The Founding of the ‘Medical Office’ and the Main Organization of Medical Examination of Immigrants to Eretz-Israel (1934-1939)

Abstract

When immigration to Eretz-Israel resumed in 1919, Zionist organizations required prospective immigrants to undergo medical and mental examinations in their country of origin, as a prerequisite to immigration. Further examinations were held soon after they reached Eretz-Israel. The links between both sets of medical examinations were loose and relied on different and inconsistent instructions. It was only in 1934 that the Medical Office was founded alongside the Zionist Immigration Department, and the administration of immigrants to Eretz-Israel was placed in the hands of a central authority. This was also a significant step towards the foundation of a wideranging system based on a holistic view of its authority in relation to the medical treatment (including physical examination) of immigrants. 

This article centers on the foundation and operation of the Medical Office, focusing on the hygiene-related program, in general, and the medical examination of immigrants and prospective immigrants, in particular. Looking into the scientific and bureaucratic foundations of the establishment of the Medical Office provides a chapter in the history of medicine and the foundation of medical organizations in pre-State Israel. Furthermore, the discussion throws light on the history of Zionism and immigration policies at the time. The article proposes that during the period in question, the aims of the medical examination of immigrants changed from a medical tool whose main goal was to select prospective immigrants, to a medical tool within a complex mechanism of education, assimilation and ‘normalization’ of immigrants to Eretz-Israel. The reasons for this shift stem from a change in the nature and composition of immigration, as well as from personal and individual interests of those associated with establishing this mechanism.