Jewish Majority and the New City
Jews lived in Jerusalem since they were allowed back into the city in the fifth century. However, Jews became the largest single group of inhabitants of Jerusalem in the mid-nineteenth century, while the city was under Ottoman rule.

According to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies:

Year Jews Arabs/Others
1870 11000 10000
1905 40000 20000
1931 54000 39000
1946 99500 65000 (40,000 Muslims and 25,000 Christians)

In 1860, a wealthy British Jew named Sir Moses Montefiore purchased land outside the gates of Jerusalem, and founded there a new Jewish neighborhood - Mishkenot Shaánanim. Soon after, other Jewish neighborhoods were also founded outside the Old City of Jerusalem. These Jewish neighborhoods became known as the New City of Jerusalem.

Following World War I, control of Jerusalem was transferred from the Ottomans to the British. During the British Mandate, Jerusalem's Jewish community built new neighborhoods and buildings, such as the King David Hotel, the Central Post Office, Hadassah Hospital, and Hebrew University.

As Jewish Jerusalem was growing faster than Arab Jerusalem, tension in the city between Arabs and Jews increased during the British Mandate. In an effort to control the rising tension, the British issued the White Paper in 1939, a document limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine. A few months later, Nazi Germany attacked Poland, starting World War II.