Fifth Aliyah

From 1929 to 1939 roughly 250,000 Jews came to the Land of Israel, the largest wave of the Mandate era. Poland again sent the most, but after Hitler took power in 1933 some 60,000 came from Germany and later Austria, many under the Ha'avara (Transfer) Agreement, which let German Jews salvage part of their assets by exporting German goods. The Jewish population rose from about 175,000 in 1931 to roughly 450,000 by 1939, with newcomers landing at Jaffa and at Haifa's new deep-water harbor, opened in 1933.

The German-speaking "Yekkes" brought doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects and musicians. Bauhaus-trained architects shaped Tel Aviv's White City, and violinist Bronisław Huberman founded in 1936 the orchestra that became the Israel Philharmonic, with Arturo Toscanini conducting its first concert. The newcomers expanded industry, banking, medicine and the universities, and the period also saw the "tower and stockade" settlements raised overnight during the Arab Revolt.