The two countries with the greatest shares of the world's Jewish population are the United States and Israel. The United States had been a hub of Jewish immigration since the nineteenth century, as Jewish people sought to escape persecution in Europe by emigrating across the Atlantic. The Jewish population in the U.S. is largely congregated in major urban areas, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with the New York metropolitan area being the city with the second largest Jewish population worldwide, after Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel is the world's only officially Jewish state, having been founded in 1948 following the first Arab-Israeli War. While Jews had been emigrating to the holy lands since the nineteenth century, when they were controlled by the Ottoman Empire, immigration increased rapidly following the establishment of the state of Israel. Jewish communities in Eastern Europe who had survived the Holocaust saw Israel as a haven from persecution, while the state encouraged immigration from Jewish communities in other regions, notably the Middle East & North Africa. Smaller Jewish communities remain in Europe in countries such as France, the UK, and Germany, and in other countries which were hotspots for Jewish migration in the twentieth century, such as Canada and Argentina.

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.

This statistic shows the top 25 countries in the world with the largest number of Jewish population in 2010. In 2010, there were living about 5.7 million Jews in the United States.

The Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews 2013, is a comprehensive national survey of the Jewish population. The survey explores attitudes, beliefs, practices and experiences of Jews living in the United States. There are two datasets, a respondent dataset (where there is one row per respondent) and a household dataset (where there is one row per person in the sampled households). The respondent dataset includes all of the information collected as part of the survey. The household dataset is a reshaped version of the respondent dataset that includes a limited number of variables describing the demographic characteristics and Jewish status of all of the people in the surveyed households.

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.

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.

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.

This statistic shows the denominational affiliation of Jewish community members in the United States, as of January 2017. 28 percent of Jews identified with the Reform movement while 29 percent considered themselves to be "just Jewish"

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.

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.

This study, designed and carried out by the "http://www.asarb.org/" Target="_blank">Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), compiled data on 372 religious bodies by county in the United States. Of these, the ASARB was able to gather data on congregations and adherents for 217 religious bodies and on congregations only for 155. Participating bodies included 354 Christian denominations, associations, or communions (including Latter-day Saints, Messianic Jews, and Unitarian/Universalist groups); counts of Jain, Shinto, Sikh, Tao, Zoroastrian, American Ethical Union, and National Spiritualist Association congregations, and counts of congregations and adherents from Baha'i, three Buddhist groupings, two Hindu groupings, and four Jewish groupings, and Muslims. The 372 groups reported a total of 356,642 congregations with 161,224,088 adherents, comprising 48.6 percent of the total U.S. population of 331,449,281. Membership totals were estimated for some religious groups.

In January 2024, the ARDA added 21 religious tradition (RELTRAD) variables to this dataset. These variables start at variable #8 (TOTCNG_2020). Categories were assigned based on pages 88-94 in the original "https://www.usreligioncensus.org/index.php/node/1638" Target="_blank">2020 U.S. Religion Census Report.

Visit the "https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/sources-for-religious-congregations-membership-data" Target="_blank">frequently asked questions page for more information about the ARDA's religious congregation and membership data sources.

This study, designed and carried out by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), compiled data on the number of congregations and adherents for 236 religious groups in each county of the United States. Participants included 217 Christian denominations, associations, or communions (including Latter-day Saints, Messianic Jews, and Unitarian/Universalist groups); counts of Jain, Shinto, Sikh, Tao and National Spiritualist Association congregations, and counts of congregations and adherents from Bahá'ís, three Buddhist groupings, four Hindu groupings, four Jewish groupings, Muslims and Zoroastrians. The 236 groups reported a total of 344,894 congregations with 150,686,156 adherents, comprising 48.8 percent of the total U.S. population of 308,745,538 in 2010.

Visit the "/us-religion/sources-for-religious-congregations-membership-data" Target="_blank">frequently asked questions page for more information about the ARDA's religious congregation and membership data.

