Ma'abarot: Difference between revisions
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==Demographics== |
==Demographics== |
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[[File:PikiWiki Israel 9259 divided milk.jpg|thumb|Milk distribution at Ma'abarat [[Tel Mond]], c.1950]] |
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 9259 divided milk.jpg|thumb|Milk distribution at Ma'abarat [[Tel Mond]], c.1950]] |
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The largest group of immigrants arriving in Israel at this time - over 100,000 - hailed from Iraq. The rest were from Europe, including more than 270,000 from different parts of Eastern Europe.<ref>Tom Segev, ''1949. The First Israelis'', Owl Books, 1986, p.96.</ref> |
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Jonathan Kaplan offers a demographic profile of the ma'abarot: "The [Holocaust] survivor population was usually older and contained fewer children. On the other hand, the Jews from developing countries in Asia and Africa tended to have a large number of children but a smaller elderly population. The European immigrants were generally better educated. Neither group however, resembled the profile of pre‑state immigration: a significantly lower percentage of the post‑1948 immigrants were in the primary wage earning group (only 50.4% in the 15–45 age group as compared to 66.8% in earlier immigration waves) and consequently fewer could participate in the work force of the new state. The newer immigrants had less education: 16% of those aged 15 and above had completed secondary education as compared to 34% among the earlier settlers."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kaplan |first1=Jonathan |title=The Mass Migration to Israel of the 1950s |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-mass-migration-of-the-1950s/ |website=My Jewish Learning |accessdate=27 February 2019}}</ref> The Ashkenazi refugees were thus better positioned to take advantage of the pre-state Ashkenazi-led society in Israel, as long as they were willing to acculturate by (for example) minimizing religious observance, and adopting Hebrew and leaving behind Yiddish.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kavon |first1=Eli |title=When Zionism Feared Yiddish |url=https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/When-Zionism-feared-Yiddish-351939 |website=The Jerusalem Post |accessdate=27 February 2019}}</ref> |
Jonathan Kaplan offers a demographic profile of the ma'abarot: "The [Holocaust] survivor population was usually older and contained fewer children. On the other hand, the Jews from developing countries in Asia and Africa tended to have a large number of children but a smaller elderly population. The European immigrants were generally better educated. Neither group however, resembled the profile of pre‑state immigration: a significantly lower percentage of the post‑1948 immigrants were in the primary wage earning group (only 50.4% in the 15–45 age group as compared to 66.8% in earlier immigration waves) and consequently fewer could participate in the work force of the new state. The newer immigrants had less education: 16% of those aged 15 and above had completed secondary education as compared to 34% among the earlier settlers."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kaplan |first1=Jonathan |title=The Mass Migration to Israel of the 1950s |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-mass-migration-of-the-1950s/ |website=My Jewish Learning |accessdate=27 February 2019}}</ref> The Ashkenazi refugees were thus better positioned to take advantage of the pre-state Ashkenazi-led society in Israel, as long as they were willing to acculturate by (for example) minimizing religious observance, and adopting Hebrew and leaving behind Yiddish.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kavon |first1=Eli |title=When Zionism Feared Yiddish |url=https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/When-Zionism-feared-Yiddish-351939 |website=The Jerusalem Post |accessdate=27 February 2019}}</ref> |
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[[File:PikiWiki Israel 47247 Nannies of the transfer camps.jpg|thumb|Children and nannies at Ma'abarat [[Kiryat Ono]]]] |
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 47247 Nannies of the transfer camps.jpg|thumb|Children and nannies at Ma'abarat [[Kiryat Ono]]]] |
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Revision as of 05:58, 8 October 2019
Ma'abarot (Template:Lang-he-n) were immigrant and refugee absorption camps established in Israel in the 1950s, constituting the one of the largest public projects planned by the state to implement its sociospatial and housing policies.[1] The ma'abarot were meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of Jewish refugees and new Jewish immigrants (olim) arriving to the newly independent State of Israel, replacing the less habitable immigrant camps or tent cities. The ma'abarot began to empty out by the mid-1950s and many bacame the basis for Israel's Development Towns. The last ma'abara was dismantled in 1963. According to Dalia Gavriely-Nuri, the memory of these camps has been largely erased from Israeli memory.[2]
Etymology
The Hebrew word Ma'abara (singular) derives from the word ma'avar (Template:Lang-he, transit). Ma'abarot (plural) were meant to be temporary communities for the new arrivals. Immigrants housed in these communities were Jewish refugees mainly from Middle East and North Africa, as well as Holocaust survivors from Europe.
