My Jewish Learning, an online Jewish educational resource, recently asked, “Are Jews a race?”
The response was “No.” Jews may define themselves religiously and/or culturally, but they are not a race.
“Are they a nation?” The answer was “Yes,” except that “it has been millennia since all Jews lived in a single country… Even today, when there is a Jewish state, most Jews do not live there, and many identify primarily with the nation in which they live.”
Is it important whether or not most Jews live in Israel?
To some, it is. The American Jewish Committee (AJC), the oldest American Jewish advocacy group, established in 1906 by prominent American Jews to protect the welfare of Russian Jews who were targets of pogroms, did not originally support the Zionist agenda. Members did not want to jeopardize their professional success and social positions with accusations of dual loyalties.
The AJC did approve the Balfour Declaration, but it qualified its support by noting that Palestine would be a sanctuary for only a part of the Jewish people; most will continue to live elsewhere and enjoy full civil and religious liberty. In fact, the final part of the Balfour Declaration states that the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine should not adversely affect the rights and political status of Jews in any other country. 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 have to love Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), an organization that monitors every aspect of Israel’s economy and demographics. Now, in the midst of a long hot summer, while the war with Hamas continues, an important demographic milestone in Jewish/Israeli history is approaching. The population of Israel is about to pass the 10 million mark.
A May 9, 2024, media release by the CBS reports that Israel’s population, on the eve of its 76th Independence Day, is 9.9 million. This includes 7.43 million Jews (73.2 %), 2.09 million Arabs (21.1%), and 0.56 million others (5.7%). The category “others” includes tens of thousands from the former Soviet Union who may not be recognized as Jews but who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return.
In the year since the last Independence Day, Israel’s population increased by 1.9%, mostly due to a high birth rate, by far the highest of the 38 developed nations that make up the OECD. During 2023, some 196,000 children were born (three quarters of them Jewish). These numbers indicate that the demographic relationship between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel is not a zero sum exercise. The growth of the Jewish population of Israel is no longer dependent on immigration (aliyah).
Ironically, aliyah numbers are healthy, in spite of the war with Hamas and other Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. The day before the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump, President Joe Biden repeated a point he has made before: Israel is necessary as a safe haven for Jews.
Apparently, many Jews in the Diaspora agree. Twenty-two thousand have made aliyah since Oct. 7; while most of the initial cohort of immigrants were Russians, The Jewish Chronicle recently reported that growing numbers of British, French, and North American Jews have been arriving. Thousands from Canada and the US are expected this summer. Surely, a surge in aliyah was not what the perpetrators of October 7 had in mind. (The aliyah picture will be clearer in a few months. Hundreds of Jews in my country, Canada, are in the process of making aliyah, but it has also been reported that hundreds of Israelis are immigrating to Canada.)
Do most Jews live in Israel today?
It is difficult to be sure because of disagreement about the size of the Jewish population of the US. In 2020, Israeli demographer Sergio Della Pergola estimated that there were six million Jews in the US, while the Pew organization said the number was 7.5 million.
However, as of 2022, there were some 15.2 million Jews in the world. Central Bureau of Statistics projects that by 2030, the population of Israel will be 11.1 million. It will reach 13.2 million in 2040 and 15.2 million in 2048, a century after Israel’s founding.
Given these numbers and projections, it is clear that Israel has already become, or is about to become, home to most of the world’s Jews. It is time to discard the longstanding perception that Israel is the home of a small part of the Jewish people. For those who deny the right of the Jewish people to an independent state in their ancestral homeland, this may be a difficult pill to swallow. It is difficult to deny that home is where your people are.■
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor from the University of Waterloo.