The People of Israel
There are about 7.5 million Israelis, not including the Palestinians in the territories, in Israel since September 2009. While Israel is known internationally as “The Jewish State” or “The state of the Jewish” one is surprised to learn that only 75.4% of the population is actually Jewish. 20.6 percent are Arabs with the remaining 4% classified as “others”.
In the Western world, Jews are often considered “white” or “European”. It is because the huge preponderance of Jews in the majority of these countries are of Ashkenazi origin. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew word for Germany, although it has come to mean non-Mediterranean European Jews. Unlike Western countries, they do not dominate the Ashkenazi Jewish population in Israel. In fact, until the mass immigration of Jews from the previous Soviet Union in the 1990s, Ashkenazi Jews were a minority in Israel. These days they are the type called ”Sephardim”.
Sephardi is the Hebrew word for Spain. This word is frequently misguidedly used to categorize all non-Ashkenazi Jews; many of them have no Spanish tradition. Debarred from Spain in 1492, a lot of Sephardic Jews made their path to the Ottoman Empire. Sephardic Jews mixed with other Jewish populations that were there, allocating their culture with them strongly. These other communities are called “Eidot HaMizrach” or “Eastern Jews.”
Another group with roots in ancient times are the Karites, who separated from mainstream Judaism over 1000 years ago and even though their numbers have dwindled over the years, there are still a few communities here in Israel. In more contemporary times, Israel has received more than 1 million Jews from the former Soviet Union, although many of them are not technically Jewish according to Jewish custom.
Christians represent 2.5% of the total population of Israel. Most are Christian Arabs. Most of them live in the north to the center of Nazareth. One of the most interesting things is that the Armenians who assert to be the first nation as a nation to switch to Christianity in three hundred and first they manage one of the four quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Muslims are about 18% of the population of Israel. While 99.9% of them are Sunni Muslims, there is also a number of motivating minority groups. The Bedouin in Israel has a population of approximately 170,000. Traditionally, they continued a nomadic existence to move with their herds and live in tents, but today the vast majority live in permanent housing. There are seven recognized Bedouin towns in the south of the country, although many are unknown.
Samaritans declare descent from remnants of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who remained in the country after the Assyrian assault, 2700 years ago, although the Jewish sources say differently. Today the number is only about 700 people in two communities, one near Nablus in the West Bank and one in the Israeli town of Holon.
Israel has in recent years a number of African refugees, particularly in Sudan, members of the South Lebanon Army and their families who fled here after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and 66 Vietnamese “Boat People “.
Incoming search terms:
- israel percent ashkenazi jews
- the people in israel