After the First World War, tens of thousands of Jews immigrated to Palestine. They went there not to found a Zionist state but primarily to seek refuge from the violence and persecution of the Russian Civil War and its aftermath. Fleeing to the United States was not an option due to heavily restrictive immigration laws enacted there in the early 1920s.

In Land of Refuge , the experiences of this generation of Jewish immigrants come vividly to life through a wealth of previously unstudied archival sources. Historian Gur Alroey skillfully weaves together the riveting and remarkable stories of survivors of pogroms and riots in Ukraine and Uramia, including widows, orphans, and survivors of rape and other unimaginable violence; migrants who risked harrowing journeys by boat, only to endure illness on the way, be detained or sent back, or have their luggage broken into or stolen; survivors of the famine in Russia during the Lenin and Stalin regimes; and marginalized Jews such as the mentally ill, thieves, prostitutes, and those with falsified entry visas.

The stories of the people at the core of Land of Refuge form an important but little appreciated part of the history of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.

Translated by: Deborah Stern