Immigration Builds a Nation: The Hybrid Impact of European Immigration on the Development of an Advertising Industry

Abstract

This research focuses on the nascent advertising industry in British Mandatory Palestine and how it was influenced and transformed by German Jewish immigrants, who arrived between 1933 and 1939, in a wave of immigration known as the Fifth Aliyah. At the time, local advertising was rather small and undeveloped until the mass wave of immigrants (over 200,000), many highly skilled and educated, came from Central Europe, mainly from Germany. These immigrants played a vital role in the local advertising industry. Their contributions were evaluated using a theoretical model consisting of primary analytical factors—mass communication, economy, technology, society, and international transfer. These factors influenced and continue to influence the form of Israeli advertising industry to this day. German immigration demonstrates a hybrid set of influences that played an instrumental role in the development of the local advertising industry in the Land of Israel. Functional-rational and creative aspects in the advertising industry were radically transformed by these new arrivals. Rethinking media history and centering the immigrant’s unique contribution is an important scholarly objective. This is achieved by shifting the discussion from dominant institutions to the local advertising history and focusing on the functional practices and creative methods imported by immigrants.