Aliyah Bet is the Hebrew term that refers to the clandestine immigration of Jews to Palestine between 1920 and 1948, when Great Britain controlled the area. The phrase Aliyah Bet describes the movement of Jewish refugees, many of them survivors of the Holocaust, not permitted to enter Palestine by the British authorities. It was mostly performed by having large and small boats overloaded with refugees slip past the Royal Navy blockade of the Palestine coast.  Initiated by Zionist activists as the urgency for Jews to leave Europe intensified, this phenomenon was referred to by the British as "illegal" immigration. By 1948, well over 100,000 people had taken this route, including more than 70,000 Holocaust survivors.

The most famous blockage running ship was the Exodus 1948, made famous by Leon Uris book and movie.


haggadah Section: Introduction