The world's Jewish population has had a complex and tumultuous history over the past millennia, regularly dealing with persecution, pogroms, and even genocide. The legacy of expulsion and persecution of Jews, including bans on land ownership, meant that Jewish communities disproportionately lived in urban areas, working as artisans or traders, and often lived in their own settlements separate to the rest of the urban population. This separation contributed to the impression that events such as pandemics, famines, or economic shocks did not affect Jews as much as other populations, and such factors came to form the basis of the mistrust and stereotypes of wealth (characterized as greed) that have made up anti-Semitic rhetoric for centuries. Development since the Middle Ages The concentration of Jewish populations across the world has shifted across different centuries. In the Middle Ages, the largest Jewish populations were found in Palestine and the wider Levant region, with other sizeable populations in present-day France, Italy, and Spain. Later, however, the Jewish disapora became increasingly concentrated in Eastern Europe after waves of pogroms in the west saw Jewish communities move eastward. Poland in particular was often considered a refuge for Jews from the late-Middle Ages until the 18th century, when it was then partitioned between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, and persecution increased. Push factors such as major pogroms in the Russian Empire in the 19th century and growing oppression in the west during the interwar period then saw many Jews migrate to the United States in search of opportunity.

The Holocaust was the systematic extermination of Europe's Jewish population in the Second World War, during which time, up to six million Jews were murdered as part of Nazi Germany's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". In the context of the Second World War, the term "Holocaust" is traditionally used to reference the genocide of Europe's Jews, although this coincided with the Nazi regime's genocide and ethnic cleansing of an additional eleven million people deemed "undesirable" due to their ethnicity, beliefs, disability or sexuality (among others). During the Holocaust, Poland's Jewish population suffered the largest number of fatalities, with approximately three million deaths. Additionally, at least one million Jews were murdered in the Soviet Union, while Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia also lost the majority of their respective pre-war Jewish populations. The Holocaust in Poland In the interwar period, Europe's Jewish population was concentrated in the east, with roughly one third living in Poland; this can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when thousands of Jews flocked to Eastern Europe to escape persecution. At the outbreak of the Second World War, it is estimated that there were 3.4 million Jews living in Poland, which was approximately ten percent of the total population. Following the German invasion of Poland, Nazi authorities then segregated Jews in ghettos across most large towns and cities, and expanded their network of concentration camps throughout the country. In the ghettos, civilians were deprived of food, and hundreds of thousands died due to disease and starvation; while prison labor was implemented under extreme conditions in concentration camps to fuel the German war effort. In Poland, six extermination camps were also operational between December 1941 and January 1945, which saw the mass extermination of approximately 2.7 million people over the next three years (including many non-Poles, imported from other regions of Europe). While concentration camps housed prisoners of all backgrounds, extermination camps were purpose-built for the elimination of the Jewish race, and over 90% of their victims were Jewish. The majority of the victims in these extermination camps were executed by poison gas, although disease, starvation and overworking were also common causes of death. In addition to the camps and ghettos, SS death squads (Einsatzgruppen) and local collaborators also committed widespread atrocities across Eastern Europe. While the majority of these atrocities took place in the Balkan, Baltic and Soviet regions, they were still prevalent in Poland (particularly during the liquidation of the ghettos), and the Einsatzgruppen alone are estimated to have killed up to 1.3 million Jews throughout the Holocaust. By early 1945, Soviet forces had largely expelled the German armies from Poland and liberated the concentration and extermination camps; by this time, Poland had lost roughly ninety percent of its pre-war Jewish population, and suffered approximately three million further civilian and military deaths. By 1991, Poland's Jewish population was estimated to be just 15 thousand people, while there were fewer than two thousand Jews recorded as living in Poland in 2018.

Throughout history, the displacement and migration of Jewish populations has been a repeating theme. In ancient times, the worlds Jewish population was concentrated in the Middle East, especially around Judaism's spiritual homeland in present-day Israel. However, the population distribution of the world's Jewry began to shift in the Middle Ages, with an increasing share living in Europe. Initially, Western Europe (particularly France, Italy, and Spain) had the largest Jewish populations, before they then migrated eastward in later centuries. Between the 18th and mid-20th centuries, over half of the worl'd Jews lived in Europe, with over 80 percent of these living in Eastern Europe.

