Yishuv Ha Yashan

Yishuv Ha Yashan

The Old Yishuv (Hebrew: היישוב הישן‎, ha-Yishuv ha-Yashan) is a term used to refer to the Jewish communities, with specific economic and social structure, which had lived in Ottoman Southern Syria (Palestine) throughout the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. The Old Yishuv developed after a period of severe decline in Jewish communities of Southern Levant through the Middle Ages.

As opposed to the later Zionist aliyah which came into being with the First Aliyah (of 1882) and was based on a socialist and anti religious ideology that was diametrically opposed to that of the Old Yishuv, the Old Yishuv had come to Eretz Yisroel in the 18th and 19th centuries, and were traditional Jews who kept the laws of the Torah. A third group could trace their ancestral roots far back in time, to the Sephardic Jewish communities in Galilee and the Musta'arabim of the early Ottoman and late Mamluk periods. The Old Yishuv was divided to two independent communities - the Sephardim (including Musta'arabim), mainly constituting the remains of Jewish communities of Galilee and the four holy cities, which had flourished in 16-17th centuries, and the Ashkenazim, who began making their return primarily since 18th century.

The 'Old Yishuv' term was coined by members of the 'New Yishuv' in late 19th century to distinguish themselves from the economically dependent and generally earlier Jewish communities, who mainly resided in the four holy cities of Judaism, and unlike the New Yishuv, had not embraced land ownership and agriculture. Apart from the Old Yishuv centres in the four holy cities of Judaism, namely Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed, smaller communities also existed in Jaffa, Haifa, Peki'in, Acre, Nablus and Shfaram. Petah Tikva, although established in 1878 by the Old Yishuv, nevertheless was also supported by the arriving Zionists. Rishon LeZion, the first settlement founded by the Hovevei Zion in 1882, could be considered the true beginning of the New Yishuv.

Read more about Yishuv Ha Yashan:  Background, History