Current world Jewish population still falls below pre-Holocaust figures
According to figures released on Tuesday by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of Jews alive today is still lower than it was in 1939, prior to the Holocaust.
Jewish worshippers pack the area in front of Jerusalem’s Western Wall for the “Birkat Kohanim,” or “Priestly Blessing,” during the holiday of Sukkot on Oct. 8, 2017. Current trends in Jewish and Arab demography defy predictions of “doom” for Israel’s Jewish population, says demographic expert Yoram Ettinger. Credit: Yaakov Lederman/Flash90.
Prior to the murder of 6 million Jews between 1939 and 1945, some 16,600,000 were spread throughout the world. Contemporary data, based on information gathered by Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Division of Jewish Demography and Statistics and the A. Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, indicates that there are currently 14,511,000 Jews on Earth, a number similar to that in 1922.
Today, the country with the most Jewish people is Israel, surpassing the U.S. Jewish population by almost 750,000 people. Israel’s Jewish population currently stands at 6,446,000, compared with America’s at 5,700,000.
Another 456,000 live in France, 390,000 in Canada, 290,000 in Britain, 181,000 in Argentina, 176,000 in Russia, 117,000 in Germany and 113,000 in Australia.
The data also shows that since 1948, when the number of Jews in Israel stood at 650,000, Israel’s Jewry has increased nearly tenfold.
The rest of the world’s Jewry has decreased, according to the report.
Jews living outside Israel numbered 10.8 million in 1948. In 2016, there were approximately 8 million Jews in the Diaspora.
JNS
That is a stark, sad statistic. It’s heartening though to see that the largest population of Jews now lives in Israel.