Jews

Jews

‫יְהּודים‬
ִ (Yehudim)

The Star of David, a common symbol of the Jewish people

Total population

14.6–17.8 million

Enlarged population (includes full or partial Jewish ancestry):

20.7 million[1]

(2022, est.)

Regions with significant populations

Israel (incl. occupied territories) 6,558,000–6,958,000[1]

United States 5,700,000–10,000,000[1]

France 453,000–600,000[1]

Canada 391,000–550,000[1]

United Kingdom 290,000–370,000[1]

 Argentina 180,000–330,000[1]

Russia 172,000–440,000[1]

Germany 116,000–225,000[1]

Australia 113,000–140,000[1]

Brazil 93,000–150,000[1]

South Africa 69,000–80,000[1]

Ukraine 50,000–140,000[1]

Hungary 47,000–100,000[1]

Mexico 40,000–50,000[1]

Netherlands 30,000–52,000[1]

Belgium 29,000–40,000[1]

Italy 28,000–41,000[1]

Switzerland 19,000–25,000[1]

Chile 18,000–26,000[1]

Uruguay 17,000–25,000[1]

Turkey 15,000–21,000[1]

Sweden 15,000–25,000[1]

Languages

 Predominantly spoken:[2]


o Modern Hebrew

o English

o Russian

o French

o Spanish

 Historical:


o Yiddish

o Ladino

o Judeo-Arabic

o others

 Sacred:

o Biblical Hebrew

o Biblical Aramaic

o Talmudic Aramaic

Religion

Judaism

Related ethnic groups

 Jewish ethnic subdivisions

 (Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrahim)

 Semitic-speaking peoples such

as Samaritans,[3][4][5] Arabs[4][6][7][8] Assyrians[9] and Levantines[4][8][5]

 Others

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symbols instead of Hebrew letters.

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Jews and Judaism

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 Who is a Jew?

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Jews (Hebrew: ‫ְהּודים‬ ִ ‫י‬, ISO 259-2: Yehudim, Israeli pronunciation: [jehuˈdim]) or Jewish
people are an ethnoreligious group[10] and nation[11][12] originating from
the Israelites [13][14][15]
and Hebrews [16][17]
of historical Israel and Judah. Jewish ethnicity,
nationhood, and religion are strongly interrelated,[18][19] as Judaism is the ethnic
religion of the Jewish people, although its observance varies from strict to none. [20][21]
Jews originated as an ethnic and religious group in the Middle East during the second
millennium BCE,[9] in a part of the Levant known as the Land of
Israel. The Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt appears to confirm the existence of a
[22]

people of Israel somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE (Late
Bronze Age).[23][24] The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite
population,[25] consolidated their hold in the region with the emergence of the kingdoms
of Israel and Judah. Some consider that these Canaan-sedentary Israelites melded
with incoming nomadic groups known as the "Hebrews". [26] Though few sources
mention the exilic periods in detail,[27][failed verification] the experience of life in the Jewish
diaspora, from the Babylonian captivity and exile to the Roman occupation and exile,
and the historical relations between Jews and their homeland in the Levant thereafter
became a major feature of Jewish history, identity, culture, and memory.[28]
In the following millennia, Jewish diaspora communities coalesced into three
major ethnic subdivisions according to where their ancestors settled:
the Ashkenazim (Central and Eastern Europe), the Sephardim (initially in the Iberian
Peninsula), and the Mizrahim (Middle East and North Africa).[29][30] Prior to World War
II, the global Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million,[31] representing around
0.7 percent of the world population at that time. During World War II, approximately
6 million Jews throughout Europe were systematically murdered by Nazi
Germany during the Holocaust.[32][33] Since then, the population has slowly risen again,
and as of 2018, was estimated to be at 14.6–17.8 million by the Berman Jewish
DataBank,[1] comprising less than 0.2 percent of the total world population.[34][note 1]
The modern State of Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the
population. It defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state in its Basic Laws,
particularly in Human Dignity and Liberty—which is based on the Israeli Declaration of
Independence—and Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People. Israel's Law of
Return grants the right of citizenship to Jews who have expressed their desire to settle
in the Jewish state.[36][better source needed]
 Jews have significantly influenced and contributed to human progress in many fields,
both historically and in modern times, including in science and
technology,[37] philosophy,[38] ethics,[39] literature,[37] politics,[37] business,[37] art, music, co
medy, theatre,[40] cinema, architecture,[37] food, medicine,[41][42] and religion. Jews wrote
the Bible,[43][44] were the founders of early Christianity,[45] and had an indirect but
profound influence on Islam.[46] In these ways, Jews have also played a significant role
in the development of Western culture.[47][48]

Contents

 1Name and etymology

 2Identity
 3Origins
 4History
o 4.1Babylon and Rome
o 4.2Diaspora
 5Culture
o 5.1Religion
o 5.2Languages
o 5.3Leadership
o 5.4Theories on ancient Jewish national identity
 6Demographics
o 6.1Ethnic divisions
o 6.2Genetic studies
o 6.3Population centers
 6.3.1Israel
 6.3.2Diaspora (outside Israel)
o 6.4Demographic changes
 6.4.1Assimilation
 6.4.2War and persecution
 6.4.3Migrations
 6.4.4Growth
 7Contributions
 8See also
 9References
o 9.1Notes
o 9.2Citations
 10Further reading
 11External links

Name and etymology

Main article: Jew (word)
For a more comprehensive list, see List of Jewish ethnonyms.
The English word "Jew" continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe. These terms were
loaned via the Old French giu, which itself evolved from the earlier juieu, which in turn
derived from judieu/iudieu which through elision had dropped the letter "d" from
the Medieval Latin Iudaeus, which, like the New Testament Greek term Ioudaios,
meant both "Jew" and "Judean" / "of Judea".[49] The Greek term was a loan
from Aramaic *yahūdāy, corresponding to Hebrew ‫ְהּודי‬ ִ ‫ י‬Yehudi, originally the term for
the people of the kingdom of Judah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both
the tribe of Judah and the kingdom of Judah derive from Judah, the fourth son
of Jacob.[50] Genesis 29:35 and 49:8 connect the name "Judah" with the verb yada,
meaning "praise", but scholars generally agree that the name of both the patriarch and
the kingdom instead have a geographic origin—possibly referring to the gorges and
ravines of the region.[51]
The Hebrew word for "Jew" is ‫ְהּודי‬
ִ ‫ י‬Yehudi, with
the plural ‫ְהּודים‬
ִ ‫ י‬Yehudim. Endonyms in
[52]
other Jewish languages include
the Ladino ‫ ג׳ודיו‬Djudio (plural ‫ג׳ודיוס‬, Djudios) and the Yiddish ‫ ייִד‬Yid (plural ‫ ייִדן‬Yidn).
The etymological equivalent is in use in other languages, e.g., ‫ َي ُهودِي‬yahūdī (sg.), al-
yahūd (pl.), in Arabic, "Jude" in German, "judeu" in Portuguese, "Juif" (m.)/"Juive" (f.)
in French, "jøde" in Danish and Norwegian, "judío/a" in Spanish, "jood" in Dutch, "żyd"
in Polish etc., but derivations of the word "Hebrew" are also in use to describe a Jew,
e.g., in Italian (Ebreo), in Persian ("Ebri/Ebrani" (Persian: ‫عبرانی‬/‫))عبری‬
and Russian (Еврей, Yevrey). The German word "Jude" is pronounced [ˈjuːdə], the
[53]

