Israel is home to 41 percent of world Jewry, according to a Hebrew University demographer.
Data published this week by Prof. Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, showed that of the 13 million Jews worldwide in 2008, 5.5 million are in Israel – a 41 percent share.
The number of Jews living in Israel on the eve of its 1948 founding was 650,000. The number of Israeli Jews has multiplied almost eight times in 60 years, the consequence of immigration to Israel as well as the natural birth rate.
In parallel, the number of Diaspora Jews shrank over the same period by about 30 percent, due to immigration to Israel, assimilation and aging. One notable exception is Germany, where the Jewish population has grown more than four-fold over the past two decades.
