The Old Yishuv
"The Old Yishuv” (HaYishuv HaYashan) is a term that refers to the long-time Jewish residents of the Land of Israel, as opposed to the members of the First Aliyah, the first major Zionist wave of immigration, and those who came in its wake, from 1881 onwards, who would often be referred to as "The New Yishuv" ("The New Settlement"). During the 18th century, from the moment the Old Yishuv’s status was resolved vis-à-vis the Ottoman authorities, its population increased, mainly through the arrival of Orthodox Jewish groups, including Hasidim and disciples of the Vilna Gaon.
The Jewish people have a very ancient history in the land known both as Palestine and the Land of Israel. The Jewish claim to indigeneity is based on a three-thousand-year-old continuous history and the status of the land since ancient times as the focus of Jewish life and yearning. While not denying Arab claims on the land, it must be recognized that in Israel, the Jews are not settler colonists.
Jews have had a continuous presence in the land of Israel. While the Romans expelled the majority of Jews in 70 CE, the Jewish people have always been present in the land of Israel. A significant number of Jews remained in Palestine after Rome’s brutal ethnic cleansing, after Christian settlement and conversion, and after conquest and rule by various Muslim and Crusader regimes. Through all these upheavals, there were always trickles of Jewish pilgrims and immigrants to Palestine, which became a flood after the emergence of Zionism in the late nineteenth century.
When the Romans occupied the land of Israel in 63 BCE the population of the land was approximately three million people (out of an estimated world population of 250-300 million), most of them Jewish. By 135 CE, after the quelling of the Bar Kokhba revolt by the Romans, there were only about 700,000 Jews left in the country.
A portion of the Jewish population remained in Israel throughout the years of Jewish exile while the rest settled around the world and became the Jewish diaspora. In particular, Jewish communities existed throughout much of this period in what is known as the Four Holy Cities: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed (Tzfat), and Tiberias. Jerusalem is the most sacred, known for the Western Wall. Hebron is associated with the Cave of the Patriarchs, the traditional burial site of several important Biblical figures. Safed became the center of Jewish mysticism in the sixteenth century. Tiberias is notable for the Jerusalem Talmud during the Byzantine Period.
Despite Roman and Byzantine oppression of the remaining Jews in the land, spiritual and cultural life continued to develop in the Jewish communities there. Other towns, such as Yavne and, later on towns in the Galilee such as Tzipori and Tiberias, replaced Jerusalem as the center of Jewish spiritual life. The central text of Jewish law, the Talmud, was completed during this period. The members of the Old Yishuv maintained continuity of Jewish presence in the Land of Israel and provided the anchor for the renewal of Hebrew settlement in the Land of Israel. The population of the Old Yishuv was concentrated in the four holy cities of the Land of Israel— Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias. During the 19th century, most of the inhabitants lived in Jerusalem, and the city became the largest Jewish center in the Land of Israel.
The people of the Old Yishuv survived mainly on “?alukah” (lit. "distribution") money, funds donated by philanthropists and charitable organizations around the world, distributed to residents by various kollels according to country of origin, membership in Hasidic sects and so forth. In a sense, the Jews of the Diaspora saw the Jews of the Land of Israel as the carriers of a metaphorical torch, symbolizing the connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, and therefore willingly supported the settlement through the ?alukah funds. The Yishuv’s population became almost completely dependent on these funds.
Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Hasidim and Prushim (followers of the Vilna Gaon), lived in small enclaves within the walls of the holy cities, devoting their time to Torah study in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah. Only a few of the Yishuv’s members (mainly from the Sephardic community) made an effort to earn a living from professional crafts or commerce, while the majority of the population refrained from productive economic activity or aspirations of financial independence. Any attempt to instill modern elements and trends into their traditional way of life met swift resistance.
The financial dependence, along with the increase in population, from about 7,000 Jews in 1800 to about 27,000 in 1880, created difficult living conditions in the cities, especially Jerusalem. The Jewish settlement was characterized by poverty and poor sanitation and hygiene. Lack of water and poor nutrition caused high morbidity and mortality. However, in the second half of the 19th century, winds of change swept through the settlement, reflected in both an increase in the inclination to find work and the beginning of a cultural and educational boom. At the same time, the first neighborhoods outside the walls began to be built. The Ottoman Empire’s decline coupled with the arrival of waves of Zionist immigration led to the loss of the Old Yishuv’s hegemony among the Jewish inhabitants of the Land of Israel and to a diminishment in its in its political power.
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