Jews:; The Smallest Religious Population In the World

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

                         Sephardi Jews make up roughly 16% to 25% of the global Jewish population of 0.02%. Exact numbers vary based on how strictly Sephardi ancestry is defined, but demographic estimates generally place the worldwide Sephardic population between 1.5 million and 3.5 million people.                    

               Canadian Ashkenazis in Synagogue 

                                               
                                   Ashkenazi Jews 

The remaining global Jewish population is predominantly Ashkenazi (originating from Central and Eastern Europe), alongside smaller demographic groups like Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East.

      Family of Jews from Iraq (so are Mizrahi Jews) 

Mizrahi Jews make up roughly 15% to 20% of the global Jewish population. Out of the estimated 16 million Jewish people worldwide, Mizrahim represent roughly 3 million individuals. The vast majority of Mizrahi Jews live in Israel, where they make up the largest Jewish ethnic group.

                                        ISRAEL

Israel's population stands at roughly 10.2 million people. The demographic makeup is primarily divided among Jewish (73.5%), Arab (21.1%), and other groups including non-Arab Christians and those without religious classification (5.4%). The country is characterized by a relatively high fertility rate and a young, growing population compared to most developed nations.

• Mizrahim: Often referred to as Eastern Jews, they trace their ancestry to communities across the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia (e.g., Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Yemen). They are the largest community in Israel today.
• Sephardic Jews: Originally from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), their descendants eventually settled across the Mediterranean Basin and the Middle East. In Israel, demographic records often group Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews together because of shared cultural and religious traditions.
• Ashkenazi Jews: Comprising about 31% to 32% of the population, they trace their roots to Central and Eastern Europe.
• Other Communities: This includes Ethiopian Jews (about 3%), immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and a growing population of mixed heritage.

Demographic studies by organizations like the Pew Research Center highlight that Jewish identity in Israel is increasingly shaped by intermixing between these backgrounds across subsequent generations.

Jewish people account for approximately 0.2% of the world's population. Globally, there are an estimated 15 to 16 million Jews, with nearly 85% of this population concentrated in just two countries: Israel and the United States.  

                                             USA

Ashkenazi Jews make up roughly 1.6% to 1.8% of the total U.S. population, representing about two-thirds of the ~7.5 million Jewish Americans. The remaining fraction is composed of Sephardic, Mizrahi, or multiracial Jewish backgrounds.

Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews make up about 10% of the American Jewish adult population (roughly 591,000 people). Because the American Jewish population comprises about 2.4% of the total U.S. population, Sephardic Jews represent roughly 0.24% of all Americans.

We're not even 1 % of the world.  We're a very small, very special group.  Somehow, we always rise to the top, like cream in a milk bottle.  

Pre-Holocaust Peak: In 1939, the Jewish population peaked at roughly 16.6 million, which accounted for about 0.7% of the global population at the time. 

Current Trends: While the overall population has risen by about 6% in recent years (largely driven by growth in Israel), it is still slightly below its pre-Holocaust numbers when we lost 6 million.

Another challenge in measuring Jewish populations is that Jews are minorities in countries outside Israel, and their populations are often too small to measure reliably with surveys. (Jews account for less than 0.01% of the population in most of the world’s countries and territories.) Furthermore, in some national censuses that measure religion, “Jewish” is not a response option.

I take it back being the smallest population;  Vatican City is the country with the smallest population in the world, home to roughly 800 to 900 permanent residents. Geographically and demographically, Israel is vastly larger, fitting firmly into the medium-sized global tier with a population exceeding 10 million people.  However, not all Israelis are Jewish!  But, we have our own state once again;  Israel.  

All this matters now during election time in the USA.  They are showing through Pew and others that practically no one is winning if they are seen as an Israel  connected person.  The example is New York. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten says latest polls show a significant drop in net favourability for Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among Americans. Between 2022 and 2026, the net favourability of Israel amongst men under the age of 50 dropped by 22 points, going from -3 in 2022 to -47 in 2026  The research doesn't reflect the population sizes in giving the news of certain groups defending Israel or others not. We were shown how even Jews were not voting for Jews running in  the races, changing from several months ago. The war in Lebanon has affected attitudes changed by lack of knowledge, for one thing. I'm hoping  to see some knowledgeable Jews about the situation who still back Israel, and I'm not alone, but evidently Pew has ignored us.  

So what did we learn?  The makeup of Jewish people in Israel is more Middle Eastern and the makeup of Jewish people in the USA is more Ashkenazi (German-Jews) showing how one views conditions differently than the other.  Of course the Israelis are doing most of the fighting, too, for Israel which means they are the IDF.  

Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv. His mother, Tzila Segal, was born in Petah Tikva in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem—her family had migrated from Minneapolis in 1911, having relocated there from Lithuania in the 1870s—and studied law at Gray's Inn, London.    His father, Warsaw-born Benzion Netanyahu (né Mileikowsky), was a historian specializing in the Jewish Golden Age of Spain. His paternal grandfather, Nathan Mileikowsky, was a rabbi and Zionist writer. When Netanyahu's father immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, he adopted a Hebrew surname of "Netanyahu", meaning "God has given." While his family is predominantly Ashkenazi, he has said that a DNA test revealed some Sephardic ancestry. He claims descent from the Vilna Gaon.  I personally connect DNA with his mother.  

Israel's 37th government, Thirty-seventh government of Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thirty-seventh government of Israel, reflects the country's diverse demographics, with a substantial portion of cabinet ministers and coalition members being of Mizrahi or Sephardi descent, though the highest office of Prime Minister has historically been held exclusively by Ashkenazi Jews. 

Location	Estimated Population	% of Global Total
Israel	~7.2 to 7.7 million	Jews make up approximately 73.2% of the population of Israel.  Israel created for Jews;  a Jewish nation.
United States	~6.3 million	Jewish people make up approximately 2.4% of the U.S. adult population (or roughly 2% of the total U.S. population). This amounts to about 7.5 million people,
France	~438,500	Jews make up 0.7% to 0.9% of the country's total population. This percentage represents between 480,000 and 561,000 individuals,
Canada	~350,000 to 400,000	Jews make up approximately 0.9% to 1.2% of Canada's population. According to Statistics Canada, approximately 335,295 people (0.9% of the population) reported their religion as Jewish in the 2021 census.
United   Kingdom	~300,000 to 313,000	The Jewish population in the United Kingdom makes up approximately 0.4% to 0.5% of the total national population. This translates to a "core" Jewish population of roughly 270,000 to 320,000 individuals, making the UK home to the fifth-largest Jewish community globally.