corresponding adjective "jüdisch" [ˈjyːdɪʃ] (Jewish) is the origin of the word "Yiddish".[54]
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition
(2000),
It is widely recognized that the attributive use of the noun Jew, in phrases such as Jew
lawyer or Jew ethics, is both vulgar and highly offensive. In such contexts Jewish is
the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this
construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a
practice that carries risks of its own. In a sentence such as There are now several
Jews on the council, which is unobjectionable, the substitution of a circumlocution
like Jewish people or persons of Jewish background may in itself cause offense for
seeming to imply that Jew has a negative connotation when used as a noun. [55]

Identity
Main articles: Who is a Jew? and Jewish identity

Map of Canaan

Judaism shares some of the characteristics of

a nation,[11][56][12][57][58][59] an ethnicity,[10] a religion, and a culture,[60][61][62] making the definition
of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to
identity is used.[63][better source needed] Generally, in modern secular usage Jews include three
groups: people who were born to a Jewish family regardless of whether or not they
follow the religion, those who have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage
(sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent), and people
without any Jewish ancestral background or lineage who have formally converted to
Judaism and therefore are followers of the religion.[64]
Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based
on halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halakhic conversions. These
definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the Oral Torah into
the Babylonian Talmud, around 200 CE. Interpretations by Jewish sages of sections
of the Tanakh – such as Deuteronomy 7:1-5, which forbade intermarriage between
Jews' Israelite ancestors and seven non-Israelite nations: "for that [i.e. giving your
daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,] would turn away your
children from following me, to serve other gods" [25][failed verification] – are used as a warning
against intermarriage between Jews and gentiles. Leviticus 24:10 says that the son in
a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an Egyptian man is "of the community of
Israel." This is complemented by Ezra 10:2–3, where Israelites returning from Babylon
vow to put aside their gentile wives and their children.[65][66] A popular theory is that the
rape of Jewish women in captivity brought about the law of Jewish identity being
inherited through the maternal line, although scholars challenge this theory citing the
Talmudic establishment of the law from the pre-exile period.[67] Another argument is
that the rabbis changed the law of patrilineal descent to matrilineal descent due to the
widespread rape of Jewish women by Roman soldiers.[68] Since the anti-
religious Haskalah movement of the late 18th and 19th
centuries, halakhic interpretations of Jewish identity have been challenged. [69]

According to historian Shaye J. D. Cohen, the status of the offspring of mixed

marriages was determined patrilineally in the Bible. He brings two likely explanations
for the change in Mishnaic times: first, the Mishnah may have been applying the same
logic to mixed marriages as it had applied to other mixtures (Kil'ayim). Thus, a mixed
marriage is forbidden as is the union of a horse and a donkey, and in both unions the
offspring are judged matrilineally.[70] Second, the Tannaim may have been influenced
by Roman law, which dictated that when a parent could not contract a legal
marriage, offspring would follow the mother.[70] Rabbi Rivon Krygier follows a similar
reasoning, arguing that Jewish descent had formerly passed through the patrilineal
descent and the law of matrilineal descent had its roots in the Roman legal system.[67]

Origins
Further information: Canaan, Israelites, Yahwism, Origins of Judaism, and History of
ancient Israel and Judah

Egyptian depiction of the visit of Western Asiatics in colorful garments, labeled as Aamu. The painting is from
the tomb of a 12th dynasty official Khnumhotep II at Beni Hasan, and dated to c. 1900 BCE. Their nearest
Biblical contemporaries were the earliest of Hebrews, such as Abraham and Joseph.[71][72][73][74]
Depiction of King Jehu, tenth king of the northern Kingdom of Israel, on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser
III, 841–840 BCE.[75] This is "the only portrayal we have in ancient Near Eastern art of an Israelite or Judaean
monarch".[76]

A factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor.
It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents
in vast quantities and variety, written in at least ten Near Eastern languages. As
archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse
disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most
consistent theory. The prehistory and ethnogenesis of the Jews are closely intertwined
with archaeology, biology, and historical textual records, as well as religious literature
and mythology. The ethnic stock to which Jews originally trace their ancestry was a
confederation of Iron Age Semitic-speaking tribes known as the Israelites that
inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods.[77] Modern Jews
are named after and also descended from the southern Israelite Kingdom of
Judah.[78][79][80][81][82][83]
According to the Hebrew Bible narrative, Jewish ancestry is traced back to the Biblical
patriarchs such as Abraham, his son Isaac, Isaac's son Jacob, and the Biblical
matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel, who lived in Canaan. The Twelve
Tribes are described as descending from the twelve sons of Jacob. Jacob and his
family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacob's son Joseph by
the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs' descendants were later enslaved until
the Exodus led by Moses, after which the Israelites conquered Canaan under Moses'
successor Joshua, went through the period of the Biblical judges after the death of
Joshua, then through the mediation of Samuel became subject to a king, Saul, who
was succeeded by David and then Solomon, after whom the United Monarchy ended
and was split into a separate Kingdom of Israel and a Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom
of Judah is described as comprising the Tribe of Judah, the Tribe of Benjamin, partially
the Tribe of Levi, and later adding remnants of other tribes who migrated there from
the Kingdom of Israel.[84][85] Modern Jews claim lineage from those tribes since the ten
northern tribes were lost following Assyrian captivity.[86]
Modern archaeology and the current historical view has largely discarded the
historicity of this narrative.[87] It has been reframed as constituting the Israelites'
inspiring national myth narrative. The Israelites and their culture, according to the
modern archaeological and historical account, did not overtake the region by force,
but instead branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the
development of a distinct monolatristic—and later monotheistic—religion
of Yahwism centered on Yahweh, one of the gods of the Canaanite pantheon. The
growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of cultic practices, gradually
gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group, setting them apart from other
Canaanites.[88][89][90]
The Israelites become visible in the historical record as a people between 1200 and
1000 BCE.[91] It is not certain if a period like that of the Biblical
judges occurred[92][93][94][95][96] nor if there was ever a United Monarchy.[97][98][99][100] There is
well accepted archeological evidence referring to "Israel" in the Merneptah Stele,
which dates to about 1200 BCE,[23][24] and the Canaanites are archeologically attested
in the Middle Bronze Age.[101][102] There is debate about the earliest existence of the
Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their extent and power, but historians agree that
a Kingdom of Israel existed by c. 900 BCE[98]: 169–95 [99][100] and that a Kingdom of
Judah existed by c. 700 BCE.[103] It is widely accepted that the Kingdom of Israel was
destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[84]

