Land of Israel: Population
POPULATIONthe jewish populationGrowth by AliyahIn 1882 the Jewish population of Ereẓ Israel numbered some 24 000 roughly 5% of the total and about 0.3% of the world Jewish population. Since then there has been an almost continuous flow of aliyah which brought in roughly 3 467 000 persons over a period of 120 years and created Israel's Jewish population of 5 094 200 persons at the end of 2002 – 76.8% of the total of 6 631 100.
POPULATIONthe jewish populationGrowth by AliyahIn 1882 the Jewish population of Ereẓ Israel numbered some 24,000, roughly 5% of the total, and about 0.3% of the world Jewish population. Since then there has been an almost continuous flow of aliyah, which brought in roughly 3,467,000 persons over a period of 120 years and created Israel's Jewish population of 5,094,200 persons at the end of 2002 – 76.8% of the total of 6,631,100. Source for information on Land of Israel: Population: Encyclopaedia Judaica dictionary.
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POPULATION

the jewish population

Growth by Aliyah

In 1882 the Jewish population of Ereẓ Israel numbered some 24,000, roughly 5% of the total, and about 0.3% of the world Jewish population. Since then there has been an almost continuous flow of aliyah, which brought in roughly 3,467,000 persons over a period of 120 years and created Israel's Jewish population of 5,094,200 persons at the end of 2002 – 76.8% of the total of 6,631,100. At the end of 2003 the total population reached 6,748,000, with the lowest increase of 117,000 persons (1.8%) in one year since 1990. In the year 2000 the population increase was 2.2%; in 2001, 2.2%; and in 2002, 1.9%. The reason for this decline was the emigration of olim (immigrants).

This large movement may be divided into three distinct periods. The first (a) was during the last years of the Ottoman regime, when immigration totaled 55,000 to 70,000. The average in the years of the First Aliyah (1882–1904) was about 1,000 a year, rising in 1904–14, the period of the Second Aliyah, to about 3,000 a year. During 1882–1914, a little less than 3% of the enormous numbers of Jews who migrated overseas, mainly from Eastern Europe, went to Ereẓ Israel. The second (b) was during the British Mandatory regime (1919–48), when aliyah totaled about 485,000, some 16,000 per year on the average. The peaks were in 1925 (34,000 – 285 immigrants per 1,000 of the country's Jewish population) and 1935 (66,000 – 206 per 1,000). During this period, aliyah constituted some 30% of the total Jewish overseas migration. The third period (c) was after the establishment of the State of Israel, when over 2,930,000 went to the new state between May 1948 and the end of 2002, or some 55,000 per year. Of these, some 687,000 immigrated between 1948 and 1951, the peak being in 1949, when about 240,000 arrived – about 266 per 1,000 of the Jewish population. A second great wave of immigration took place in the 1990s, mostly from the former Soviet Union (see below).

There were considerable fluctuations. Immigration tended, on the whole, to increase from period (a) to (b) and to (c), but within each period the curve of immigration was characterized by a wave-like rise and fall. (For figures see *Israel, State of: Aliyah and Absorption.) Waves in immigration were largely due to the interplay of a variety of changing political, economic, social, and ideological factors in the Land of Israel and the various countries of the Diaspora: the influence of Zionism, religion, ḥalutziyyut, socialist ideas, and the attraction of the independent Jewish state; the work of Jewish institutions in propagating ideologies, organizing aliyah, and helping the newcomers; policies regarding emigration in general, and Jewish emigration in particular, in various countries; changing immigration and absorption policies, as well as political and economic conditions, in the land of Israel and in other countries absorbing Jewish immigration. In the later Ottoman period, immigrants came from many countries, but in the Mandatory period and since the achievement of independence, practically every Jewish community in the Diaspora was represented. While some attraction to Israel seemed to be generally felt throughout the Jewish world, the intensity of participation, as measured by the yearly rates of immigration to Israel per 1,000 Jewish inhabitants of each country, varied considerably between different parts of the world and for each region in different periods. The table on the following page shows the immigration from each of the main Diaspora regions in the various periods between 1919 and 2003, as well as the percentage of immigration from the two regions (Asia and Africa; Europe and America) in each period.

