Going to Palestine

Russian Jews Emigrating in Large Numbers to the Land of Their Fathers—Some Interesting Statistics.

Send this clipping to somebody

Transcribed from the clipping

“The Jewish emigrants going to Palestine by way of Odessa are asked a series of questions for statistical purposes, and it is upon the answers to these questions that the following figures are based… In January, 226 people emigrated to Palestine from Russia; 132 men and 94 women. In February, 427 people; 233 men and 194 women.

In March, 536 people; 300 men and 236 women… The total number of emigrants to Palestine during 1906 (3,427) was almost three times larger than the number of emigrants in 1905 (1,229)… The occupations of the emigrants to Palestine during 1906 were as follows: Mechanics, laborers, 753, or 53 per cent; merchants, 504, or 35 per cent; professional (teachers, physicians, lawyers, journalists, dentists, nurses, etc.), 117, or 8 per cent; agriculturists, 51, or 4 per cent… Unfortunately the latter element is as yet but poorly represented, but there is no doubt that among the Jewish farmers living in southern Russia and suffering from lack of land there is a most desirable contingent of emigrants for colonization in Palestine… Sixty-seven per cent of the emigrants went to Jaffa, 25 per cent to Jerusalem, 10 per cent to the other towns and the colonies in Palestine.

Of those that passed through Odessa, 82 per cent went to Palestine with the intention of settling there; 4.5 per cent went there on a visit; 1.5 per cent went there to study, and 12 per cent went there to spend the last days of their life in the Holy Land.”

Context added by this archive

A statistical return, printed in Washington in April 1907: how many people left Odessa for Palestine each month of 1906, their ages, their trades, how much money they carried and why they were going.

Three thousand four hundred and twenty-seven people in a year, and only fifty-one of them farmers, which the article calls unfortunate and then names the remedy: a most desirable contingent of emigrants for colonization in Palestine. The country they are being counted into is described only as a destination; nobody is recorded as living in it.

Cite this clipping

"Going to Palestine," Evening Star, 7 April 1907. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1907-001. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1907-001