With the heightened threat to Germany's Jewish population following the Nazi Party's ascent to power in 1933, many German Jews chose to flee or emigrate. In 1933, Germany's Jewish population was approximately 500,000 people; by the end of the war, it is estimated that 300,000 fled the country, and 165,000 were murdered in the Holocaust. In order to flee, most Jewish emigrants from Germany had to give up the majority of their wealth to the German state, whose emigration tax and seizure of property stripped Jews of their financial assets. Destination and transit For Germany's Jewish refugees, the most common destination country was the United States, and almost half of all these refugees would arrive in the U.S. over this 12 year period. As the United States had a strict quota of 27,000 German migrants per year, many refugees were forced to enter via other countries. France was the second most common destination country, receiving 100,000 refugees. However, France was also used as a transit country for German Jews wishing to travel further afield, especially after it was annexed by Germany in 1940. This was also true for several other European countries, such as the Netherlands, which had provided protection for German Jews in the mid-1930s, before rapidly becoming very unsafe following the outbreak of war in 1939. The Frank family Possibly the most famous example of this was the story of Anne Frank and her family. Anne had been born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1929, but her family moved to the Netherlands in 1934 after Hitler came to power. The family then led a relatively comfortable and successful life in Amsterdam, with her father, Otto, founding his own businesses. When the Netherlands was invaded by the Germans in 1940, the family tried to emigrate once more; Otto had been granted a single Cuban visa in 1942, but the family was forced to go into hiding as the restrictions tightened. For the next two years, with the help of non-Jewish friends, they lived in secret in the upper floor of Otto's business premises with several other Jewish refugees, in a small space concealed behind a bookcase. In August 1944, through unknown means, the group was betrayed and then arrested by Dutch authorities, and the Frank family was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau thereafter. Anne's mother, Edith, died of starvation in Auschwitz within five months of her capture, while Anne and her sister, Margot, died one month later after being transferred to the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany. Otto was the sole survivor of the group. Otto's secretary, Miep Gies, had saved Anne's diary the day after the group was arrested, which she then gave to Otto; he then devoted much of the remainder of his life to the publication and promotion of his daughter's diary, which has now become one of the most famous and widely-read books in recent history. Additionally, the hiding space is now open to the public, and has become one of the Netherlands' most popular tourist museums.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, ** percent of Jewish Americans said that they made 100,000 U.S. dollars or more in the United States. In comparison, ** percent of Muslim Americans said that they made less than 30,000 U.S. dollars.

De geïnterviewde vertelt over zijn ervaringen met de Jodenvervolging in het Rode Dorp in Amsterdam en over de vriendschap met zijn joodse buurjongen. Hij vertelt over zijn schooltijd en zijn eerste werkervaring waar hij te maken kreeg met de geheime Duitse afdeling Gründstuck Sammelverwaltung Feindvermögen. Hier werd het archief over Joods bezit bij gehouden. De geïnterviewde vertelt verder over de arrestaties van Joodse mensen op straat, beschrijft de deportatie van de Joodse Invalide en vertelt dat er naast hem een joodse jongen werd doodgeschoten door de Duitsers.The interviewee about his experiences of the persecution of Jews in Amsterdam’s so-called Red Village neighbourhood, and about his friendship with his Jewish neighbour. He talks about his time at school and his first work experience where he came into contact with the secret German department Gruendstuck Sammelverwaltung Feindvermoegen, where archives were kept of Jewish possessions. The interviewee tells us about the arrest of Jews on the street, describes the deportations from the Joodsche Invalide hospital for handicapped Jewish people and describes the time a Jewish boy was shot and killed by the Germans right next to him. Date Submitted: 2010-04-01 Van dit interview zijn eveneens uitgebreide samenvattingen met tijd-codes beschikbaar in zowel het Nederlands als Engels. Zie de Inleiding voor een snel overzicht van de gehele collectie en de contactgegevens. Er zijn tevens verschillende bestanden bijgevoegd betreffende het project en dit specifieke interview.Besides the transcript there is an extensive summary available of the interview in both Dutch and English with time-codes inserted. See the Introduction for a quick overview of the entire collection and the contact details. There are also several documents and reports available concerning the project and this particular interview. Bystander Memories bevat in totaal 59 interviews met Nederlandse niet-joodse ooggetuigen van de jodenvervolging. Deze interviews vormen een onderdeel van een project uitgevoerd door het United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History Department, waar het valt onder de 'Europe Interview Projects: Interviews with Witnesses, Collaborators, and Perpetrators'. Naast de Nederlandse interviews zijn er ook interviews gemaakt in het (Wit)Russisch, Grieks, Macedonisch, Pools, Oekraiens, Servisch, Ests, Lets, Litouws, Moldavisch, Frans, Duits, Roemeens. De aantallen interviews per land variëren sterk. Het project is in 1996 begonnen en loopt nog steeds, zie website USHMM: http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/oralhistory/Since 1996, United States Holocaust memorial Museum's (USHMM) Department of Oral History has conducted a documentation project to collect the testimonies of individuals who were not direct victims of the Holocaust. These interviews are with witnesses, collaborators, and perpetrators. In ten years, over 600 interviews have been conducted in the following European countries: Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia. These interviews serve not only as corroboration of what Jewish victims and survivors report in their interviews and memoirs, they also create a broader understanding of the tragic events of World War II by adding the perspectives of non-Jewish populations. The Dutch interviews are accessible at DANS for scientific research only.

