ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with immigrants who arrived in Israel during the height of immigration to the newly established state, by focusing on the first two years of its existence. Immediately upon its establishment in May, 1948, Israel proclaimed an open-door-immigration policy as one of its cardinal tenets. The lifting of the severe restrictions on immigration imposed by the British Mandatory authorities resulted in an immediate influx of Jews from many parts of the world. The chapter concerns these immigrants between 1949 and 1950, their first year in Israel. It considers certain aspects of the problem of immigration to Palestine in historical terms in order to gain perspective on the group of immigrants. The chapter focuses on the interim period during which the immigrants who arrived in 1949 and 1950 were still living in the transit camps. The War of Independence, through which Israel had just come in 1948, imposed a heavy burden on its economic and social systems.
