Young Israeli Girl

Zionism and the British Mandate
Many Jews living in the Diaspora have long aspired to return to Zion and the Land of Israel, though the amount of human effort that should be spent towards such aim is a matter of dispute in Judaism. That hope and yearning was articulated in the Bible, and is an important theme of the Jewish belief system. After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, some communities settled in Palestine. During the 16th century, communities struck roots in the Four Holy Cities—Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed—and in 1697, Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of 1,500 Jews to Jerusalem. In the second half of the 18th century, Eastern European opponents of Hasidism, known as the Perushim, settled in Palestine.