IRL 21. May 17, 2010.

URL; http://www.netanyahu.org/aliyah.html

One of the facts that was mentioned in my IA is that the name for a Jewish migration to Israel is known as an aliyah. I believe I specifically mentioned that the third of these, known as the Third Aliyah, resulted from harsh conditions in Russia that the Jewish people faced, and the support the Jews received through the Balfour Declaration encouraged them to make this migration.

This link above gives information on the religious significance of Jewish immigration to Israel. The Jews, according to this source, for centuries have viewed immigration back to the Promised Land as a religious obligation. In fact, the word aliyah itself means "ascent" or "pilgrimage", and those who make the aliyah are known as "olim", or "ascenders". There are many prayers that according to Jewish law, can only be prayed in Israel.

What I take from this is that I can now see that the land of Israel is not only culturally significant to the Jewish people and the land that they feel they deserve, but it is a key part of their religious life as well. How well could a group of people carry out their religion in another land if their traditions and traditional laws state that certain prayers can only be performed in one land? The land of Israel is very significant to the Jewish people in religious terms too - this fact corroborates the information I have formerly received that Israel was significant on many levels to the Jewish people, and I can now see another reason why they would strive to reestablish themselves there, which according to my research they did very successfully.

The only limitation of this source is that it does not give exact numbers as to how many Jews immigrated, but that is more a fact I want to know, and its exclusion does not detract from the overall purpose of the article.