History
Main article: Jewish history
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Jewish history.
The term Jew originated from the Roman "Judean" and denoted someone from the
southern kingdom of Judah.[104] The shift of ethnonym from "Israelites" to "Jews"
(inhabitant of Judah), although not contained in the Torah, is made explicit in the Book
of Esther (4th century BCE),[105] a book in the Ketuvim, the third section of the
Jewish Tanakh. In 587 BCE Nebuchadnezzar II, King of the Neo-Babylonian
Empire, besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple and deported the most
prominent citizens of Judah.[106]

Tribes of Israel

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According to the Book of Ezra, the Persian Cyrus the Great ended the Babylonian
exile in 538 BCE,[107] the year after he captured Babylon.[108] The exile ended with the
return under Zerubbabel the Prince (so-called because he was a descendant of the
royal line of David) and Joshua the Priest (a descendant of the line of the former High
Priests of the Temple) and their construction of the Second Temple in the period 521–
516 BCE.[107] The Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient tablet on which is written a declaration in
the name of Cyrus referring to restoration of temples and repatriation of exiled peoples,
has often been taken as corroboration of the authenticity of the biblical decrees
attributed to Cyrus,[109] but other scholars point out that the cylinder's text is specific to
Babylon and Mesopotamia and makes no mention of Judah or Jerusalem.[109] Professor
Lester L. Grabbe asserted that the "alleged decree of Cyrus" regarding Judah, "cannot
be considered authentic", but that there was a "general policy of allowing deportees to
return and to re-establish cult sites". He also stated that archaeology suggests that the
return was a "trickle" taking place over decades, rather than a single event. [110] By the
4th century BCE, the majority of Jews lived outside the land of Israel.[111]
As part of the Persian Empire, the former Kingdom of Judah became the province of
Judah (Yehud Medinata)[112] with different borders, covering a smaller territory.[110] The
population of the province was greatly reduced from that of the kingdom,
archaeological surveys showing a population of around 30,000 people in the 5th to 4th
centuries BCE.[98]: 308  The region was under control of the Achaemenids until the fall of
their empire in c. 333 BCE to Alexander the Great. Jews were also politically
independent during the Hasmonean dynasty spanning from 110 to 63 BCE and to
some degree under the Herodian dynasty from 37 BCE to 6 CE.[113]
Genetic studies on Jews show that most Jews worldwide bear a common genetic
heritage which originates in the Middle East, and that they share certain genetic traits
with other Gentile peoples of the Fertile Crescent.[114][115][116] The genetic composition of
different Jewish groups shows that Jews share a common gene pool dating back four
millennia, as a marker of their common ancestral origin. [117] Despite their long-term
separation, Jewish communities maintained their unique commonalities, propensities,
and sensibilities in culture, tradition, and language.[118]
Babylon and Rome
Further information: History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
After the destruction of the Second Temple, Judaism lost much of its sectarian
nature.[119]: 69 
Without a Temple, Greek-speaking Jews no longer looked to Jerusalem in the way
they had before. Judaism separated into a linguistically Greek and a Hebrew / Aramaic
sphere.[120]: 8–11  The theology and religious texts of each community were distinctively
different.[120]: 11–13  Hellenized Judaism never developed yeshivas to study the Oral Law.
Rabbinic Judaism (centered in the Land of Israel and Babylon) almost entirely ignores
the Hellenized Diaspora in its writings.[120]: 13–14  Hellenized Judaism eventually
disappeared as its practitioners assimilated into Greco-Roman culture, leaving a
strong Rabbinic eastern Diaspora with large centers of learning in Babylon. [120]: 14–16 
By the first century, the Jewish community in Babylonia, to which Jews were exiled
after the Babylonian conquest as well as after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE,
already held a speedily growing[121] population of an estimated one million Jews, which
increased to an estimated two million[122] between the years 200 CE and 500 CE, both
by natural growth and by immigration of more Jews from the Land of Israel, making up
about one-sixth of the world Jewish population at that era.[122] The 13th-century
author Bar Hebraeus gave a figure of 6,944,000 Jews in the Roman world; Salo
Wittmayer Baron considered the figure convincing.[123] The figure of seven million within
and one million outside the Roman world in the mid-first century became widely
accepted, including by Louis Feldman.
However, contemporary scholars now accept that Bar Hebraeus based his figure on
a census of total Roman citizens, the figure of 6,944,000 being recorded in Eusebius'
Chronicon.[124][125] Louis Feldman, previously an active supporter of the figure, now
states that he and Baron were mistaken.[126]: 185  Feldman's views on active Jewish
missionizing have also changed. While viewing classical Judaism as being receptive
to converts, especially from the second century BCE through the first century CE, he
points to a lack of either missionizing tracts or records of the names of rabbis who
sought converts as evidence for the lack of active Jewish missionizing. [126]: 205–06  Feldman
maintains that conversion to Judaism was common and the Jewish population was
large both within the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora. [126]: 183–203, 206  Other historians
believe that conversion during the Roman era was limited in number and did not
account for much of the Jewish population growth, due to various factors such as the
illegality of male conversion to Judaism in the Roman world from the mid-second
century. Another factor that made conversion difficult in the Roman world was the
halakhic requirement of circumcision, a requirement that proselytizing Christianity
quickly dropped. The Fiscus Judaicus, a tax imposed on Jews in 70 CE and relaxed
to exclude Christians in 96 CE, also limited Judaism's appeal.[127]
Diaspora
Further information: History of the Jews in Europe, History of European Jews in the
Middle Ages, Mizrahi Jews, and Sephardi Jews

Map of the Jewish diaspora.

