Israel's Jewish population passes 6 million mark [View all]

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Source: The Guardian

Israel's Jewish population has passed the symbolically significant 6 million mark for the first time – equivalent to the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Figures released by the central bureau of statistics this week show the total population of Israel at 7.98 million, 75.4% of whom are Jewish. Just over 20% are Arab and 4% are defined as "other".

"It's a great joy to know there are more than 6 million Jews in Israel," said Dina Porat, chief historian of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum and head of the Kantor centre for the study of contemporary European Jewry.

"But worldwide we are still in the same place. Before the Holocaust there were around 18 million Jews in the world; after it, a bit more than 13 million. We are still at a bit more than 13 million. But now Israel's Jewish population is close to half the Jewish nation worldwide. It puts Israel in a very central place. We are almost the only Jewish community that is growing."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/01/israel-jewish-population-six-million