From the end of 1989 a large wave of immigration began arriving in Israel (mostly from the states of the former U.S.S.R.). Within three years (1990–1992) some 450,000 immigrants entered Israel. (In the wave which arrived in Israel after the establishment of the state in 1948 and which was designated a "mass immigration," 690,000 arrived within three and a half years.) They constituted some 10% of the Jewish population. This mass immigration came after a decade of low-level immigration in which 15,000 immigrants on the average arrived each year.

As stated, this large wave – 1990 – 185,000; 1991 – 148,000; 1992 – 65,000; 1995–1996 – 119,000; 1997–1998 – 102,000; 2002 – 19,300 – came mostly from the various regions of the U.S.S.R. By comparison, in the 1970s the total number of immigrants arriving from Russia was 155,000. The second large group came from Ethiopia, from where some 27,000 arrived in 1990–1992 (of whom 15,000 arrived in a special operation, "Operation Solomon," within one day). In the 1980s some 15,000 arrived from Ethiopia; 46,800 immigrated since 1990.

Smaller groups of immigrants arrived from various countries in America (U.S., Argentina, and some other Latin American countries) and Western European countries.

The immigrants of the 1990–92 wave reflected the characteristics of the Russian immigrants. The proportion of females was 53% (similar to that found within the 1970 immigrants). The percent of females was much higher in the older age groups where it reached 61% (in the ages 65 and over).

The age structure of the 1990–92 immigration was characterized by a low percentage of children and a relatively high percent of older persons in comparison to the age structure of the Jewish population in Israel, and even compared to the 1980 immigration.

The immigration of 1990–92 included a high percent of those with high-level education (e.g., those with 13 years of schooling or more comprised 50% of those 15 and above, and those with 16 years and over 11%). A very high proportion of those in academic, scientific, professional and technical fields was found in this immigration.

The number of physicians and dentists who arrived in the 1990–92 immigration was 12,000 and the number of engineers and architects was 45,000.

Like immigration, emigration (yeridah) also displays wavelike fluctuations, which are, to a certain extent, connected with waves of aliyah, since the former is, to a certain degree, due to a backflow of the latter. However, since the 1960s emigration of veteran foreign-born and Israel-born adults has also been noticeable, probably largely due to economic factors. Bachi has estimated in a very rough way that at the end of 1975 some 11% of the Israeli population (including both emigrants and their descendants) resided abroad. This Israeli Diaspora may have been as large as some 370,000, mostly in Northern America and Western and Central Europe. A rough estimate at the beginning of the 21st century put the figure at over half a million.

The Growth of the Jewish Population

The most immediate demographic effects of aliyah were as follows. Between 1882 and 1914, the Jewish population increased by 61,000 (from 24,000 to 85,000). Immigration roughly accounted for this increase, while emigration and natural increase probably canceled each other out. Immigration failed to bring a sizable proportion of the Jewish people to the country and did not succeed in reducing the absolute size of the Diaspora (in 1914 only 0.6% of world Jewry lived in the land of Israel). It did succeed, however, in creating a nucleus of population that was able to survive the expulsions and emigrations, diseases, and famine brought on by World War i (during which the Jewish population was reduced to some 57,000) and served as a basis for further development. During the Mandatory period, the Jewish population of Palestine increased by about 566,000 (from 84,000 according to the census of 1922 to 650,000 on the eve of independence), 71% of the growth being due to immigration and 29% to natural increase. At the end of the period, the Jews of Palestine constituted 5.7% of world Jewry.

During the period between May 1948 and the end of 1970, the Jewish population increased by 1,910,000, of which about 62% was due to the immigration balance and 38% to natural increase. At the end of 1970, the Jewish population of Israel (2,559,000 persons) constituted over 18% of world Jewry.

In the period 1971–1978, the population of Israel as a whole continued to grow, though at an average yearly rate of 27 per 1,000, which was less than in 1961–1970 (35 per 1,000) and much smaller than in 1948–1960 (81 per 1,000). The lower rate of growth was due mainly to a relatively low level of Jewish immigration and decline of the natural increase.