According to a study conducted between July 2023 and March 2024, the majority of the Jewish population in the United States was white, at ** percent. Christians and Christian denominations, such as Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Orthodox Christians, Protestants, and Catholics, were also made up of white majorities, in addition to those who identified as religiously unaffiliated, including atheists, agnostic, or nothing in particular.

De geïnterviewde vertelt in dit interview voornamelijk over het lot van de Joden nabij het Transvaalplein in Amsterdam. Ze beschrijft meerdere razzia’s en het pulsen van de huizen. Eveneens gaat ze uitvoerig in op haar rol bij het helpen wegbrengen van Joden naar de Polderweg. Ook de functie van haar ouderlijk huis als doorgangshuis voor onderduikers wordt besproken. Tot slot gaat ze in op haar gevoel van machteloosheid en vertelt ze wat ze wist en/of niet wist omtrent het lot van de Joden.In this interview the interviewee talks mainly about the Jews in the vicinity of Transvaalplein in Amsterdam Oost (East). She describes several roundups and the ransacking of households (Pulsen). She also talks in detail about her role in accompanying Jews on their way to the Polderweg, and about the use of her parents’ house as a temporary refuge for people in hiding. In the last part of the interview the interviewee tells us about her ‘helpless role’, as she describes it, and talks about what she knew and/or didn’t know about what happened to the Jews. Date Submitted: 2010-04-01 Van dit interview zijn eveneens uitgebreide samenvattingen met tijd-codes beschikbaar in zowel het Nederlands als Engels. Zie de Inleiding voor een snel overzicht van de gehele collectie en de contactgegevens. Er zijn tevens verschillende bestanden bijgevoegd betreffende het project en dit specifieke interview.Besides the transcript there is an extensive summary available of the interview in both Dutch and English with time-codes inserted. See the Introduction for a quick overview of the entire collection and the contact details. There are also several documents and reports available concerning the project and this particular interview. Bystander Memories bevat in totaal 59 interviews met Nederlandse niet-joodse ooggetuigen van de jodenvervolging. Deze interviews vormen een onderdeel van een project uitgevoerd door het United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History Department, waar het valt onder de 'Europe Interview Projects: Interviews with Witnesses, Collaborators, and Perpetrators'. Naast de Nederlandse interviews zijn er ook interviews gemaakt in het (Wit)Russisch, Grieks, Macedonisch, Pools, Oekraiens, Servisch, Ests, Lets, Litouws, Moldavisch, Frans, Duits, Roemeens. De aantallen interviews per land variëren sterk. Het project is in 1996 begonnen en loopt nog steeds, zie website USHMM: http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/oralhistory/Since 1996, United States Holocaust memorial Museum's (USHMM) Department of Oral History has conducted a documentation project to collect the testimonies of individuals who were not direct victims of the Holocaust. These interviews are with witnesses, collaborators, and perpetrators. In ten years, over 600 interviews have been conducted in the following European countries: Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia. These interviews serve not only as corroboration of what Jewish victims and survivors report in their interviews and memoirs, they also create a broader understanding of the tragic events of World War II by adding the perspectives of non-Jewish populations. The Dutch interviews are accessible at DANS for scientific research only.