Israel
+ 1,000,000
+ 100,000
+ 10,000
+ 1,000

Following the Roman conquest of Judea and the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE,
hundreds of thousands of Jews were taken as slaves to Rome, where they later
immigrated to other European lands. The Jews who immigrated to Iberia and North
Africa comprise the Sephardic Jews, while those who immigrated to
the Rhineland and France comprise the Ashkenazi Jews. Additionally both before and
after the Roman conquest of Judea many Jews lived in Persia and Babylon as well as
other Middle eastern countries, these Jews comprise the Mizrachi Jews.[128] In Francia,
Jews like Isaac Judaeus and Armentarius occupied prominent social and economic
positions, as opposed to in Spain, where Jews were persecuted under Visigoth rule.
In Babylon, from the 7th to 11th centuries the Pumbedita and Sura academies lead
the Arab and to an extant the entire Jewish world. The deans and students of said
academies defined the Geonic period in Jewish history.[129] Following this period were
the Rishonim who lived from the 11th to 15th centuries, it was during this time that the
Ashkenazi Jews began experiencing extreme persecution in France and especially
the Rhineland, which resulted in mass immigration to Poland and Lithuania.
Meanwhile, Sephardic Jews experienced a golden age under Muslim rule, however
following the Reconquista and subsequent Alhambra decree in 1492, most of the
Spanish Jewish population immigrated to North Africa and the Ottoman Empire.
However some Jews chose to remain and pretended to practice Catholicism. These
Jews would form the members of Crypto-Judaism.[130]

Culture
Main article: Jewish culture
Religion
Main article: Judaism

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 Judaism portal

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The Jewish people and the religion of Judaism are strongly interrelated. Converts to
Judaism typically have a status within the Jewish ethnos equal to those born into
it.[131] However, several converts to Judaism, as well as ex-Jews, have claimed that
converts are treated as second-class Jews by many born Jews.[132] Conversion is not
encouraged by mainstream Judaism, and it is considered a difficult task. A significant
portion of conversions are undertaken by children of mixed marriages, or would-be or
current spouses of Jews.[133]
The Hebrew Bible, a religious interpretation of the traditions and early history of the
Jews, established the first of the Abrahamic religions, which are now practiced by
54 percent of the world. Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and
has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life," [134] which has made drawing
a clear distinction between Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish identity rather
difficult. Throughout history, in eras and places as diverse as the
ancient Hellenic world,[135] in Europe before and after The Age of
Enlightenment (see Haskalah), in Islamic Spain and Portugal, in North Africa and
[136] [137]

the Middle East,[137] India,[138] China,[139] or the contemporary United

States and Israel, cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense
[140] [141]

characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this
come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews or specific communities
of Jews with their surroundings, and still others from the inner social and cultural
dynamics of the community, as opposed to from the religion itself. This phenomenon
has led to considerably different Jewish cultures unique to their own communities.[142]
Languages
Main article: Jewish languages
Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed lashon ha-kodesh, "the holy
tongue"), the language in which most of the Hebrew scriptures (Tanakh) were
composed, and the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries. By the 5th century
BCE, Aramaic, a closely related tongue, joined Hebrew as the spoken language
in Judea.[143] By the 3rd century BCE, some Jews of the diaspora were
speaking Greek.[144] Others, such as in the Jewish communities of Babylonia, were
speaking Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of the Babylonian Talmud. These
languages were also used by the Jews of Israel at that time.[citation needed]
For centuries, Jews worldwide have spoken the local or dominant languages of the
regions they migrated to, often developing distinctive dialectal forms or branches that
became independent languages. Yiddish is the Judaeo-German language developed
by Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to Central Europe. Ladino is the Judaeo-Spanish
language developed by Sephardic Jews who migrated to the Iberian peninsula. Due
to many factors, including the impact of the Holocaust on European Jewry, the Jewish
exodus from Arab and Muslim countries, and widespread emigration from other Jewish
communities around the world, ancient and distinct Jewish languages of several
communities, including Judaeo-Georgian, Judaeo-Arabic, Judaeo-
Berber, Krymchak, Judaeo-Malayalam and many others, have largely fallen out of
use.[2]

Tombstone of the Maharal in the Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague. The tombstones are inscribed in Hebrew.

For over sixteen centuries Hebrew was used almost exclusively as a liturgical
language, and as the language in which most books had been written on Judaism,
with a few speaking only Hebrew on the Sabbath.[145] Hebrew was revived as a spoken
language by Eliezer ben Yehuda, who arrived in Palestine in 1881. It had not been
used as a mother tongue since Tannaic times.[143] Modern Hebrew is designated as the
"State language" of Israel.[146]
Despite efforts to revive Hebrew as the national language of the Jewish people,
knowledge of the language is not commonly possessed by Jews worldwide
and English has emerged as the lingua franca of the Jewish
diaspora. [147][148][149][150][151]
Although many Jews once had sufficient knowledge of Hebrew
to study the classic literature, and Jewish languages like Yiddish and Ladino were
commonly used as recently as the early 20th century, most Jews lack such knowledge
today and English has by and large superseded most Jewish vernaculars. The three
most commonly spoken languages among Jews today are Hebrew, English,
and Russian. Some Romance languages, particularly French and Spanish, are also
widely used.[2] Yiddish has been spoken by more Jews in history than any other
language,[152] but it is far less used today following the Holocaust and the adoption
of Modern Hebrew by the Zionist movement and the State of Israel. In some places,
the mother language of the Jewish community differs from that of the general
population or the dominant group. For example, in Quebec, the Ashkenazic majority
has adopted English, while the Sephardic minority uses French as its primary
language.[153][154][155] Similarly, South African Jews adopted English rather
than Afrikaans. Due to both Czarist and Soviet policies,
[156] [157][158]
Russian has
superseded Yiddish as the language of Russian Jews, but these policies have also
affected neighboring communities.[159] Today, Russian is the first language for many
Jewish communities in a number of Post-Soviet states, such
as Ukraine [160][161][162][163]
and Uzbekistan, [164][better source needed]
as well as for Ashkenazic Jews
in Azerbaijan,[165][166] Georgia,[167] and Tajikistan.[168][169] Although communities in North
Africa today are small and dwindling, Jews there had shifted from a multilingual group
to a monolingual one (or nearly so), speaking French in Algeria,[170] Morocco,[165] and the
city of Tunis,[171][172] while most North Africans continue to use Arabic or Berber as their
mother tongue.[citation needed]
Leadership
Main article: Jewish leadership
There is no single governing body for the Jewish community, nor a single authority
with responsibility for religious doctrine.[173] Instead, a variety of secular and religious
institutions at the local, national, and international levels lead various parts of the
Jewish community on a variety of issues.[174] Today, many countries have a Chief
Rabbi who serves as a representative of that country's Jewry. Although many Hassidic
Jews follow a certain hereditary Hasidic dynasty, there is no one commonly accepted
leader of all Hasidic Jews. Many Jews believe that the Messiah will act a unifying
leader for Jews and the entire world.[175]
Theories on ancient Jewish national identity

Bible manuscript in Hebrew, 14th century. Hebrew language and alphabet were the cornerstones of the
Jewish national identity in antiquity.

