More than any other ethnic minority, Jews have faced intense persecution that caused them to scatter around the world in search of safety. In the modern Jewish diaspora most Jewish people have found refuge in just two countries, but smaller Jewish communities live in most countries, making significant cultural contributions. 

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• Jewish people have retained their traditions and used effective strategies to survive a history of oppression and forced migration.
• 15.7 million Jews are living in the world today, mostly in the United States and Israel.
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Who Are the Jews?

The term “Jew” can apply to an ethnic group or a religion. Traditionally, if a person’s mother was Jewish, they can be considered Jewish as well. Today, many people still consider themselves Jewish even if that heritage comes only through the father’s line. Millions of people are ethnically Jewish but not particularly religious. They may still choose to observe some customs and holidays out of tradition. 

Three Branches of the Jewish Religion

Religiously observant Jews usually align with one of three main approaches to the religion: 

• Orthodox Jews strictly follow Jewish religious traditions like eating kosher foods, not working on the Sabbath, and supporting traditional marriage and patriarchal leadership in the religious community. 
• Conservative Jews keep some of the ancient traditions but have modernized others. Since the 1980s they have had female rabbis and since 2006 they have begun to ordain LGBTQ+ rabbis.
• Reform Jews are the most liberal in their interpretation of Jewish traditions. They see them as non-binding and are broadly supportive of interfaith families and LGBTQ+ people. 

Ancient Jewish History

Jewish traditional history says the nation started with God’s call to Abram (Abraham) to leave Mesopotamia for the “Promised Land” of Canaan (modern Israel/Palestine). His descendants were later enslaved in Egypt, escaped and conquered Canaan, and developed into a theocratic kingdom. At various times they were conquered and deported by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Romans. Throughout this time, Jewish people managed to maintain their identity and their hope in the promise of a future Messiah who would one day rule the world from Jerusalem. 

Medieval Jewish History

Christianity started as a sect of Judaism and eventually took over the Roman Empire and the European and Mediterranean successor states to it. In the Medieval era, Jews had culturally distinct beliefs that emphasized avoiding ritually “unclean” people, animals, and foods, did not participate in Christian holidays, did not want to intermarry with Gentiles, and spoke variations of Hebrew to one another. Christians scapegoated them for the murder of Jesus (though it was ordered and carried out by the Romans), and spread false rumors about them accusing them of abominable acts. Strapped for money and pressured by their own discontented citizens, some medieval states stood by while mobs attacked the Jews and stole their property, or sanctioned official “pogroms” in which the military was ordered to do so. 

Jewish Survival Strategies

Persecution caused the Jews to flee from country to country. One survival strategy families used was to get each of their children well-educated in a different professional career or trade. Education was a kind of “non-portable” wealth that could help the family land on their feet when they were forced to start over in a new place. Many of them picked up more than one language in their travels and found opportunities in trade and government where language interpreters were necessary. 

The Jews also learned to survive by supporting one another as a community. For example, they bought from one another to help out Jewish businesses and gave each other loans on favorable terms. This helped their community prosper, but also aroused the jealousy and suspicion of gentiles.

The Holocaust

Persecution of the Jews reached its zenith in World War II, when Nazi Germany scapegoated them for the country’s suffering during the Great Depression and under the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles that ended the previous world war. Failing to get other countries to accept large numbers of Jewish refugees, the Nazis systematically exterminated 6 million of them from the countries they occupied during the war. 

Modern Israel

European and American guilt over the Holocaust led them to support the aspirations of the Zionist movement for a Jewish state in Palestine, which was a British colony at the time. Israel achieved independence in 1948 and immediately went to war with the Palestinians. Heavily armed and trained by the United States and other Western countries, Israel has dominated the battlefield and sometimes acquired new territories in wars in 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, and 2024.

Israel today has 100 or more nuclear weapons, but its monopoly on them in the region is being threatened by Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The complex Middle East conflict is unquestionably the most dangerous flashpoint in the world today. This is one of the reasons more than half the world’s Jews have chosen not to immigrate to Israel.

Here are the 13 countries with the largest number of Jewish people today.

13. Mexico: 40,000

• Claudia Sheinbaum was elected President of Mexico in 2024. She is the country’s first female president, and first Jewish one. 
• Famous Mexican Jews: Isaac Chertovriski, Claudia Sheinbaum 

12. Hungary: 46,000

• Jews have lived in Hungary for over 1,000 years. Today Budapest has one of the largest Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. 
• Famous Hungarian Jews: Theodor Herzl, Imre Kertész

11. South Africa: 50,000

• South African Jews were active in the anti-apartheid movement. 
• Most of the Jewish population lives in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
• Famous South African Jews: Nadine Gordimer, Joe Slovo

10. Brazil: 90,500

• Portuguese Jews first came to Brazil in the 16th century trying to escape the Inquisition.
• Famous Brazilian Jews: Silvio Santos, Clarice Lispector

9. Australia: 117,000

• Jews first came to Australia when Britain was deporting convicts there in the 18th century. 
• Famous Australian Jews: Nicole Kidman, Simon Cowell, Margaret Court

8. Germany: 125,000

• Germany’s Jewish population is growing as the country has a strong economy, stable government, and postwar norms of tolerance and diversity. 
• Famous German Jews: Albert Einstein (immigrated to the U.S.), Felix Mendelssohn, Karl Marx

7. Russia: 132,000

• During the Cold War, the United States pressured the Soviet Union to allow persecuted Jews to immigrate. About 1.5 million were allowed to emigrate, mainly to the United States, Israel, and Germany.
• Isaac Babel, Boris Pasternak, Leo Trosky

6. Argentina: 171,000

• Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America.
• Famous Argentine Jews: Mauricio Macri, Norma Aleandro

5. United Kingdom: 312,000

• Jews lived in Britain from the 11th-13th centuries before being expelled in 1290. They were readmitted in the 17th century when Oliver Cromwell was in charge. 
• Famous British Jews: Benjamin Disraeli, Helen Mirren, Sacha Baron Cohen 

4. Canada: 398,000

• The Jewish population increased greatly with an influx of Eastern European immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. 
• Famous Canadian Jews: Leonard Cohen, William Shatner

3. France: 500,000

• The largest Jewish population in Europe
• Famous French Jews: Sarah Bernhardt, Marcel Proust

2. Israel: 7,208,000

• About 73.6% of Israel’s population is Jewish. Most of the rest are Arabs who are citizens of Israel. 
• Famous Israeli Jews: Golda Meir, Shimon Perez, Itzhak Perlman, Gal Gadot

1. United States: 7,500,000

• The United States has the largest Jewish population of any country, which makes up about 2.4% of the total population 
• Jewish people in the U.S. are twice as likely to have a college education. 
• Tens of millions of evangelical Christians believe that the return of the Jews to Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The country has consistently been a strong supporter of Israel no matter which party was in power. 
• Famous American Jews: Steven Spielberg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mark Zukerberg

 

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