In 2002 the Israeli population numbered nearly 6.7 million persons. Within the period 1983–2002, it increased by 2.5 million (by 38%; an average annual growth rate of 2%). The increase of the population was very uneven. While the first seven years of the period (1983–1989) witnessed a slow growth (1.7% per year), the growth rate in the next three years (1990–1992) was much larger (4.4% per year, adding 200,000 each year) and between 1993 and 2002 was 2.7% per year.

These large differences in growth relate to a Jewish population, which increased in 1983–2002 by 1,681,700 (an average of 5.5% per year) and reached 5,094,200 by the end of 2002. In the period 1983–89 the annual growth attained 1.5%, while in the period 1990–2002 the average growth rate reached 2.4%.

The large differential growth is attributable wholly to the mass immigration which began arriving in Israel at the end of 1989 and brought within three years 450,000 immigrants, so that natural increase (the difference between the number of births and deaths) which contributed 92% of the Jewish population increase in the period 1983–89, contributed only 27% in this later period.

During the period between May 1948 and the end of 2002, the Jewish population increased by 4,335,500, of which about 62% was due to the immigration balance and 38% to natural increase. At the end of 2002, the Jewish population of Israel (5,094,200 persons) constituted over 38% of world Jewry and was exceeded in size only by the Jewish community of the United States (see *Demography). The population increase varied considerably from year to year, largely due to the fluctuations in aliyah.

Composition According to Place of Birth

Mainly as a consequence of changing sizes and origins of immigration and of differentials of fertility (which will be discussed below), the composition of the Jewish population according to country of birth has changed considerably in the course of time, but has always been extremely heterogeneous. The following are some of the main aspects of this phenomenon:

proportion of foreign-born

With increasing rates of immigration, the proportion of persons born abroad increased from approximately 42% of the Jewish population in 1916–18 to 58% in 1931 and 64.6% in 1948, and decreased to 37.2% at the end of 2002. The percentage of foreign-born was higher in the adult age-groups, which is exceptional, even in countries of large immigration. If conditions in Israel had been different and a considerable part of the immigrant population had not identified itself strongly with the new country, such high percent ages of foreign-born citizens could have produced a very unstable society, since the majority of the people acquired their cultural background in foreign countries.

Absolute NumbersPercentagesPeriodAsia and AfricaEurope and AmericaTotal1Asia and AfricaEurope and AmericaTotal

Source: Statistical Abstract of Israel, Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem.1 Including unknown origin.2 Palestine.3 Including potential immigrants.4 Including Oceania.

1882–1919265,0001919–44,809385,066452,15810.489.6100.0May 14, 19482May 15,696,670577,6051,294,02654.745.3100.01948–1969May 15,330,456334,971684,20149.750.3100.01948–19511952–195439,97811,18751,19378.121.9100.01955–1957110,71449,630160,96169.130.9100.01958–196025,92646,46072,39335.864.2100.01961–1964133,56186,748220,32360.639.4100.01965–196956,03548,609104,95553.546.5100.01972–1979338,729228,4594267,18814.485.6100.01980–1989343,097110,2674153,36428.171.9100.01990–2001108,236951,34841,060,09110.289.8100.02002–200419,34558,380477,73329.570.5100.0

growing diversification of foreign-born

Whereas in the last years of the Ottoman period and the first part of the Mandatory period three-quarters of the foreign-born were East European (Russians, Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Romanians, who constituted the backbone of the Zionist enterprise), their proportion in the foreign-born population rapidly decreased, falling to 26.9% by 2002. Central Europeans (Germans, Austrians, Czechs, Slovakians, Hungarians), once a small minority, reached the considerable proportion of 18.4% in the period of Nazi persecution, but they decreased to less than 2.9% by 2002. All Europeans taken together dropped from 76.4% of the foreign-born in 1948 to 24% in 2002. On the other hand, those from Asian countries increased from 12.5% in 1948 to 13.3% in 2002, while the African communities grew from 2.6% to 16.1% (of which four-fifths came from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) in the same period.

