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Report: Population of Jews in Europe at lowest level for 900 years

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A new report has shown that the proportion of Jews living in Europe is at its lowest level in 900 years, Israel National News reports. The report was published Thursday by the European Jewish Demography Unit at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR).

Led by Jewish demographers Professor Sergio Della Pergola and Dr. Daniel Staetsky, the new study traces Jewish demographic development over almost 1,000 years, and offers up-to-date estimates of population counts and trends today.

Among the study’s key findings is the fact that, 150 years ago, some 88% of all Jews lived in Europe. Today that proportion is 9%. Today’s count is almost the same as it was 900 years ago, in 1170, when some 12% of all Jews lived in Europe.

Moreover, the study found, Europe lost nearly 60% of its Jewish population over the last 50 years. France has the largest number of Jews, but this number is estimated to have dropped by around 15% since 1975.

Russia was found to have lost over 60% of its Jewish population in a generation. In 1994 there were 409,000 Jews living in Russia but there are now just around 155,000: following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian Jews were the largest immigrant population to move to Israel.

The study showed that Jews have more affinity with the European Union than with the general populations of individual Member States. This was particularly so for Jews in Hungary, Poland, Austria, and Italy.