The continuing decline of Europe’s Jewish population
Its been seven decades since the end of the Holocaust, an event that decimated the Jewish population in Europe. In the years since then, the number of European Jews has continued to decline for a variety of reasons. And now, concerns over renewed anti-Semitism on the continent have prompted Jewish leaders to talk of a new exodus from the region.
There are still more than a million Jews living in Europe, according to 2010 Pew Research Center estimates. But that number has dropped significantly over the last several decades most dramatically in Eastern Europe and the countries that make up the former Soviet Union, according to historical research by Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In 1939, there were 16.6 million Jews worldwide, and a majority of them 9.5 million, or 57% lived in Europe, according to DellaPergolas estimates. By the end of World War II, in 1945, the Jewish population of Europe had shrunk to 3.8 million, or 35% of the worlds 11 million Jews. About 6 million European Jews were killed during the Holocaust, according to common estimates.
Since then, the global Jewish population estimated by Pew Research at 14 million as of 2010 has risen, but it is still smaller than it was before the Holocaust. And in the decades since 1945, the Jewish population in Europe has continued to decline. In 1960, it was about 3.2 million; by 1991, it fell to 2 million, according to DellaPergolas estimates. Now, there are about 1.4 million Jews in Europe just 10% of the worlds Jewish population, and 0.2% of Europes total population.
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JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I'm reading an interesting book entitled Paris: 1919 Six Months That Changed the World.
It explains the Balfour Agreement and the situation of Jewish people in Russia, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine around the time of WWI. It also discusses the situation in the Middle East and the decisions made about the destiny of the people there following the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. It's very interesting. I recommend it because so many of the problems we have now existed at that time. It's just fascinating.
http://www.amazon.com/Paris-1919-Months-Changed-World/dp/0375760520
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,975 posts)The majority not going to Israel, as I understand it, land in the US or Canada.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)If I were Jewish, I wouldn't want to live anywhere in Europe. Excepting maybe Switzerland.