A number of modern scholars of nationalism support the existence of Jewish national

identity in antiquity. One of them is David Goodblatt,[176] who generally believes in the
existence of nationalism before the modern period. In his view, the Bible, the
parabiblical literature and the Jewish national history provide the base for a Jewish
collective identity. Although many of the ancient Jews were illiterate (as were their
neighbors), their national narrative was reinforced through public readings, a common
practice in the ancient eastern Mediterranean area. The Hebrew language also
constructed and preserved national identity. Although it was not spoken by most of the
Jews after the 5th century BCE, Goodblatt contends that:[177][178]
the mere presence of the language in spoken or written form could invoke the concept
of a Jewish national identity. Even if one knew no Hebrew or was illiterate, one could
recognize that a group of signs was in Hebrew script. … It was the language of the
Israelite ancestors, the national literature, and the national religion. As such it was
inseparable from the national identity. Indeed its mere presence in visual or aural
medium could invoke that identity.
It is believed that Jewish nationalist sentiment in antiquity was encouraged because
under foreign rule (Persians, Greeks, Romans) Jews were able to claim that they were
an ancient nation. This claim was based on the preservation and reverence of their
scriptures, the Hebrew language, the Temple and priesthood, and other traditions of
their ancestors.[179]

Demographics
Further information: Jewish population by country
Ethnic divisions
Main article: Jewish ethnic divisions

Ashkenazi Jews of late-19th-century Eastern Europe portrayed in Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom
Kippur (1878), by Maurycy Gottlieb

Sephardi Jewish couple from Sarajevo in traditional clothing. Photo taken in 1900.

Yemenite Jew blows shofar, 1947

Within the world's Jewish population there are distinct ethnic divisions, most of which
are primarily the result of geographic branching from an
originating Israelite population, and subsequent independent evolutions. An array of
Jewish communities was established by Jewish settlers in various places around
the Old World, often at great distances from one another, resulting in effective and
often long-term isolation. During the millennia of the Jewish diaspora the communities
would develop under the influence of their local
environments: political, cultural, natural, and populational. Today, manifestations of
these differences among the Jews can be observed in Jewish cultural expressions of
each community, including Jewish linguistic diversity, culinary preferences, liturgical
practices, religious interpretations, as well as degrees and sources of genetic
admixture.[180]
Jews are often identified as belonging to one of two major groups:
the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim. Ashkenazim, or "Germanics"
(Ashkenaz meaning "Germany" in Hebrew), are so named denoting their German
Jewish cultural and geographical origins, while Sephardim, or "Hispanics"
(Sefarad meaning "Spain/Hispania" or "Iberia" in Hebrew), are so named denoting
their Spanish/Portuguese Jewish cultural and geographic origins. The more common
term in Israel for many of those broadly called Sephardim, is Mizrahim (lit.
"Easterners", Mizrach being "East" in Hebrew), that is, in reference to the diverse
collection of Middle Eastern and North African Jews who are often, as a group, referred
to collectively as Sephardim (together with Sephardim proper) for liturgical reasons,
although Mizrahi Jewish groups and Sephardi Jews proper are ethnically distinct. [181]
Smaller groups include, but are not restricted to, Indian Jews such as the Bene
Israel, Bnei Menashe, Cochin Jews, and Bene Ephraim; the Romaniotes of Greece;
the Italian Jews ("Italkim" or "Bené Roma"); the Teimanim from Yemen;
various African Jews, including most numerously the Beta Israel of Ethiopia;
and Chinese Jews, most notably the Kaifeng Jews, as well as various other distinct
but now almost extinct communities.[182]
The divisions between all these groups are approximate and their boundaries are not
always clear. The Mizrahim for example, are a heterogeneous collection of North
African, Central Asian, Caucasian, and Middle Eastern Jewish communities that are
no closer related to each other than they are to any of the earlier mentioned Jewish
groups. In modern usage, however, the Mizrahim are sometimes termed Sephardi due
to similar styles of liturgy, despite independent development from Sephardim proper.
Thus, among Mizrahim there are Egyptian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Lebanese Jews, Kurdish
Jews, Moroccan Jews, Libyan Jews, Syrian Jews, Bukharian Jews, Mountain
Jews, Georgian Jews, Iranian Jews, Afghan Jews, and various others.
The Teimanim from Yemen are sometimes included, although their style of liturgy is
unique and they differ in respect to the admixture found among them to that found in
Mizrahim. In addition, there is a differentiation made between Sephardi migrants who
established themselves in the Middle East and North Africa after the expulsion of the
Jews from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s and the pre-existing Jewish communities
in those regions.[182]
Ashkenazi Jews represent the bulk of modern Jewry, with at least 70 percent of Jews
worldwide (and up to 90 percent prior to World War II and the Holocaust). As a result
of their emigration from Europe, Ashkenazim also represent the overwhelming
majority of Jews in the New World continents, in countries such as the United
States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and Brazil. In France, the immigration of Jews
from Algeria (Sephardim) has led them to outnumber the Ashkenazim. [182] Only
in Israel is the Jewish population representative of all groups, a melting
pot independent of each group's proportion within the overall world Jewish
population.[183]
Genetic studies
Main article: Genetic studies on Jews
Y DNA studies tend to imply a small number of founders in an old population whose
members parted and followed different migration paths.[184] In most Jewish populations,
these male line ancestors appear to have been mainly Middle Eastern. For example,
Ashkenazi Jews share more common paternal lineages with other Jewish and Middle
Eastern groups than with non-Jewish populations in areas where Jews lived in Eastern
Europe, Germany and the French Rhine Valley. This is consistent with Jewish
traditions in placing most Jewish paternal origins in the region of the Middle East.[185][186]
Conversely, the maternal lineages of Jewish populations, studied by looking
at mitochondrial DNA, are generally more heterogeneous.[187] Scholars such as Harry
Ostrer and Raphael Falk believe this indicates that many Jewish males found new
mates from European and other communities in the places where they migrated in the
diaspora after fleeing ancient Israel.[188] In contrast, Behar has found evidence that
about 40 percent of Ashkenazi Jews originate maternally from just four female
founders, who were of Middle Eastern origin. The populations of Sephardi and Mizrahi
Jewish communities "showed no evidence for a narrow founder effect." [187] Subsequent
studies carried out by Feder et al. confirmed the large portion of non-local maternal
origin among Ashkenazi Jews. Reflecting on their findings related to the maternal
origin of Ashkenazi Jews, the authors conclude "Clearly, the differences between Jews
and non-Jews are far larger than those observed among the Jewish communities.
Hence, differences between the Jewish communities can be overlooked when non-
Jews are included in the comparisons."[9][189][190] A study showed that 7% of Ashkenazi
Jews have the haplogroup G2c, which is mainly found in Pashtuns and on lower
scales all major Jewish groups, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. [191][192]
Studies of autosomal DNA, which look at the entire DNA mixture, have become
increasingly important as the technology develops. They show that Jewish populations
have tended to form relatively closely related groups in independent communities, with
most in a community sharing significant ancestry in common. [193] For Jewish
populations of the diaspora, the genetic composition of Ashkenazi, Sephardi,
and Mizrahi Jewish populations show a predominant amount of shared Middle Eastern
ancestry. According to Behar, the most parsimonious explanation for this shared
Middle Eastern ancestry is that it is "consistent with the historical formulation of the
Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelite residents of
the Levant" and "the dispersion of the people of ancient Israel throughout the Old
World".[194] North African, Italian and others of Iberian origin show variable frequencies
of admixture with non-Jewish historical host populations among the maternal lines. In
the case of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews (in particular Moroccan Jews), who are
closely related, the source of non-Jewish admixture is mainly southern European,
while Mizrahi Jews show evidence of admixture with other Middle Eastern populations.
Behar et al. have remarked on a close relationship between Ashkenazi Jews and
modern Italians.[194][195] A 2001 study found that Jews were more closely related to
groups of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks, and Armenians) than to their Arab
neighbors, whose genetic signature was found in geographic patterns reflective of
Islamic conquests.[185][196]
The studies also show that Sephardic Bnei Anusim (descendants of the "anusim" who
were forced to convert to Catholicism), which comprise up to 19.8 percent of the
population of today's Iberia (Spain and Portugal) and at least 10 percent of the
population of Ibero-America (Hispanic America and Brazil), have Sephardic
Jewish ancestry within the last few centuries. The Bene Israel and Cochin
Jews of India, Beta Israel of Ethiopia, and a portion of the Lemba people of Southern
Africa, despite more closely resembling the local populations of their native countries,
have also been thought to have some more remote ancient Jewish
ancestry.[197][194][198][190] Views on the Lemba have changed and genetic Y-DNA analyses
in the 2000s have established a partially Middle-Eastern origin for a portion of the male
Lemba population but have been unable to narrow this down further.[199][200]
Population centers
For a more comprehensive list, see List of urban areas by Jewish population.

