[ad_1]
The online Jewish education resource My Jewish Learning recently asked, “Are Jews a race?“‘ah?’
The answer is “no”. Jews may define themselves religiously and/or culturally, but they are not a race.
“Are they a people?” The answer is “yes,” except that “it has been thousands of years since all Jews lived in one country… Even today, when there is a Jewish state, most Jews do not live there, and many Jews identify primarily with the country in which they live.”
Does it matter whether most Jews live in Israel?
For some, it is. The American Jewish Committee (AJC), the oldest Jewish advocacy organization in the United States, was founded in 1906 by prominent American Jews to protect the welfare of Russian Jews who were being slaughtered. The organization did not initially support the Zionist agenda. Its members did not want to jeopardize their professional success and social status with accusations of dual loyalty.
The AJC did approve it. The Balfour DeclarationBut it also expressed support, noting that Palestine was only a refuge for some Jews; the majority would continue to live elsewhere, enjoying full civil and religious liberties. In fact, the final section of the Balfour Declaration stated that the establishment of a national home for the Jews in Palestine should not prejudice the rights and political status of Jews in other countries. This clause was added to appease Edwin Montagu, a powerful British politician who was Jewish and anti-Zionist.
So, how many Jews live in Israel today?
If you are Jewish and like numbers, you will love the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the organization responsible for monitoring all aspects of Israel’s economy and population. Now, in the middle of a long, hot summer, while the war with Hamas continues, a major demographic milestone in Jewish/Israeli history is approaching. Population of Israel It is about to break the 10 million mark.
On May 9, 2024, a CBS press release reported that Israel’s population on the eve of Independence Day was 9.9 million. This included 7.43 million Jews (73.2%), 2.09 million Arabs (21.1%), and 560,000 others (5.7%). The “others” category includes tens of thousands of people from the former Soviet Union who may not be recognized as Jews but immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return.
In the year since the last Independence Day, Israel’s population grew by 1.9%, mainly due to a high birth rate, the highest among the 38 developed countries of the OECD. In 2023, about 196,000 children were born (three quarters of them Jewish). These figures show that the demographic relationship between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel is not a zero-sum game. The growth of Israel’s Jewish population is no longer dependent on immigration (aliyah).
Ironically, immigration numbers have remained healthy despite wars with Hamas and other Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.A day before former President Donald Trump was assassinated, President Joe Biden reiterated a point he had made before: Israel is a safe haven for Jews.
Apparently, many exiled Jews agree. Twenty-two thousand have emigrated since October 7; while the initial group was mostly Russian, The Jewish Chronicle recently reported that growing numbers of British, French, and North American Jews are arriving. Thousands more are expected from Canada and the United States this summer. Of course, a surge in immigration is not what the perpetrators of October 7 had in mind. (The picture will become clearer in a few months. Hundreds of Jews are emigrating from my country, Canada, but there are also reports of hundreds of Israelis immigrating to Canada.)
Do most Jews live in Israel today?
It’s hard to pinpoint because of disagreement about the size of the Jewish population in the U.S. In 2020, Israeli demographer Sergio Della Pergola estimated there were 6 million Jews in the U.S., while Pew put the number at 7.5 million.
But as of 2022, the global Jewish population is estimated at 15.2 million. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics predicts that Israel’s population will reach 11.1 million by 2030. It will reach 13.2 million in 2040 and 15.2 million in 2048, a century after the founding of the State of Israel.
From these figures and projections, it is clear that Israel is or will soon be the homeland for the majority of the world’s Jewish population. It is time to abandon the long-held notion that Israel is the homeland for a small minority of the Jewish population. This may be a difficult truth to accept for those who deny the Jewish people the right to establish an independent state in their ancestral homeland. It is hard to deny that your homeland is where your people are. ■
Jacob Sivak is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo.
[ad_2]
Source link
