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The Second Aliyah was arguably the most important and influential aliyah. It took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Palestine, mostly from Russia.

The prime cause for the aliyah was mounting anti-Semitism in Russia and pogroms in the Pale of Settlement.

Although the aliyah contributed to Jewish settlement in Palestine in many ways, many see it as a failure, as nearly half of the immigrants left Palestine by the time World War I started.

The Second Aliyah mainly consisted of idealists, who sought to create a communal agricultural settlement system in Palestine. They thus founded the kibbutz movement. The first kibbutz, Degania, was founded in 1909.

Those among the immigrants who preferred to settle in cities, created Ahuzat Bayit near Jaffa, which was later renamed to Tel Aviv.

The Second Aliyah is largely credited with reviving the Hebrew language and establishing it as the standard language for Jews in Palestine. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda contributed to the creation of the first modern Hebrew dictionary. Although he was an immigrant of the First Aliyah, his work mostly bore fruit during the second.

The Second Aliyah also established the first Hebrew high school in Palestine, the Herzliya Hebrew High School, Tel Aviv.

The Second Aliyah created the elitist security organization, HaShomer, which was the first major Jewish self-defense organization since Bar Kokhba's revolt, and became the precedent for future Jewish defense organizations such as the Haganah.

• Ben-Gurion, David, From Class to Nation: Reflections on the Vocation and Mission of the Labor Movement (Hebrew), Am Oved (1976)