Anxiety and the Process of Organized Jewish Emigration from Yugoslavia to Israel (1948-1952)
Anxiety and the Process of Organized Jewish Emigration from Yugoslavia to Israel (1948-1952)

Summary/Abstract: The premise being that anxiety is an individual’s reaction to an unforeseen or undesired deviation from their personal space of experience, this paper seeks to better define and understand its manifestations within the process of organized Jewish emigration from Yugoslavia to Israel, taking place between 1948 and 1952. Migrants from Yugoslavia generally expected that migrating to Israel would allow them to fulfill their overarching aspirations of reuniting with their (often only surviving) relatives, honor personal Zionist ideals, leave the socio-political framework of the postwar Yugoslav state, and distance themselves from the lingering traces of anti-Semitism in Yugoslav society. It seems they failed to consider the possibility that the outcome of the migration process might in part or not at all meet their expectations. Assuming that it would not, on the other hand, resulted in a feeling of anxiety that led them to attempt to control the outcome of the process in various ways. This paper primarily draws on documents preserved in the Archives of the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade.

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