September 28, 2008  

Zeev Bielski, chairman of the Jewish Agncy 
for Israel: "The data proved that a tangible 
danger of assimilation was hanging over the
Jewish people." 

JERUSALEM (AFP-EJP)---Israel is now home to the largest Jewish community in the world, just ahead of the United States, a report said Friday.

There are 13.3 million people around the world who define themselves as Jewish and who do not belong to any other faith.

5.55 million Jews are living in Israel and 5.3 million in the United States, according to a report by the Jewish Agency, a semi-governmental organization which is responsible for encouraging and facilitating Jewish immigration.

The survey was conducted by Prof. Sergio Della Pergola from the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute and the Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University.

Over the past year, the Jewish population in Israel grew by 85,000, while there was a decrease of 15,000 in the Diaspora.

The chairman of the Jewish Agency, Ze'ev Bielski, said the data proved that a "tangible danger of assimilation was hanging over the Jewish people."

According to the report, the third-largest community resides in France, which has a Jewish population of 490,000, followed by Canada with 375,000, Britain with 295,000, Russia with 215,000 (340,000 in the entire FSU), Argentina with 183,000, Germany with 120,000, Australia with 107,000 and Brazil with 96,000.

Despite a decline in immigration, the net rate of migration remains positive, with some 20,000 Jews moving to Israel in the past 12 months.

Around 20,000 Jews left during that period and another 10,000 Israeli Jews returned from abroad, according to the report.

There are about 1.5 million people in North America who are either Jews married to a non-Jew or are the offspring of a mixed Jewish-non-Jewish couple. According to the Jewish Agency, this is proof that assimilation is growing.

Bielski said the agency would "step up its efforts to provide Jewish education in Diaspora communities and to strengthen the Jewish identity of the new generation and tighten the ties between Israel and the Diaspora."

Other data released by the agency show that there is one Jew living in Afghanistan, 95 countries have 100 or more Jews, there are 11 million people living in the US who are eligible for automatic citizenship under the Law of Return, and another million in the FSU.

The numbers were released this week in an annual report in honour of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown on Monday.