reservation

7. The National Ethos Solidarity
The differences among the members of the nation are secondary and should be ignored
Germans
Polish
Romanians
Iraqis
Moroccans
Yemenites J E W S
Solidarity

8. 1940’s – The Eastern Orientation
The result of the Holocaust
The need for a Jewish Majority
the Israeli-Arab conflict undermined the civil status and the security of Jews in Arab countries
Jews from Asia and Africa are included in the immigration plans

9. The way to the mass immigration
The Eastern Orientation
The principal of Rescue
680,000 immigrants
Half of them were from Asia and Africa.

10. Mass Immigration Malaise
Physical and Economic Problems
Losing Western Identity
The Second Demographic Threat

11. Immigration to Israel by origin 1948-1952

12. World Jewry by 1948

13. The (second) Demographic Fear
Ben Gurion: “the character of the yishuv would be impaired and its pioneering image would fade away.”
Pinhas Lavon (General Secretary of the Histadrut): “The establishment here of a Levantine people instead of a nation characterized by the Godly image of the Hebrew labor movement… Israel would become a Jewish version of Syria, Lebanon and Egypt”

14. The Selective Immigration
Immigrants should be
Young
Healthy
Willing to hard work
Willing to go to agricultural settlements for at least two years

15. Was the Selection Policy Ethnically Biased?
Shlomo Zalman Shragai: “when the Selection rules were conceived, they were made for North Africa… Nobody thought that there is a problem regarding England or Belgium. All the restrictions were for North Africa. With Jews from other countries we were not so strict” (February 1954).

16. The goals of selection - restriction
Giora Yosftal about immigration plan:
80% will come from the Mizrachi countries […] I say that the country is in a certain danger, its moral and social existence are in danger from this immigration. I am not talking about external absorption conditions […] but what we have from a social point of view […]. Ninety percent of the transit camps now consist of the Oriental Jews with their gloomy lives […]. It is said that life in the country is taking on a Levantine character, I am sure that this is so, some of us already fear the immigrants. When there was the difficult immigration of the Holocaust survivors, a difficult immigration from a social point of view, we did not stand opposite them, we stood together with them, it was possible to identify with them, but this is not the position now […]. I live in fear that the country is attaining a character which cannot draw a person who is not compelled to immigrate. I dare to ask: when will we build according to the forces now arriving in the country”

17. The Goals of selection - acculturation
Facilitate the Melting pot
Moshe Kol:
If we will bring the young generation first, we can take care of them, educate them and prepare them to assist us in welcoming their families. If we don’t do it we will drowned in a sea of levantinisation

18. The Goals of Selection Economic goals
Preventing immigration from the Moslem countries
Creating a successful melting pot by taking the young generation first

19. Solidarity tested Tunisia and Morocco 1954-1956
The Struggle against French colonialism and the question of Communities in Jeopardy
Free emigration at risk under Arab government
Regulation of immigration according to the absorption capacity of “ship to village” policy
1956 – Morocco forbids the emigration of Jews
100,000 Jews were trapped in Morocco

20. Solidarity resume
Mossad’s clandestine operation: smuggle Jews out of morocco
1961: The Moroccan government let the Jews to leave the country as long as it did not become public, and the explicit destination was not Israel.
All restrictions of the selective policy were abandoned