Poland had become a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution in the Middle Ages, although shifting borders and foreign influence meant that long-term security was never fully attained, and a series of pogroms in the Russian Empire in the 1800s, and rising anti-Semitism in Central Europe in the early-1900s contributred to waves of migration to the United States and Israel during this time. After the Holocaust saw the genocide of up to six million Jews (over one third of the world's Jewish population), the share of Jews living in Europe dropped drastically, and emmigration outside of Europe increased. Today, the United States has the world's largest Jewish population in the world at around 7.3 million people, just ahead of Israel with 7.1 million.

In 1995, Israel had a Jewish population of approximately 4.5 million people, of whom approximately 1.75 million were born abroad. Over one million of these immigrants were born in Europe, with over 650,000 of these born in the former Soviet Union. Despite Poland having the largest Jewish population in the world in the pre-WWII years, the number of Polish Jewish migrants and descendents in Israel was relatively small in 1995 when compared to the USSR due to the impact of the Holocaust.

Outside of Europe, Morocco had the largest number of Jewish immigrants and descendents in Israel by 1995. Morocco had the largest Jewish population in the Muslim world when Israel was founded in 1948, with over 250,000 people. Many Moroccan Jews sought to emigrate to Israel at this time, but often faced resistance from authorities and local populations who believed the Jews would join in the fight against the Arab forces seeking to establish a Muslim state in Palestine. The government of Morocco then officially prohibited emigration to Israel after gaining independence from France in 1956, however this policy was reversed in 1961 whereby the Moroccan government began facilitating Jewish emigration to Israel in return for payments from Jewish organizations in the U.S. and Israel. By the 1970s, Morocco's Jewish population had fallen to less than 15 percent of its size in 1948.

Jews were the dominant religious group in the Israel-Palestine region at the beginning of the first millennia CE, and are the dominant religious group there today, however, there was a period of almost 2,000 years where most of the world's Jews were displaced from their spiritual homeland. Antiquity to the 20th century Jewish hegemony in the region began changing after a series of revolts against Roman rule led to mass expulsions and emigration. Roman control saw severe persecution of Jewish and Christian populations, but this changed when the Byzantine Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion in the 4th century. Christianity then dominated until the 7th century, when the Rashidun Caliphate (the first to succeed Muhammad) took control of the Levant. Control of region split between Christians and Muslims intermittently between the 11th and 13th centuries during the Crusades, although the population remained overwhelmingly Muslim. Zionism until today Through the Paris Peace Conference, the British took control of Palestine in 1920. The Jewish population began growing through the Zionist Movement after the 1880s, which sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Rising anti-Semitism in Europe accelerated this in the interwar period, and in the aftermath of the Holocaust, many European Jews chose to leave the continent. The United Nations tried facilitating the foundation of separate Jewish and Arab states, yet neither side was willing to concede territory, leading to a civil war and a joint invasion from seven Arab states. Yet the Jews maintained control of their territory and took large parts of the proposed Arab territory, forming the Jewish-majority state of Israel in 1948, and acheiving a ceasefire the following year. Over 750,000 Palestinians were displaced as a result of this conflict, while most Jews from the Arab eventually fled to Israel. Since this time, Israel has become one of the richest and advanced countries in the world, however, Palestine has been under Israeli military occupation since the 1960s and there are large disparities in living standards between the two regions.

Population: FE: Jewish Autonomous Region: Birobidzhan: Above Working Age data was reported at 16.300 Person th in 2019. This records a decrease from the previous number of 17.100 Person th for 2018. Population: FE: Jewish Autonomous Region: Birobidzhan: Above Working Age data is updated yearly, averaging 15.600 Person th from Dec 2003 (Median) to 2019, with 17 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 17.100 Person th in 2018 and a record low of 12.400 Person th in 2003. Population: FE: Jewish Autonomous Region: Birobidzhan: Above Working Age data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal State Statistics Service. The data is categorized under Russia Premium Database’s Demographic and Labour Market – Table RU.GA023: Population: by City: Far East Federal District.

This dataset is about book subjects. It has 4 rows and is filtered where the books is The history of the Jewish people in the age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C. - A.D. 135).. It features 10 columns including number of authors, number of books, earliest publication date, and latest publication date.

