Until the 1930s, industry in Palestine suffered from poor infrastructure, competition with imported products, and the attitude of the Palestine’s Jewish community’s (Yishuv) institutions toward it a “stepdaughter” compared to agriculture. The immigration wave from Central Europe was a main impetus for industrial development in the country. The “transfer” agreement between the Jewish Agency with Germany allowed migrants from Germany to convert their capital and property into means of production and bring them to Palestine. Thus the newcomers were able to bring efficient and modern equipment into the country. They instituted new manufacturing methods for existing products and sparked a surge in development in a variety of fields. Seventy percent of the capital invested by the Central European immigrants went to four major industries – metal, food, textiles and paper. Their contribution was particularly outstanding in the construction of factories and the development of a variety of products and manufacturing methods in these fields, as well as in other industrial endeavors, among them the production of cleaning products, chemical industries, optics and electrical appliances.