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صفحة: 27
A Land of Immigrants Israel is a land of immigrants . When it was established as a modern state in 1948 , only 650 , 000 Jews were living there . The new country immediately welcomed Jews from outside of Israel who wanted to come and live in the new state . The Law of Return , passed by the Israeli government in 1949 , gave every Jew the right to Israeli citizenship . Hundreds of thousands of European Holocaust survivors and refugees from Arab lands flocked to Israel , almost doubling its Jewish population within three years . In 1958 , just ten years after its establishment , Israel’s Jewish population was more than 2 million . Today , almost 5 million Jews live in Israel . There are also about 1 million non-Jews , largely Israeli Arabs , living in Israel . More Jews continue to immigrate to Israel from all over the world . This is called making aliyah , or “ going up . ” In 1949 , more than 50 , 000 Jews from Yemen were flown to Israel as part of Operation Magic Carpet . The Yemenite Jews were so overjoyed to have escaped persecution in their native country that many kissed the ground when they landed . But the new immigrants had much to learn about modern living . Many had lived in such poverty that they had never had indoor plumbing , cars , or telephones . For decades the Jews of the former Soviet Union suffered from anti-Semitism , poverty , and oppression under the communist goverment . With the help of the Jewish communities of Israel and North America , hundreds of thousands of Russians were able to make aliyah in the 1980 s and 1990 s . These Russian immigrants are studying Hebrew in a class called an ulpan .
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