Yet beyond the grime of poverty and the flaring hostilities, a new era for Jerusalem was in the offing: Zionism, with its primal call to Jews around the world, was on the rise. As pogroms decimated the Jews of eastern Europe and tyrannical regimes oppressed the Jews of the Middle East, more and more Jews were beginning to view Palestine as their true home. World War II may have sealed the destiny of the State of Israel, but the story of its creation begins nearly a century earlier.
