Joachim Nicolas Trezib, Ines Sonder

• When the immigration wave of the Fifth Aliyah (1929-39) set in, a new form of rural colonization termed "middle class" settlement gained wide diffusion in Palestine. This "middle class" settlement was financed by private means, but organized by a semi-public company, the so-called Rassco. The process of mobilizing private financial resources was facilitated by the Haavara Agreement, of which the Rassco was an integral part. Between 1934 and 1948 the company established some 30 rural "middle class" settlements and suburbs, contributing to a large extent to the growing building market and settlement activity in Palestine. In comparison to the collective rural colonization in Eretz Israel the "middle class" settlement in general and the Rassco in particular have not been widely covered in the academic literature. The essay seeks to roughly delineate the contours of some of the findings of the first comprehensive research on the Rassco, which is currently being conducted by the authors at the Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-JewishWhen the immigration wave of the Fifth Aliyah (1929-39) set in, a new form of rural colonization termed "middle class" settlement gained wide diffusion in Palestine. This "middle class" settlement was financed by private means, but organized by a semi-public company, the so-called Rassco. The process of mobilizing private financial resources was facilitated by the Haavara Agreement, of which the Rassco was an integral part. Between 1934 and 1948 the company established some 30 rural "middle class" settlements and suburbs, contributing to a large extent to the growing building market and settlement activity in Palestine. In comparison to the collective rural colonization in Eretz Israel the "middle class" settlement in general and the Rassco in particular have not been widely covered in the academic literature. The essay seeks to roughly delineate the contours of some of the findings of the first comprehensive research on the Rassco, which is currently being conducted by the authors at the Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies, Potsdam (Germany).…