History
In March 1950, Levi Eshkol, head of the Jewish Agency Settlement Department, came up with a plan for transit camps for new immigrants which would provide temporary housing and employment until they found permanent homes in the country. A guiding principle was to establish camps on the outskirts of existing towns and villages.[3] The first ma'abara, in Kesalon in the Judean Hills, became functional in May 1950. Jews from Yemen brought to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet were provided with housing and plots of agricultural land.[4]
The first influx of Jews after World War II was mainly composed of Holocaust survivors from displaced-persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, and British detention camps in Cyprus. In the coming years, the number of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East increased.[5]
_-_A_family_of_new_immigrants_moving_into_one_of_the_huts_at_a_Ma%27abara.jpg)
The early ma'abarot consisted of tents, one for each family. Eventually hut-shaped canvas tents were added, followed by tin or wooden shacks. Sanitary conditions were poor.[2]According to a journalist who visited the Migdal Gad maabara, "in the whole camp there were two faucets for everyone. About a thousand people. The toilets had no roof and were infested with flies."[6]In one community it was reported that there were 350 people to each shower and in another 56 to each toilet.[7]
Eliyahu Dobkin protested these conditions, calling them a "holy horror." David Ben-Gurion took a different approach: “I don’t accept this pampering [approach] with respect to people not living in tents. We are spoiling them. People can live for years in tents. Anyone who doesn’t want to live in them needn’t bother coming here."[2]By the end of 1951, there were 227,000 people living in 123[8] or 125 ma'abarot.[7]
According to scholars Emma Murphy and Clive Jones, the "housing policies weighted in favour of Askenazi immigrants over Oriental Jews. Housing units earmarked for Oriental Jews were often reallocated to European Jewish immigrants, consigning Oriental Jews to the privations of ma'abarot for longer periods."[9]
Beit Mazmil (today Kiryat HaYovel), one of two large ma'abarot established in Jerusalem, consisted of hundreds of asbestos huts inhabited by new immigrants from both North Africa and Eastern Europe. Most of the huts were dismantled in the 1960s and tenements were built in their stead. [10]
The prefabricated structures used in the ma'abarot were imported from Canada, the United States Finland, Sweden and Japan, which was costly, but the government faced a political dilemma: to adjust the pace of immigration to the building industry's capacity to building permanent homes or accelerate immigration and bridge the gap with temporary structures.[11]
Demographics
The largest group of immigrants arriving in Israel at this time - over 100,000 - hailed from Iraq. The rest were from Europe, including more than 270,000 from different parts of Eastern Europe.[12]
Jonathan Kaplan offers a demographic profile of the ma'abarot: "The [Holocaust] survivor population was usually older and contained fewer children. On the other hand, the Jews from developing countries in Asia and Africa tended to have a large number of children but a smaller elderly population. The European immigrants were generally better educated. Neither group however, resembled the profile of pre‑state immigration: a significantly lower percentage of the post‑1948 immigrants were in the primary wage earning group (only 50.4% in the 15–45 age group as compared to 66.8% in earlier immigration waves) and consequently fewer could participate in the work force of the new state. The newer immigrants had less education: 16% of those aged 15 and above had completed secondary education as compared to 34% among the earlier settlers."[13] The Ashkenazi refugees were thus better positioned to take advantage of the pre-state Ashkenazi-led society in Israel, as long as they were willing to acculturate by (for example) minimizing religious observance, and adopting Hebrew and leaving behind Yiddish.[14]
Over time, the ma'abarot metamorphosed into Israeli towns, or were absorbed as neighbourhoods of the towns they were attached to, and residents were provided with permanent housing. The number of people housed in Ma'abarot began to decline from 1952 onwards.
The last Ma'abarot were closed sometime around 1963.[7]
Most of the camps transformed into Development Towns, among them Kiryat Shmona, Sderot, Beit She'an, Yokneam, Or Yehuda and Migdal HaEmek.
Media and popular culture
Israeli satirist Ephraim Kishon produced a satirical film about the Ma'abarot called Sallah Shabbati. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and is regarded as an Israeli classic.
See also
Bibliography
- Dvora Hacohen, Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and After, Syracuse University Press, 2003.
References
- ^ Country on the Move: Migration to and within Israel, 1948-1995, Gabriel Lipshiz
- ^ a b c Dalia Gavriely-Nuri, 'Why Have Transit Camps for Mizrahi Jews Been Written Out of Israeli History?,' Ha’aretz 18 April 2015
- ^ Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and its Repercussions in the 1950s and After, Devora Hacohen
- ^ The Mass Migration of the 1950s, Jewish Agency for Israel
- ^ Kaplan, Jonathan. "The Mass Migration to Israel of the 1950s". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
- ^ Anita Shapira, Israel: A History
- ^ a b c Ma'abarot by Miriam Kachenski, Israeli Center for Educational Technology. Template:He icon
- ^ Bryan K. Roby, The Mizrahi Era of Rebellion: Israel's Forgotten Civil Rights Struggle 1948-1966, Syracuse University Press, 2015 ISBN 978-0-815-65345-5 pp.86-109,p.87
- ^ Clive Jones (Israel Institute), Emma Murphy (Durham University), Israel: Challenges to Identity, Democracy, and the State, Routledge, 2004, p. 37.
- ^ Last Vestiges of Jerusalem Transit Camp Bite the Dust, Haaretz
- ^ Modernism and the Middle East: Architecture and Politics in the Twentieth Century, edited by Sandy Isenstadt and Kishwar Rizvi, University of Washington Press
- ^ Tom Segev, 1949. The First Israelis, Owl Books, 1986, p.96.
- ^ Kaplan, Jonathan. "The Mass Migration to Israel of the 1950s". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
- ^ Kavon, Eli. "When Zionism Feared Yiddish". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
External links
Media related to Ma'abarot at Wikimedia Commons
