The number of Christians in Israel who converted to Judaism rose significantly last year.
There was a 15 percent increase over the previous year, according to data released by the Religious Affairs Ministry’s Christian Communities Department.
The 593 converts included 17 Jews who had converted to Islam but returned to the Jewish faith last year. They consisted of four women with 13 children among them.
There was only one Jewish conversion back from Islam in 1990.
The ministry reported that 27 Christians converted to Islam last year, compared to 26 the previous year. Most are European women married to Arab men.
The report also showed that there are 555 Samaritans split between Nablus in the West Bank and Holon, south of Tel Aviv.
The Samaritans were an ancient Hebrew sect that broke from Judaism. Their present community is demographically unusual in that men outnumber women by 303 to 252.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