Israel Population: 2022 Census: excl Foreign Workers: Avg: Jews and Others data was reported at 7,723.400 Person th in Mar 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 7,717.500 Person th for Feb 2025. Israel Population: 2022 Census: excl Foreign Workers: Avg: Jews and Others data is updated monthly, averaging 7,642.700 Person th from Jan 2023 (Median) to Mar 2025, with 27 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 7,723.400 Person th in Mar 2025 and a record low of 7,519.600 Person th in Jan 2023. Israel Population: 2022 Census: excl Foreign Workers: Avg: Jews and Others data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Central Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Israel – Table IL.G001: Population.

The data reported here are from the 2000 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, detailing the views of American Jews about a broad range of subjects. Among the topics covered in the present survey are the Israel-Arab peace process, the attachment of American Jews to Israel, political and social issues in the United States, Jewish perceptions of anti-Semitism, Jewish opinion about various countries, and Jewish identity concerns. Some of the questions appearing in the survey are new; others are drawn from previous American Jewish Committee surveys, including the 1997, 1998, and 1999 Annual Surveys of American Jewish Opinion. The 2000 survey was conducted for the American Jewish Committee by Market Facts, Inc., a leading survey-research organization. Respondents were interviewed by telephone during September 14-28, 2000; no interviewing took place on the Sabbath. The sample consisted of 1,010 self-identified Jewish respondents selected from the Market Facts consumer mail panel. The respondents are demographically representative of the United States adult Jewish population on a variety of measures. (AJC 3/4/2015).

Please Note: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at https://doi.org/10.25940/ROPER-31094161. We highly recommend using the Roper Center version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.

Israel Population: 2008 Census: excl Foreign Workers: End Period: Jews and Others data was reported at 7,068.800 Person th in Oct 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 7,055.800 Person th for Sep 2018. Israel Population: 2008 Census: excl Foreign Workers: End Period: Jews and Others data is updated monthly, averaging 6,446.100 Person th from Jan 2009 (Median) to Oct 2018, with 118 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 7,068.800 Person th in Oct 2018 and a record low of 5,926.300 Person th in Jan 2009. Israel Population: 2008 Census: excl Foreign Workers: End Period: Jews and Others data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Central Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Israel – Table IL.G001: Population. The group 'Jews and others' includes Jews, population not classified by religion and non-Arab Christians.

Europe's Jewish population in 1939 was around 9.5 million people, and it is estimated that six million of these were ultimately killed by 1945. The persecution of German Jews escalated during the interwar period, particularly after Hitler's ascent to power in 1933, and again after Kristallnacht in 1938. However, the scale of this increased drastically following the German invasions of Poland in 1939 and the USSR in 1941, when Germany annexed regions with some of the largest Jewish populations in Europe. Extermination Camps As part of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", the Nazi occupiers established six extermination camps in present-day Poland; these were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek***, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Prisoners, mostly Jews, were transported from all over Europe to these camps. Upon arrival, the majority of victims were sent directly to purpose-built chambers or vans, where they were murdered with carbon monoxide or Zyklon B gas. A relatively small number of prisoners were also forced to dispose of the victims' bodies, which often included their own family members, friends, or persons known to them. Most of the deceased were incinerated, and many of the camp records were destroyed; this means that precise figures for the number of deaths in extermination camps will never be known. It has been estimated that at least 2.7 million Jews were murdered in these six camps; over two thirds of these were killed at Auschwitz or Treblinka. Einsatzgruppen After extermination camps, the most common method of murder was through mass shootings. The majority of these shootings were not carried out by regular soldiers, but specialized task forces known as "Einsatzgruppen". Each group was just a few hundred men each, but they were responsible for some of the largest individual acts of genocide in the war. The largest of these took place at Babi Yar, near Kyiv in 1941, where almost 35,000 victims were beaten, humiliated, and then shot over a two day period. The Einsatzgruppen were most active in the annexed Soviet territories (although additional regiments were active in Poland and the Balkans), and their ranks were often bolstered by local volunteers. It has been estimated that Einsatzgruppen were responsible for the genocide of more than two million people in fewer than six years.

