The first Aliyah (immigration to Eretz Israel), led by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk, and Rabbi Israel of Polotsk, arrived in the Holy Land on the 5th of Elul in the year 5537 (1777 CE). They were all disciples of the second leader of the Hasidic movement, Rabbi DovBer, the "Maggid of Mezritch" (who had passed away five years earlier), and colleagues of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad Lubavitch movement.
They brought with them about 300 people who settled in Tzfat. In 1783 they were forced to leave Tzfat and settled in Tiberias. The synagogue they built in 1786 still stands.
Initially Rabbi Shneur Zalman was part of the group, but when they arrived in the city of Moholiev, on the banks of the Dnester River, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, who was considered his teacher and mentor by Rabbi Shneur Zalman after the Maggid's death, told him that he should stay to serve as leader of the Hasidic movement in White Russia and Lithuania.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman maintained a close connection with the settlements in the Land of Israel and worked hard to collect funds to support them.