New York City is home to 1.1 million Jews, making it the largest Jewish community outside of Israel.

Although historically, Jews have been found all over the world, in the decades since
World War II and the establishment of Israel, they have increasingly concentrated in a
small number of countries.[201][202] In 2013, the United States and Israel were collectively
home to more than 80 percent of the global Jewish population, each country having
approximately 41 percent of the world's Jews.[203]
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics there were 13,421,000 Jews
worldwide in 2009, roughly 0.19 percent of the world's population at the time.[204]
According to the 2007 estimates of The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, the
world's Jewish population is 13.2 million.[205] Adherents.com cites figures ranging from
12 to 18 million.[206] These statistics incorporate both practicing Jews affiliated
with synagogues and the Jewish community, and approximately 4.5 million
unaffiliated and secular Jews.[citation needed]
According to Sergio Della Pergola, a demographer of the Jewish population, in 2015
there were about 6.3 million Jews in Israel, 5.7 million in the United States, and 2.3
million in the rest of the world.[207]
Israel
Main article: Israeli Jews
Jewish people in Jerusalem, Israel

Israel, the Jewish nation-state, is the only country in which Jews make up a majority
of the citizens.[208] Israel was established as an independent democratic and Jewish
state on 14 May 1948.[209] Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset,[210] as of
2016, 14 members of the Knesset are Arab citizens of Israel (not including the Druze),
most representing Arab political parties. One of Israel's Supreme Court judges is also
an Arab citizen of Israel.[211]
Between 1948 and 1958, the Jewish population rose from 800,000 to two
million.[212] Currently, Jews account for 75.4 percent of the Israeli population, or
6 million people.[213][214] The early years of the State of Israel were marked by the mass
immigration of Holocaust survivors in the aftermath of the Holocaust and Jews fleeing
Arab lands.[215] Israel also has a large population of Ethiopian Jews, many of whom
were airlifted to Israel in the late 1980s and early 1990s. [216][better source needed] Between 1974
and 1979 nearly 227,258 immigrants arrived in Israel, about half being from the Soviet
Union.[217] This period also saw an increase in immigration to Israel from Western
Europe, Latin America, and North America.[218]
A trickle of immigrants from other communities has also arrived, including Indian
Jews and others, as well as some descendants of Ashkenazi Holocaust survivors who
had settled in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Australia, Chile,
and South Africa. Some Jews have emigrated from Israel elsewhere, because of
economic problems or disillusionment with political conditions and the
continuing Arab–Israeli conflict. Jewish Israeli emigrants are known as yordim.[219]
Diaspora (outside Israel)
Main article: Jewish diaspora
In this Rosh Hashana greeting card from the early 1900s, Russian Jews, packs in hand, gaze at the American
relatives beckoning them to the United States. Over two million Jews fled the pogroms of the Russian
Empire to the safety of the U.S. between 1881 and 1924.[220]

A menorah dominating the main square in Birobidzhan. An estimated 70,000 Jews live in Siberia.[221]

The waves of immigration to the United States and elsewhere at the turn of the 19th
century, the founding of Zionism and later events, including pogroms in Imperial
Russia (mostly within the Pale of Settlement in present-day Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus
and eastern Poland), the massacre of European Jewry during the Holocaust, and the
founding of the state of Israel, with the subsequent Jewish exodus from Arab lands,
all resulted in substantial shifts in the population centers of world Jewry by the end of
the 20th century.[222]
More than half of the Jews live in the Diaspora (see Population table). Currently, the
largest Jewish community outside Israel, and either the largest or second-largest
Jewish community in the world, is located in the United States, with 5.2 million to
6.4 million Jews by various estimates. Elsewhere in the Americas, there are also large
Jewish populations in Canada (315,000), Argentina (180,000–300,000),
and Brazil (196,000–600,000), and smaller populations
in Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia and several other countries
(see History of the Jews in Latin America).[223] According to a 2010 Pew Research
Center study, about 470,000 people of Jewish heritage live in Latin-America and
the Caribbean.[224] Demographers disagree on whether the United States has a larger
Jewish population than Israel, with many maintaining that Israel surpassed the United
States in Jewish population during the 2000s, while others maintain that the United
States still has the largest Jewish population in the world. Currently, a major national
Jewish population survey is planned to ascertain whether or not Israel has overtaken
the United States in Jewish population.[225]
The Jewish Zionist Youth Movement in Tallinn, Estonia on 1 September 1933.

