#second aliyah

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[jewishvirtuallibrary-blog]

Workers from the Second Aliyah eating lunch in the fields of Migdal, Ottoman Syria; 1912. x

The Second Aliyah took place between 1904 and 1914 and involved the movement of a total of 40,000 Jewish people to what was then Ottoman Syria.  Due to antisemitic violence in Eastern Europe, a total two million Jewish people moved from Eastern Europe at this time.  Most went to the United States, but some also went to South America, South Africa, and the Ottoman Empire.  The Second Aliyah was made up of many Jewish idealists who were escaping political repression and violence in Eastern Europe and sought to work towards the utopian ideals that was a part of their ideologies.  Although this drew many to Eretz Yisrael - causing the first Kibbutzim to be founded in this time - it also brought many Jewish activists to the United States where they formed an important part of the Socialist movement in turn-of-the-century America.