"This book explores Jewish emigration from Palestine and Israel from 1945 to the early 1960s. It investigates the motivations behind emigration, the experiences of migrants in their new destinations, and the public and institutional reactions to emigration both in Israel and in receiving countries. Although the dominant view in the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds was that displaced Jews should settle in the Land of Israel, tens of thousands of Jews who immigrated to the country subsequently left, either returning to their homes in Europe and the Middle East, or heading to new destinations, mainly in North America. While the Zionist movement aspired to create a sense of Jewish rootedness and permanence in the soil of the Land of Israel, the study argues that many Jews saw the country not as a permanent homeland or a final destination, but as a site of displacement or a way-station to more desirable lands. Based on personal accounts of emigrants, on archives of government institutions both in Israel and in destination countries, on records of aid societies and Jewish diaspora communities and on the popular press, the book challenges the widely-held assumption that Zionism provided an automatic answer to the plight of Jewish refugees after World War II"-- Provided by publisher.
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