Founding of Tel Aviv
The 1900's mark a time of massive immigration to Israel. Most immigrants were Jewish settlers who arrived under two general motivations. The first was Zionism, which advocated the return of European Jews to the "homeland" of then Palestine to settle and form communities under somewhat socialist ideals. Two Jewish Zionists from Jaffa, Ahuzat Bayit and Nahlat Binyamin, founded a settlement (named Ahuzat Bayit) in 1909 to the north-east of Jaffa. Ahuzat Bayit became Tel Aviv in 1934. The location was originally chosen based on the low cost of the land and the existing road into Jaffa. Ahuzat Bayit was intended to be a garden suburb under the British model, which was to separate the residences of the Jewish population from the Arab population of Jaffa. At the time, the residents of the Jewish community commuted to work in Jaffa and enjoyed an open residential setting in Ahuzat Bayit. Additional population growth in the area was due to anti-Semitism in Europe and a great deal of political persecution of Jews in the 20th century.
In 1909, at its founding, the city now known as Tel Aviv had 300 residents. The residents had no idea that their small residential settlement would become the economic, political and cultural center of Israel with a population of almost 400,000.