Western Europe's largest Jewish community, and the third-largest Jewish community
in the world, can be found in France, home to between 483,000 and 500,000 Jews,
the majority of whom are immigrants or refugees from North African countries such
as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (or their descendants).[226] The United Kingdom has
a Jewish community of 292,000. In Eastern Europe, the exact figures are difficult to
establish. The number of Jews in Russia varies widely according to whether a source
uses census data (which requires a person to choose a single nationality among
choices that include "Russian" and "Jewish") or eligibility for immigration to Israel
(which requires that a person have one or more Jewish grandparents). According to
the latter criteria, the heads of the Russian Jewish community assert that up to 1.5
million Russians are eligible for aliyah.[227][228] In Germany, the 102,000 Jews registered
with the Jewish community are a slowly declining population, [229] despite the
immigration of tens of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union since the fall
of the Berlin Wall.[230] Thousands of Israelis also live in Germany, either permanently or
temporarily, for economic reasons.[231]
Prior to 1948, approximately 800,000 Jews were living in lands which now make up
the Arab world (excluding Israel). Of these, just under two-thirds lived in the French-
controlled Maghreb region, 15 to 20 percent in the Kingdom of Iraq, approximately
10 percent in the Kingdom of Egypt and approximately 7 percent in the Kingdom of
Yemen. A further 200,000 lived in Pahlavi Iran and the Republic of Turkey. Today,
around 26,000 Jews live in Arab countries[232] and around 30,000 in Iran and Turkey. A
small-scale exodus had begun in many countries in the early decades of the 20th
century, although the only substantial aliyah came
from Yemen and Syria. The exodus from Arab and Muslim countries took place
[233]

primarily from 1948. The first large-scale exoduses took place in the late 1940s and
early 1950s, primarily in Iraq, Yemen and Libya, with up to 90 percent of these
communities leaving within a few years. The peak of the exodus from Egypt occurred
in 1956. The exodus in the Maghreb countries peaked in the 1960s. Lebanon was the
only Arab country to see a temporary increase in its Jewish population during this
period, due to an influx of refugees from other Arab countries, although by the mid-
1970s the Jewish community of Lebanon had also dwindled. In the aftermath of the
exodus wave from Arab states, an additional migration of Iranian Jews peaked in the
1980s when around 80 percent of Iranian Jews left the country.[citation needed]
Outside Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and the rest of Asia, there are
significant Jewish populations in Australia (112,500) and South
Africa (70,000). There is also a 6,800-strong community in New Zealand.
[31] [234]

Demographic changes
Main article: Historical Jewish population comparisons
Assimilation
Main articles: Jewish assimilation and Interfaith marriage in Judaism
Since at least the time of the Ancient Greeks, a proportion of Jews have assimilated
into the wider non-Jewish society around them, by either choice or force, ceasing to
practice Judaism and losing their Jewish identity.[235] Assimilation took place in all
areas, and during all time periods,[235] with some Jewish communities, for example
the Kaifeng Jews of China, disappearing entirely.[236] The advent of the Jewish
Enlightenment of the 18th century (see Haskalah) and the subsequent emancipation
of the Jewish populations of Europe and America in the 19th century, accelerated the
situation, encouraging Jews to increasingly participate in, and become part of, secular
society. The result has been a growing trend of assimilation, as Jews marry non-
Jewish spouses and stop participating in the Jewish community.[237]
Rates of interreligious marriage vary widely: In the United States, it is just under
50 percent,[238] in the United Kingdom, around 53 percent; in France; around
30 percent,[239] and in Australia and Mexico, as low as 10 percent.[240] In the United
States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate with Jewish religious
practice.[241] The result is that most countries in the Diaspora have steady or slightly
declining religiously Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the
countries in which they live.[citation needed]
War and persecution
Further information: Persecution of Jews, Antisemitism, and Jewish military history

The Roman Emperor Nero sends Vespasian with an army to destroy the Jews, 69 CE.

The Jewish people and Judaism have experienced

various persecutions throughout Jewish history. During Late Antiquity and the Early
Middle Ages the Roman Empire (in its later phases known as the Byzantine Empire)
repeatedly repressed the Jewish population, first by ejecting them from their
homelands during the pagan Roman era and later by officially establishing them
as second-class citizens during the Christian Roman era.[242][243]
According to James Carroll, "Jews accounted for 10% of the total population of
the Roman Empire. By that ratio, if other factors had not intervened, there would be
200 million Jews in the world today, instead of something like 13 million."[244]
Later in medieval Western Europe, further persecutions of Jews by Christians
occurred, notably during the Crusades—when Jews all over Germany were
massacred—and a series of expulsions from the Kingdom of England, Germany,
France, and, in the largest expulsion of all, Spain and Portugal after
the Reconquista (the Catholic Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula), where both
unbaptized Sephardic Jews and the ruling Muslim Moors were expelled.[245][246]
In the Papal States, which existed until 1870, Jews were required to live only in
specified neighborhoods called ghettos.[247]
World War I poster showing a soldier cutting the bonds from a Jewish man, who says, "You have cut my
bonds and set me free—now let me help you set others free!"

Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Traditionally Jews and Christians
living in Muslim lands, known as dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religions and
administer their internal affairs, but they were subject to certain conditions.[248] They
had to pay the jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to the
Islamic state.[248] Dhimmis had an inferior status under Islamic rule. They had several
social and legal disabilities such as prohibitions against bearing arms or giving
testimony in courts in cases involving Muslims.[249] Many of the disabilities were highly
symbolic. The one described by Bernard Lewis as "most degrading"[250] was the
requirement of distinctive clothing, not found in the Quran or hadith but invented
in early medieval Baghdad; its enforcement was highly erratic.[250] On the other hand,
Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion,
and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession.[251]
Notable exceptions include the massacre of Jews and forcible conversion of some
Jews by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in Al-Andalus in the 12th century,[252] as well
as in Islamic Persia,[253] and the forced confinement of Moroccan Jews to walled
quarters known as mellahs beginning from the 15th century and especially in the early
19th century.[254] In modern times, it has become commonplace for standard antisemitic
themes to be conflated with anti-Zionist publications and pronouncements of Islamic
movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas, in the pronouncements of various
agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even in the newspapers and other
publications of Turkish Refah Partisi."[255][better source needed]
Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish
populations or sought to eliminate them entirely. Methods employed ranged
from expulsion to outright genocide; within nations, often the threat of these extreme
methods was sufficient to silence dissent. The history of antisemitism includes
the First Crusade which resulted in the massacre of Jews;[245] the Spanish
Inquisition (led by Tomás de Torquemada) and the Portuguese Inquisition, with their
persecution and autos-da-fé against the New
Christians and Marrano Jews;[256] the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres
in Ukraine;[257] the Pogroms backed by the Russian Tsars;[258] as well as expulsions
from Spain, Portugal, England, France, Germany, and other countries in which the
Jews had settled.[246] According to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of
Human Genetics, 19.8 percent of the modern Iberian population has Sephardic
Jewish ancestry,[259] indicating that the number of conversos may have been much
higher than originally thought.[260][261]

Jews in Minsk, 1941. Before World War II, some 40 percent of the population was Jewish. By the time the
Red Army retook the city on 3 July 1944, there were only a few Jewish survivors.

