Medical selection and the debate over mass immigration in the new state of Israel (1948-1951).

Abstract

This paper examines the discourse regarding medical selection of immigrants to Israel during the years 1948-51, which was a period of mass immigration in which approximately 700,000 people immigrated to the State, thereby doubling the Jewish population in only three years. The paper focuses on the debate the preceded the Israeli Government's eventual acceptance of a selection policy. We assert that the debate was shaped to a large extent by a combination of Zionist ideology and eugenic influences - two intellectual forces that had interacted well before the creation of the Israeli State in the first half of the 20th century.