More than 50 theater figures came to Palestine with the Fifth Aliyah, among them playwrights, directors, actors and scenery designers. Despite their efforts, most did not continue their careers here due to the sharp contrast between the German theater tradition that the newcomers brought with them, and the Russian theater tradition that dominated the repertoire theaters here at the time, Ohel and Habima.
In 1945, Yosef Milo founded the Cameri Theater as an artistic and social protest against Ohel and Habima. In its first years, the Cameri was an expression of the theater tradition of German culture. Most of the troupe’s members were born, educated and worked in Germany, Austria and Prague before they came to Palestine. The Cameri offered a Western European and Palestinian repertoire rather than a Russian and Jewish one; the acting was realistic instead of stylized and emotional.