In 2023, ***** people fell victim to anti-Jewish destruction, damage, and/or vandalism hate crimes in the United States. In that year, there were a further *** anti-Jewish intimidation hate crimes across the country.

De geïnterviewde vertelt over het goede contact dat het gezin met de Joodse buren in Amsterdam had. Haar ouders boden hulp aan Joodse kinderen. Ze heeft tevens meerdere razzia’s gezien en beschrijft deze gedetailleerd. De angst voor het onbekende lot van de joden komt duidelijk naar voren. De onderduik van het eigen gezin, vanwege werkweigering van vader, in Meerkerk komt eveneens aan bod. De geïnterviewde gaat tot slot in op de emotionele nasleep van de oorlog op met name haar beeld van Duitsers. Ze geeft aan hoe ze dit verwerkt heeft.The interviewee talks about the good relationship the family had with their Jewish neighbours in Amsterdam. Her parents helped Jewish children. She witnessed several round-ups and talks about them in detail. The fear she felt at not knowing the fate of the Jews is palpable. She also discusses her family’s time in hiding in Meerkerk, which resulted from her father not wanting to do forced labour. The interviewee talks about the emotional aftermath of the war and her view on Germans in general. She tells us about how she coped with this. Date Submitted: 2010-04-01 Van dit interview zijn eveneens uitgebreide samenvattingen met tijd-codes beschikbaar in zowel het Nederlands als Engels. Zie de Inleiding voor een snel overzicht van de gehele collectie en de contactgegevens. Er zijn tevens verschillende bestanden bijgevoegd betreffende het project en dit specifieke interview.Besides the transcript there is an extensive summary available of the interview in both Dutch and English with time-codes inserted. See the Introduction for a quick overview of the entire collection and the contact details. There are also several documents and reports available concerning the project and this particular interview. Bystander Memories bevat in totaal 59 interviews met Nederlandse niet-joodse ooggetuigen van de jodenvervolging. Deze interviews vormen een onderdeel van een project uitgevoerd door het United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History Department, waar het valt onder de 'Europe Interview Projects: Interviews with Witnesses, Collaborators, and Perpetrators'. Naast de Nederlandse interviews zijn er ook interviews gemaakt in het (Wit)Russisch, Grieks, Macedonisch, Pools, Oekraiens, Servisch, Ests, Lets, Litouws, Moldavisch, Frans, Duits, Roemeens. De aantallen interviews per land variëren sterk. Het project is in 1996 begonnen en loopt nog steeds, zie website USHMM: http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/oralhistory/Since 1996, United States Holocaust memorial Museum's (USHMM) Department of Oral History has conducted a documentation project to collect the testimonies of individuals who were not direct victims of the Holocaust. These interviews are with witnesses, collaborators, and perpetrators. In ten years, over 600 interviews have been conducted in the following European countries: Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia. These interviews serve not only as corroboration of what Jewish victims and survivors report in their interviews and memoirs, they also create a broader understanding of the tragic events of World War II by adding the perspectives of non-Jewish populations. The Dutch interviews are accessible at DANS for scientific research only.

In 2019, the average household size of Jews in Israel was *** people per household. In comparison, Jewish households in the United States had an average size of ***** people per household.