Introduction 
ntil 1880, the Jewish population in the Holy Land was concentrated within the holy cities of Jerusalem, Safad, Tiberias and Hebron. Most of the Jews were very religious and spent their days praying and studying the Holy Scriptures, their livelihood provided by donations from various Jewish communities in Europe.

A completely different type of Jewish immigration began in the 1880's. This immigration -- the First Aliya (Ingathering) -- was based on the age-old national Jewish yearning to come to Palestine and cultivate the land. This immigration established the first of the Agricultural Colonies in the Holy Land on land purchased from its Arab owners. The immigrants were supported by the "Hovevei Zion" (the Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia, and soon thereafter Baron Edmund de Rothschild of Paris assumed most of the burden, both financially and professionally. He established a local administration which introduced new and improved crops and gave professional guidance in processing the locally grown grapes.

In addition to the official Turkish postal system, there were five different postal systems operating in Palestine prior to the outbreak of WWI in 1914. The Austrians, French, Germans, Russians and Italians all maintained post offices in the large cities and competed with each other and with the Turkish Post for customers.

Wherever possible, the Jewish settlers used the foreign post offices as these were more reliable, particularly the Austrian Post Office. Mail was not delivered to the colonies -- rather, the arrangement was that mail would be delivered to and collected from a post office located in the nearest town. This task was performed either by a local official who dealt with the post as part of his duties, and/or by various settlers who happened to be travelling into town.

The Austrian Post Office in Jaffa also established branches in two of the largest Jewish colonies, namely Petach Tikva and Rishon Le-Zion. Mr. Jacob Medalia established and then managed the Austrian Post in Rishon Le-Zion for many years. In Rishon Le-Zion, Petach Tikva and Hadera, local stamps were issued and used for a brief period. However, only a small number of posted examples bearing these stamps have survived. In addition to the Austrian Post, Rishon Le-Zion had also a German Branch Post Office.

The Austrian Post Office in Jaffa acted as a clearing-house for mail between the colonies. Such mail was deposited by the sending party in the Jaffa Austrian Post Office and collected by the representative of the recipient colony upon his or her visit to the Austrian Post Office. Such mail was free of charge and sometimes postmarked by the Austrian postmaster.

Various cachets with the name of the colony written in Latin or Hebrew characters can be found on a small percentage of the mail originating from and addressed to the colonies. These various cachets were introduced in the early 1900s in Rishon Le-Zion and Petach Tikvah and after 1910 in some other colonies. Very few of these cachets appear on mail posted through the Turkish Post. It is possible that the Turkish Authorities did not object strongly to this custom. What is a puzzling is why these cachets were used so very rarely, and why only a minute portion of mail from the relevant colonies carries such cachets. It is doubtful whether an answer will be ever found to this enigma.