A Hebrew Community in a Mixed City? Acre during the British Mandate

The article deals with the attempt to establish a Jewish-national community in Arab Acre during the Mandate period, and the reasons for the failure of this attempt. This community has eluded Zionist historiography to date, because of its short lifespan and because it ultimately did not have a significant influence on the development of the map of Zionist settlement in the area. The few historiographic references to this community related its failure to survive mainly to the deterioration of relations with the Arabs and the events of 1929 as a turning point. The article adopts an intra-Jewish perspective and seeks explanations of the weakness of the community in its shaky organizational and social structure, and its complicated relationships with the Zionist organizations and their policy. The story of the Acre community serves as a test case for attempts at settlement in Arab cities, particularly those in outlying areas. It also reflects the dwindling of the Sephardic, Non-Zionist communities and organizations in the Yishuv, as well as the complicated relationships of the periphery of the Yishuv with the Zionist organizations and the main Zionist narrative.