The Mossad LeAliyah Bet (, ) was a branch of the

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

organization

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

in British

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, and later the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, that operated to facilitate Jewish immigration to British Palestine. During the Mandate period, it was facilitating illegal immigration in violation of governmental British restrictions. It operated from 1938 until four years after the founding of the

in 1952. It was funded directly by the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Advert Where and how does this article resemble an WP:SOAP, advert and how should it be improved? See: Wikipedia:Spam (you might trthe Teahouseif you have questions). American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a J ...

(the JDC), and was not subject to the control of the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

who operated their own Aliyah department headed by

Yitzhak Rafael Yitzhak Rafael (; 5 July 1914 – 3 August 1999) was an Israeli politician. He served as Deputy Minister of Health in the 1960s and Minister of Religions in the mid-1970s. Biography Rafael was born in Sasiv in Galicia in 1914 at a time when t ...

. The

Yishuv The Yishuv (), HaYishuv Ha'ivri (), or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el () was the community of Jews residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 2 ...

referred to legal immigration as "

Aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...

Alef" (Alef is the first letter of the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...

, corresponding to the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

A), whilst clandestine immigration was referred to as "

Aliyah Bet ''Aliyah Bet'' (, "Aliyah 'B'" – bet being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet) was the code name given to illegal immigration by Jews, many of whom were refugees escaping from Nazi Germany or other Nazi-controlled countries, and la ...

" (Bet is the second letter, corresponding to the Latin B).

History

In late 1938, due to domestic Arab pressure in Palestine relating to local objections to Zionist immigration waves, the British government announced in (what became known as) the

1939 White Paper The White Paper of 1939Occasionally also known as the MacDonald White Paper (e.g. Caplan, 2015, p.117) after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, who presided over its creation. was a policy paper issued by the British governmen ...

that it was to reduce Jewish migration to Palestine, and at that point the main body of Zionism decided to cease conforming with British regulations. Even though the Mossad LeAliyah Bet was officially founded on 29 April 1939, it had begun operating during 1938. Headed by

Shaul Avigur Shaul Avigur (; 11 September 1899 – 29 August 1978) was a founder of the Israeli Intelligence Community. Biography Avigur was born in Dvinsk under the name Saul Meyeroff (''later'' Meirov; ), but when his son Gur Meyeroff was killed in the 1948 ...

, the Mossad LeAliyah Bet was founded on the basis of the

Ha'apala ''Aliyah Bet'' (, "Aliyah 'B'" – bet being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet) was the code name given to illegal immigration by Jews, many of whom were refugees escaping from Nazi Germany or other Nazi-controlled countries, and lat ...

movement. Its activity was initially centred in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

; later, its centre moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The movement's leadership was drawn from both revisionist and mainstream Zionist activists. Avigur was followed at the helm of the organisation by

Meir Sapir Meir () is a Jewish male given name and an occasional surname. It means "one who shines". It is often Germanized as Maier, Mayer, Mayr, Meier, Meyer, Meijer, Italianized as Miagro, or Anglicized as Mayer, Meyer, or Myer. Alfred J. Kolatch, ''The ...

.Eli Ashkenazi
''Saving the Home of Israeli Music's First Lady'', Haaretz, 30.12.2013
/ref> In the first years after it was created, the Mossad LeAliyah Bet achieved a certain measure of success. Operating primarily by sea, in 50 cruises it was able to bring as many as 20,000 Jewish immigrants to Palestine. When

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

broke out, the Mossad LeAliyah Bet became virtually paralyzed and its activities were only renewed in August 1945. Since that time and until the founding of Israel, the Mossad LeAliyah Bet was able to bring an additional 64 ships with over 70,000 Jewish immigrants (many of whom were

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivors). In addition to the sea, although on a much smaller scale, the Mossad LeAliyah Bet also brought immigrants via land, from the

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

. Overall, the Mossad LeAliyah Bet was able to bring about 100,000 Jews into what was to become the State of Israel. The most famous ship used by the Mossad LeAliyah Bet was ''1947'', which brought 4,515 Holocaust survivors. With the founding of Israel, Mossad LeAliyah Bet served as a basis for the agency Lishkat Hakesher (Liaison Bureau),

codename A code name, codename, call sign, or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in ...

d Nativ (נתיב "Path"), created in 1953 and also headed by Meirov, which brought Jews from

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

, the Arab world, and other countries.

History

References

Further reading