Among the topics covered in the present survey are the consequences of the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States, the Israel-Arab peace process, the attachment of American Jews to Israel, political and social issues in the United States, Jewish perceptions of anti-Semitism, Jewish opinion about various countries, and Jewish identity concerns. Some of the questions appearing in the survey are new; others are drawn from previous American Jewish Committee surveys, including the Annual Surveys of American Jewish Opinion carried out in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. The 2001 survey was conducted for the American Jewish Committee by Market Facts, Inc., a leading survey-research organization. Respondents were interviewed by telephone during November 19 - December 4, 2001; no interviewing took place on the Sabbath. The sample consisted of 1,015 self-identified Jewish respondents selected from the Market Facts consumer mail panel. The respondents are demographically representative of the United States adult Jewish population on a variety of measures. (AJC 3/4/2015)

Please Note: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at https://doi.org/10.25940/ROPER-31094162. We highly recommend using the Roper Center version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.

Among the topics covered are the war against terrorism and Iraq; the Israel-Arab conflict; the attachment of American Jews to Israel; transatlantic relations; political and social issues in the United States; Jewish perceptions of anti-Semitism; and Jewish identity concerns. Some of the questions appearing in the survey are new, others are drawn from previous AJC surveys conducted annually since 1997. The 2003 survey was conducted for AJC by Market Facts, a leading survey-research organization. Respondents were interviewed by telephone between November 25 and December 11. The sample consisted of 1,000 self-identifying Jewish respondents selected from the Market Facts consumer mail panel. The respondents are demographically representative of the U.S. adult Jewish population on a variety of measures. (AJC 3/4/2015)

Please Note: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at https://doi.org/10.25940/ROPER-31094163. We highly recommend using the Roper Center version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.

This research deals with aspects of the history of the Jewish community of Volos from the interwar period to the present day, focusing on the experience of the Occupation and the return of Jews to Volos after the war. The material comes from a research conducted by Kerasia Malagiorgis as part of a thesis in the postgraduate program of the IAKA Department, University of Thessaly.

The Liverpool Jewish community was the earliest to be formed in the north of England (approximately 1745). Examination of this important minority community, from a religious, historical, demographic, sociological, and genealogical perspective has been severely hampered by the lack of a unified source of information about Jewish individuals and families resident in the area during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A searchable database of all Jewish persons with a documented connection with the Liverpool area, from the earliest times to 1881 has been produced. Jewish individuals were identified by a novel use of distinctive names, occupations and birth places in secular census and vital records and, in combination with extant records held within the Jewish community, have been used to produce a database of over 10,000 persons.

A key element is the linking of individuals into family groups, rather than simply producing a list of names, dates, and addresses. Those familiar with the format of a GEDCOM genealogical data file will recognise the use of FAM (family identification numbers), with FAMS numbers indicating the family identification number of the family in which the individual is a spouse, and FAMC numbers which link an individual to the family in which he or she is a child. These FAM numbers are built into the database.

Abstract

Three major studies have been carried out on behalf of the Kaplan Centre since 1990: by Allie Dubb in 1991 (N=1,755 households); by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in 1998 (N=1,000 households); and by Shirley Bruk in 2005 (N=1,000 households). The Jewish Community Survey of South Africa (JCSSA) 2019 is the first national survey of the Jewish population to take place since 2005. The survey was undertaken by researchers from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), a London-based research institute, and theKaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research at the University of Cape Town. The JCSSA was an online survey. Fieldwork took place between May and July 2019, and it generated a final sample size of 4,193 individuals (aged 18 and over) living in 2,402 unique households as well as those in communal institutions such as care homes, amounting to 5,287 individuals.

Analysis unit

Households and individuals

Universe

The universe for the study was all Jewish adults (those aged 18 and over) living in households and communal institutions in South Africa.

Kind of data

Survey data

Sampling procedure

A convenience sample was developed using lists provided to the research team by Jewish community leaders in South Africa. From this basis a 'snowball' sample was incorporated: anyone who completed the survey could digitally invite other Jewish people they knew to take part via a private landing page. The final sample size was 5,287 individuals. The survey report provides more detail on the sampling for the survey.

Mode of data collection

Internet

Research instrument

The survey used a single questionnaire administered online. The questionnaire collected data on disability (Question 84.1) and old age (Question 88.2) but technical problems resulted in this data not being included in the final data file.

Response rate

The final JCSSA dataset contained 4,193 individual responses from across South Africa.

