The Aliyah of Gomulka (1956-1960): The Emigration of Polish Jews to Israel - Reasons for Emigration and the Process of Adaptation in the New Homeland

My paper will constitute an attempt to answer following research questions: I would like to explore the situation both in Poland and Israel in the end of the 50ties and compare these two countries taking into account their social, economic and political development. I will examine the question if Israel was ready to absorb hundreds of thousands of immigrants and what was the policy of state of Israel towards the new “olim”. An interesting question concerns Polish-Israeli foreign relations in that period with a special attention to political, trade and cultural relations between both countries. I would like also to identify external and internal factors which made Jews leave Poland. Another important aspect is to show the similarities and differences between the “Gomulka aliyah” and the others post war emigrations from Poland to Israel in 1948 and 1968. Based on the archives especially in Central Zionist Archives and Israel State Archives in Jerusalem I will also deal with the study of how the newcomers absorbed and assimilated with the Israeli society in the end of the 50ts. Using the archival sources, interviews, memoir literature, press and other sources I would like to introduce what kind of society the new Polish immigrants developed in Israel. Another problem to be considered is to show if, and if so than how, the “Gomulka aliayh” influenced Israeli politics, culture and society at that period.