U.S. Jewish Population Was 5,199,000 in 1943; Increased During Last Six Years

In the last six years ending June 30, 1943, the Jewish population of the United States rose to 5,199,000, representing an increase of 428,344, the 46th volume of The American Jewish Year Book, issued yesterday, discloses. The ratio of the Jewish to the general population in 1943 is estimated at 3.7 percent. In 1937 it was also 3.7 percent.

The Year Book, the current issue of which is dated 5705, or 1944-45, is the standard reference work of facts and figures of Jewish life throughout the world, with emphasis on the American Jewish community. Edited by Harry Schneiderman for the American Jewish Committee, of which he is assistant secretary, and compiled by the Committee’s research staff, the Year Book is published and distributed by the Jewish Publication Society of America.

The breakdown of the rise in Jewish population from 1937 to 1943 shows an estimated natural increase of 279,000 and a net increase from immigration to this country of 149,344. The estimated Jewish population, the Year Book points out, is “derived from reports submitted by the various congregations and local communal leaders and, in some communities, through actual enumeration,” an enumeration supplemented by research.

Declaring that “there is hardly a Jewish family that is not represented among our gallant American men and women fighting in the onward march to victory,” Louis Kraft, executive director of the Jewish Welfare Board, writing on Jews in the armed forces, reveals that more than 2800 Jewish boys received decorations for bravery in action in the period under review. Thirty of them won ten awards or more each, for a total of 345 decorations. The Year Book records the names of these heroes. Mr. Kraft reports also that during the High Holy Days of 1943 an estimated 335,000 servicemen attended religious services in all parts of the world.