The persecution reached a peak in Nazi Germany's Final Solution, which led to the
Holocaust and the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jews.[262] Of the world's
16 million Jews in 1939, almost 40% were murdered in the Holocaust. [263] The
Holocaust—the state-led systematic persecution and genocide of European Jews
(and certain communities of North African Jews in European controlled North Africa)
and other minority groups of Europe during World War II by Germany and
its collaborators—remains the most notable modern-day persecution of Jews.[264] The
persecution and genocide were accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the
Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War
II.[265] Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave
labour until they died of exhaustion or disease.[266] Where the Third Reich conquered
new territory in Eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered
Jews and political opponents in mass shootings.[267] Jews and Roma were crammed
into ghettos before being transported hundreds of kilometres by freight train
to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were
murdered in gas chambers.[268] Virtually every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was
involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one
Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal nation."[269]
Migrations
Further information: Expulsions of Jews

Expulsions of Jews in Europe from 1100 to 1600

Throughout Jewish history, Jews have repeatedly been directly or indirectly expelled
from both their original homeland, the Land of Israel, and many of the areas in which
they have settled. This experience as refugees has shaped Jewish identity and
religious practice in many ways, and is thus a major element of Jewish history. [270] The
patriarch Abraham is described as a migrant to the land of Canaan from Ur of
the Chaldees[271] after an attempt on his life by King Nimrod.[272] His descendants,
the Children of Israel, in the Biblical story (whose historicity is uncertain) undertook the
Exodus (meaning "departure" or "exit" in Greek) from ancient Egypt, as recorded in
the Book of Exodus.[273]

Etching of the expulsion of the Jews from Frankfurt in 1614. The text says: "1380 persons old and young
were counted at the exit of the gate".

Jews fleeing pogroms, 1882

Centuries later, Assyrian policy was to deport and displace conquered peoples, and it
is estimated some 4,500,000 among captive populations suffered this dislocation over
three centuries of Assyrian rule.[274] With regard to Israel, Tiglath-Pileser III claims he
deported 80% of the population of Lower Galilee, some 13,520 people.[275] Some
27,000 Israelites, 20 to 25% of the population of the Kingdom of Israel, were described
as being deported by Sargon II, and were replaced by other deported populations and
sent into permanent exile by Assyria, initially to the Upper Mesopotamian provinces of
the Assyrian Empire.[276][277] Between 10,000 and 80,000 people from the Kingdom of
Judah were similarly exiled by Babylonia,[274] but these people were then returned
to Judea by Cyrus the Great of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.[278]
Many Jews were exiled again by the Roman Empire.[279] The 2,000 year dispersion of
the Jewish diaspora beginning under the Roman Empire,[citation needed] as Jews were
spread throughout the Roman world and, driven from land to land, [citation needed] settled
wherever they could live freely enough to practice their religion. Over the course of the
diaspora the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia[280] to the Iberian
Peninsula[281] to Poland[282] to the United States[283] and, as a result of Zionism, back
to Israel.[284]
There were also many expulsions of Jews during the Middle Ages and Enlightenment
in Europe, including: 1290, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England, see the (Statute
of Jewry); in 1396, 100,000 from France; in 1421, thousands were expelled from
Austria. Many of these Jews settled in East-Central Europe, especially
Poland.[285] Following the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, the Spanish population of around
200,000 Sephardic Jews were expelled by the Spanish crown and Catholic church,
followed by expulsions in 1493 in Sicily (37,000 Jews) and Portugal in 1496. The
expelled Jews fled mainly to the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and North Africa,
others migrating to Southern Europe and the Middle East.[286]
During the 19th century, France's policies of equal citizenship regardless of religion
led to the immigration of Jews (especially from Eastern and Central Europe). [287] This
contributed to the arrival of millions of Jews in the New World. Over two million Eastern
European Jews arrived in the United States from 1880 to 1925.[288]
In summary, the pogroms in Eastern Europe,[258] the rise of modern antisemitism,[289] the
Holocaust,[290] as well as the rise of Arab nationalism,[291] all served to fuel the
movements and migrations of huge segments of Jewry from land to land and continent
to continent until they arrived back in large numbers at their original historical
homeland in Israel.[284]
In the latest phase of migrations, the Islamic Revolution of Iran caused many Iranian
Jews to flee Iran. Most found refuge in the US (particularly Los Angeles, California,
and Long Island, New York) and Israel. Smaller communities of Persian Jews exist in
Canada and Western Europe.[292] Similarly, when the Soviet Union collapsed, many of
the Jews in the affected territory (who had been refuseniks) were suddenly allowed to
leave. This produced a wave of migration to Israel in the early 1990s.[219]
Growth

Praying at the Western Wall

Israel is the only country with a Jewish population that is consistently growing
through natural population growth, although the Jewish populations of other countries,
in Europe and North America, have recently increased through immigration. In the
Diaspora, in almost every country the Jewish population in general is either declining
or steady, but Orthodox and Haredi Jewish communities, whose members often
shun birth control for religious reasons, have experienced rapid population growth. [293]
Orthodox and Conservative Judaism discourage proselytism to non-Jews, but many
Jewish groups have tried to reach out to the assimilated Jewish communities of the
Diaspora in order for them to reconnect to their Jewish roots. Additionally, while in
principle Reform Judaism favors seeking new members for the faith, this position has
not translated into active proselytism, instead taking the form of an effort to reach out
to non-Jewish spouses of intermarried couples.[294]
There is also a trend of Orthodox movements reaching out to secular Jews in order to
give them a stronger Jewish identity so there is less chance of intermarriage. As a
result of the efforts by these and other Jewish groups over the past 25 years, there
has been a trend (known as the Baal teshuva movement) for secular Jews to become
more religiously observant, though the demographic implications of the trend are
unknown.[295] Additionally, there is also a growing rate of conversion to Jews by
Choice of gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming
Jews.[296]

Contributions
Jews have made many contributions to humanity in a broad and diverse range of
fields, including the sciences, arts, politics, and business.[297] For example, over
20 percent[298][299][300][301][302][303] of Nobel Prize laureates have been of Jewish descent,
with multiple winners in each category.[304]