The challenges facing the FirstAliyahSephardic Ottoman colonists

What is it about?

The case of the tiny Jewish colony of Har-Tuv, which was founded by Ottoman Jews who immigrated to Palestine in 1895 from Bulgaria, sheds light on Ottoman policies vis-à-vis settlement activity by Sephardic Jews in Palestine at a time when there were concerted efforts to limit the Jewish national activity there. The latter was mainly carried out by non-Ottoman Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to Palestine from eastern Europe. As the only colony established during the First Aliyah by Sephardic Jews, and also due to its geographical isolation, Har-Tuv was detached from the processes taking place within the other Jewish colonies and the New Yishuv. At the same time, Har-Tuv’s founders had a long tradition of living under Ottoman rule and were on good terms with the local Ottoman authorities in Palestine. This was often useful when the colony had problems with its Arab neighbors, and on several occasions Har-Tuv even served as an intermediary between the Arab rural population and the government.

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Why is it important?

The tiny Sephardic colony of Har-Tuv was unique among the First Aliyah colonies. In addition to its isolated location, which necessitated the establishment of good relations with its neighbors, the Sephardic background of Har-Tuv colonists also played a role in their contacts with the Ottoman authorities, their Arab neighbors, and the various segments of the Yishuv in Palestine. While being a positive factor in the colony’s relations with the former two, their ethnic origin adversely affected their relations with the New Yishuv and its colonization institutions, at least in the eyes of the colonists of Har-Tuv themselves, who felt that they were excluded and neglected due to their Sephardic background. Har-Tuv was destroyed during the Arab riots in Palestine in 1929 (known in Zionist historiography as pra’ot tarpat), at a time when the emerging binational conflict there was becoming too intense to allow the colonists to employ the practices and mechanisms which for years had enabled their colony to survive as an isolated Jewish locality amidst numerous Arab villages. Har-Tuv’s residents were refugees in Jaffa for a year. The colony was repopulated in 1930 by its former inhabitants, only to be abandoned and destroyed during the 1948 Jewish-Arab war, this time for good. Although today, 120 years after its establishment, Har-Tuv’s memory in the annals of the Yishuv has been largely forgotten, the case of this exceptional colony adds a new perspective to the history of the First Aliyah.