Europe's Jewish Population Has Dropped 60% In Last 50 Years

[appalachiablue]

Source: The Guardian

Europe has lost almost 60% of its Jewish population over the past 50 years, mainly as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union after which many Jews left eastern Europe as borders opened, a study shows.

Only about 9% of the global Jewish population now lives in Europe, compared with nearly 90% in the late 19th century – but similar to the proportion 1,000 years ago. In total, an estimated 1.3 million Jews live in Europe in 2020, about 0.1% of the continent’s population. Two-thirds of them live in France, the UK and Germany.

The figures are in a report produced by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, which attempts to give a comprehensive picture of Jewish populations in European countries. “Jews have not only been an integral part of European history and culture but are actually one of its oldest and original component groups,” says the report, titled Jews in Europe at the Turn of the Millennium.

“However, throughout history, the inherent weakness of a landless and powerless minority vis-a-vis territorially based societies and their constituted powers often put the Jewish people in a condition of dependency and instability, and translated into powerful ups and downs in the Jewish presence.” The murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust reduced the global population to around 11 million, “radically disrupt[ing] what had been up to that moment the continuous build-up and transformation of European Jewry.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/25/europes-jewish-population-has-dropped-60-in-last-50-years

---

In 1880, 88% of the world’s Jews lived in Europe. By 1945, the number had fallen to 35%, then to 26% in 1970, and to 9% in 2020. The most decline took place in eastern Europe, where the number of the global total fell from 26% in 1945, to 2% in 2020.

In later 20th c. decades, “opening of the doors of the Soviet Union” resulted in more than 1.8 million Jews leaving eastern Europe between 1969 and 2020, causing “a drastic shift in the Jewish population’s centre of gravity from the east to the west of the continent”.

[Binkie The Clown]

1. I wonder how they account for situations like this:

I know two separate couples where the husband has Jewish ancestry, and a Jewish surname, but both have married non-Jews and self-identify as Christian in one case, and atheist in the other. Are they "Jewish?" Their children are all less than 25% Jewish genetically, because in both cases there are non-Jewish grandparents as well. The children (now adults), as it turned out, all self-identify as atheist, even the children of the Christian couple. So to what extent does the fact that they still have a Jewish surname make them "Jewish"?

Doesn't there come a time when branding people and sticking labels on them just makes no sense? People are people. Why can't we just accept them for who they are, without the need to label them?

[appalachiablue]

2. Branding and labelling people like products is negative

and celebrating heritage is fine, it's up to people.

[reACTIONary]

5. I don't know, but I have been told...

... that inclusion in the Jewish population is traditionally matrilineal. What counts is your mother's heritage. We should also remember that Jewishness is a cultural trait, not biological. There is no such thing as being 25% Jewish.

[melm00se]

14. you were told correctly

Judaism follows the mother's lineage

[EllieBC]

9. It depends.

In a reform congregation they’d be welcomed I believe. Israel would allow the father to make aliyah under the right of return and bring his wife and children. They would all be allowed to be citizens but only the father would be counted as Jewish.

In Jewish circles we often discuss this topic because it is relevant to us.

[moriah]

13. May I ask if the "only the father" would be unless adult conversion occurred?

I am not familiar with how the State of Israel handles their policies regarding trying to ensure no one is persecuted because of their heritage, and how much that differs from religious requirements.

I do know several women who weren't Jewish, married Jewish men, and converted before marriage was official so that their children would not have to undergo a conversion process. Neither to my knowledge are looking to do more than visit Israel, nor are their kids, but I have to admit the one that lives down the street from me has really leaned into allowing her nurturing side to show and passing it off as "You know I have to feed you" and such (she never lived with her in-laws, that I know of at least, but she's had two sets so definitely had two wonderful Jewish women to influence her).

Her daughter's son is going to a Catholic school for education and then Hebrew school twice a week in the evenings, as her daughter married a person whose family was devoutly Catholic and that was the compromise they made to satisfy both sets of in-laws. Hey, kid's gonna learn it all!

[EllieBC]

23. Oh yeah that's an easy question!

Thanks for asking! Judaism is transmitted matrilineally. If the mom had converted before the kids were born they would be counted as Jews by the government as well. Israel follows the most stringent interpretation for purposes of “who is a Jew” which affects issues such as marriages. To get married in Israel under Jewish auspices, both parties must be Jewish. The secular side comes in with that they extend citizenship to the non Jewish spouse and children as part of the Jewish spouse seeking citizenship.