The Kashmiri population is an ethno-linguistic group that resides in the Kashmir Valley in northern India. A longstanding hypothesis is that this population derives ancestry from Jewish and/or Greek sources. There is historical and archaeological evidence of ancient Greek presence in India and Kashmir. Further, some historical accounts suggest ancient Hebrew ancestry as well. To date, it has not been determined whether signatures of Greek or Jewish admixture can be detected in the Kashmiri population. Using genome-wide genotyping and admixture detection methods, we determined there are no significant or substantial signs of Greek or Jewish admixture in modern-day Kashmiris. The ancestry of Kashmiri Tibetans was also determined, which showed signs of admixture with populations from northern India and west Eurasia. These results contribute to our understanding of the existing population structure in northern India and its surrounding geographical areas.

IntroductionThroughout history, Jewish communities have been exposed to collectively experienced traumatic events. Little is known about the role that the community plays in the impact of these traumatic events on Jewish diaspora people. This scoping review aims to map the concepts of the resilience of Jewish communities in the diaspora and to identify factors that influence this resilience.MethodsWe followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology. Database searches yielded 2,564 articles. Sixteen met all inclusion criteria. The analysis was guided by eight review questions.ResultsCommunity resilience of the Jewish diaspora was often described in terms of coping with disaster and struggling with acculturation. A clear definition of community resilience of the Jewish diaspora was lacking. Social and religious factors, strong organizations, education, and communication increased community resilience. Barriers to the resilience of Jewish communities in the diaspora included the interaction with the hosting country and other communities, characteristics of the community itself, and psychological and cultural issues.DiscussionKey gaps in the literature included the absence of quantitative measures of community resilience and the lack of descriptions of how community resilience affects individuals’ health-related quality of life. Future studies on the interaction between community resilience and health-related individual resilience are warranted.

Archaeological evidence of human activity in the area of Ramat Hanadiv is visible mostly around the tuff layers and near sources of water. The two main sites are Ein Tzur and Horvat Aqav (horva meaning ruins in Arabic). The tuff is a nurturing layer into which the wells at Ein Tzur were dug and upon which agricultural plots were situated. Inhabitants of the ancient settlement of Horvat Eleg relied upon the nearby spring to create a system of aqueducts. The following section summarizes the main archaeological sites at Ramat Hanadiv. All excavations between 1984 and 2006 were conducted by the late Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld, the Park's archaeologist. Horvat Aqav The site includes an agricultural manor, inhabited by the local Jewish population up to the second half of the first century B.C. and deserted, most likely, at the time of the Great Revolt against the Roman Empire (70 A.D.). Beginning in the Byzantine era in the 4th century and continuing until the Arab occupation, the site was re-settled as a country villa. The remains of the villa, including the water system's ruins were preserved and are open to the public. Horvat Eleq This site is situated at a strategic point, at the top of a hill overlooking the cultivated 'Hanadiv' Valley. A water tunnel with a spring flowing through it was found at the foot of the hill. Throughout the 20 seasons of excavations at the site, various findings were revealed, including specimens dating as early as the Bronze era. The most impressive findings are from the early Roman era: a wall, a tower and structures for processing agricultural produce. Some other findings indicate the existence of a settlement at this location during the Iron, Persian and Hellenist eras. During excavations, some ruins of Herodian origin were found. The findings included a large castle from King Herod's time (37-4 B.C.). The castle was abandoned during the Jewish fight against the Romans. Other structures which were part of this impressive site were found on the slope of the hill. The Tumuli Field At the southern part of Ramat Hanadiv, remains of 40 round tumuli were found. The tumuli were used for burial purposes during the period between 3000 B.C. until the beginning of 2000 B.C. At the centre of each tumulus, a sarcophagus made of non-chiselled limestone plates (coffin/tomb) was found. Some of the tombs contained gifts, such as batons, daggers and jewellery.

Population: FE: Jewish Autonomous Region: Birobidzhan: Working Age data was reported at 41.100 Person th in 2019. This records a decrease from the previous number of 41.300 Person th for 2018. Population: FE: Jewish Autonomous Region: Birobidzhan: Working Age data is updated yearly, averaging 47.300 Person th from Dec 2003 (Median) to 2019, with 17 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 50.300 Person th in 2003 and a record low of 41.100 Person th in 2019. Population: FE: Jewish Autonomous Region: Birobidzhan: Working Age data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal State Statistics Service. The data is categorized under Russia Premium Database’s Demographic and Labour Market – Table RU.GA023: Population: by City: Far East Federal District. Labour Force population includes men aged 16-59 years old and women aged 16-54 years old Население трудоспособного возраста - мужчины 16-59 лет, женщины 16-54 года