aliyah

aliyah

(Hebrew; “ascending”)

In Judaism, the honour, accorded to a worshiper, of being called up to read an assigned passage from the Torah at Sabbath morning services; or Jewish immigration to Israel. Because the passage assigned for each Sabbath morning service is subdivided into a minimum of seven sections, at least seven different persons are called up for these readings. Aliyah in the sense of immigration to Israel is ongoing but also occurs in waves. The first two waves of immigration occurred in 1882–1914, the next three in 1919–39. The sixth aliyah (1945–48) brought many Holocaust survivors. Later waves of immigration included Falasha from Ethiopia, émigrés from the former Soviet Union, and others. See also Zionism.