As for why people convert before marriage outside of Israel it’s simply because they want to make certain their children will always be accepted without needing conversion themselves because it’s a long and difficult process.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Not surprising.

I am sure there are many who celebrate this news, and barring another genocide, they may finally be on the way to eliminating Jews. The goal for more than one group of people.

[maxsolomon]

17. They're not on the way to eliminating Judaism from the US.

nt

[Behind the Aegis]

19. yet

[maxsolomon]

20. Do you have a timeline for the elimination of Judaism from the US?

Are either of us going to live to see this? I have maybe 30 years left.

[Behind the Aegis]

21. Do you have one for the continuation of Judaism from the US?

Given my comments were originally about Europe, given that was the topic, when you changed the subject, I merely expressed an opinion. Opinion.

[maxsolomon]

22. You are pessimistic about the topic.

Sorry I changed the topic.

[Behind the Aegis]

28. Yes, I am pessimistic when it comes to the safety and well-being of the Jewish people. n/t

[marie999]

4. The Jewish religion is passed to the children through their mothers.

If non Jewish mothers do not convert then the children are not Jewish but can convert to Judaism but I don't know at what age. Hitler considered everyone was Jewish whose ancestry was Jewish.

[reACTIONary]

6. One of the neighborhood family...

... is of mixed heritage. The father is Jewish, mother is Christian. Their son has the fathers last name and is raised and identifies as Jewish, the daughter has the mothers last name and is raised and identifies as Christian.

Over all, they are basically secular, so I don't know how deep these identifications really are - or to what extent they have been formalized through conversion or ritual.

[LisaL]

15. In Europe being Jewish is not considered a religion but an ethnicity.

NT

[Raftergirl]

16. If one is a Reform Jew

your children will be considered Jewish even if the parent who is Jewish is the father, as long as child participates in life cycle Jewish rituals (a bris, baby naming ceremony for child’s Hebrew name, bar/bat Mitzvah, and/or Confirmation. There is no need for formal conversion.

For Conservative/Orthodox Jews taking your baby to a Mikvah is all that is needed for conversion. .

https://www.mayyimhayyim.org/using-the-mikveh/conversion-affirmation/conversion-for-a-child/


I am a Reform Jew, my husband is not and we adopted our child from Korea.

We didn’t do the Mikvah or any of the life cycle stuff, nor have we ever belong to a synagogue.

But, we raised our kid as Jewish (we do all the traditional holidays) and we and he considers himself Jewish, as does the rest of my extended family. We don’t really care if other people don’t think he is. Because we didn’t do a Mikvah conversion.

There are Jewish people who don’t think Reform Jews are Jewish.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. I can explain the drop in percentage via my family.

My great grandfather was murdered by drunken Cossacks in Lithuania. Consequently, many of his family immigrated to Pennsylvania in a hurry. The ones who remained in Lithuania were murdered by the Nazis and the non-Jewish Lithuanians.

That'll deplete a population in a hurry.

[EllieBC]

8. Quebec has welcomed many Jews escaping antisemitism in France

over the last 10 years. Of course no one dares speak of the antisemitism.

[appalachiablue]

10. Glad to know that. France has some serious issues; I watched

a program a several years ago with a French intellectual who commented that she could see a time when there were no Jews in Europe. That concerned me, but after reading more I understand why she said it.

[roamer65]

11. Quebec wants French speakers.

Anglophone versus Francophone battle.

The Parti Québécois and the CAQ especially desire francophone immigration.

[EllieBC]

24. Of course they do. That doesn't change that France is not a

great place for Jews anymore.

[roamer65]

27. Correct.

Continental Europe isn’t anymore, in general.

However, the Francophone immigration benefits the PQ and CAQ.

Quebec is a better place for them than France.

[Steelrolled]

29. When was continental Europe last a good place for Jews?

Seems like its been a long while.

[roamer65]

30. Not since Germany's 1932 election, that's for damn sure.

[backroadblast]

12. religion is on it's way out

all religions, not just Judaism.

thank god (LOL)

[maxsolomon]

18. Welcome to DU.

You're sure to make friends with that post.

[EllieBC]

25. Welcome to DU. What does your post have to do with the topic?

Also l checked there are plenty of Muslims and Hindus so I don’t think religion is on its way out. Unless you just mean religions you aren’t a fan of.

[backroadblast]

26. i thought it relevant to the topic

i believe that religions are on the decline overall, but not any brand in particular.
that may have something to do with declining numbers.....