Figures on birth and marriage just published here by the government reveal the startling fact that, although the numbers of men and women are almost equal in other respects, there are five times as many widows as widowers among the Jews of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem ! The sea-side city has but 501 widowed men, while exactly 2,676 widowed ladies may be counted upon its streets and beaches. In Jerusalem, strange to relate, the number of widowers is exactly the same, 501, while the number of widows is even greater, reaching the grand total of 3,080.
The legend that there are seven girls to one man in Palestine, long honored in folk-lore, seems almost to apply to widows, but its general truth is blasted by the cold figures of the government statistical announcement. For, according to the figures, there are just about as many Jewish women as Jewish men in the country. Of the 175,000 Jews in Palestine, 88,000 are men, and over 86,000 are women, the census reveals.
Tel Aviv has 1,055 women for every 1,000 men. Jerusalem has a shortage, with 977 women to every 1,000 men, and Haifa has but 864 women for every 1,000 men.
The statistics on marriage disclose that thirteen Jews in Palestine who have not yet reached the age of thirteen, are married. Of these, four are men, and nine are women
The number of divorced Jewish women in Palestine is 582, while only 322 men are divorced. Tel Aviv holds first place as a center for divorced residents.
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