These changes have been accompanied by a deep change in stratification according to ages. While people of European origin still constitute the majority of the middle aged and the old, the largest group in the younger, productive ages is of Asian and African origin. Among the children, the native-born ("sabras") constitute the majority. Considering together those born abroad and their children, in 2002 Jews of Asian and African origin constituted 29.5% of those whose origin was known, while people of European and American origins constituted 41.1%. The increasing variety in the composition of the Jewish population confronted the State of Israel with very complex problems arising from the need to give everyone a common cultural, political, and linguistic basis and from the lower educational standards of the Asian and African newcomers.

Distribution of Immigration and Population by Sex and Age

Unlike most international migration processes due mainly to economic factors, modern aliyah was in general well balanced in regard to sex. Only in very difficult periods, as for instance in the first waves of 1919–23 and among the "illegal" immigrants in the 1940s, did the proportion of men considerably outweigh that of women. Accordingly, the distribution of population by sexes was also generally well balanced and subject only to minor fluctuations: the percentage of males at different times was the following: 1922 – 52.3; 1931 – 50.5; 1936 – 50.0; 1940 – 50.5; 1948 – 51.7; 1961 – 50.7; 1969 – 50.3; 2002 – 51.2. The age structure of the aliyah in the Mandatory period differed from that of the period of independence. Due to selection, the former was extremely abnormal in age distribution; it included a very high proportion of young people and was strongly at variance with the age distribution of the communities of origin (the Jewish population in Europe was largely characterized by a high proportion of old people). In the first phases of the Mandatory period, the Jewish population of Palestine reflected these characteristics and presented a typically strong swelling of the age pyramid in the very young age groups. The high proportion of people of young working age was presumably a considerable asset for the economic, social, and political development of the Zionist enterprise. In the long run, however, the situation was considerably changed by the aging of the young immigrants; the low fertility of the Europeans, then constituting the large majority of the population, which set in motion a general process of aging, and the inadequate influence of the smaller, new immigration waves in rejuvenating the population. The population therefore became more regular in its distribution and lost much of its young character.

During the period of statehood, a considerable part of the aliyah was nonselective and reflected the structure of the communities of origin. This aliyah had a much higher proportion of children, a somewhat higher proportion of old people, and a higher proportion of those in dependent ages to those in working ages. Unlike the immigration of the Mandatory period, it contributed to a leveling-out of the age distribution of the population. It widened the base of the age pyramid and the high fertility of the Oriental immigrants checked or offset the aging of the population, particularly that of the population in the working ages. As a consequence of all these processes, the Jewish population of Israel is today more regular in its age distributions than in the past; it is younger than many Western populations, but older than Eastern populations. Due to fluctuation in the number of births in the last decade, the percentage aged 15–19 is higher than the 0–14 age bracket and a much higher percentage than in the following brackets.

At the end of 2002, 1.88 million (28.4% of the population of Israel) were children under 15; 61.8% were in the ages 15–64; and 9.9% were older people (aged 65 and over).

The age distribution in 2002 differs from that of a decade earlier in a decrease in the proportion of children, and a small increase in the proportion of older people. These changes were influenced by the age structure of immigrants who arrived in 1990–1992, who had a lower fertility and so a lower proportion of children and a higher proportion of older persons. The proportion of those 65 and over in the veteran population, had the immigration not taken place, would not have changed to any significant degree up to 2010.

The process of aging which the Jewish Israeli population underwent brought the proportion of those 65 and over from 4.0% in 1948 to 7.2% in 1970, 9.7% in 1980, 10.5% in 1990, and 9.9% in 1992. Within this older group the proportion of 75 and over, from among those 65+, was 25% in 1970 and 32% in 1980, 41% in 1992, and 45.7% in 2002.

Considerable differences in the age structure of the Jewish and Arab communities persist; to a large extent as a result of fertility differentials. The proportion of children was 41% among Arabs compared to 25.4% among Jews in 2002; the proportion of those aged 65 and over was 3.9% in the Arab population compared to 11.4% among Jews.

The decrease in the proportion of children found in both the Jewish and Arab population was counterbalanced by the increase in the proportion of those aged 25 and over (mostly in the age group 25–44).

Large differences in the age structure were found between various localities in the country. Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Haifa cities have an older population (16–17% of the population were aged 65 and older), while Jerusalem had a younger population (7.6% aged 65 and over). A similar rate is found in smaller towns and in rural areas. This is a result of the structure of the population in various localities. In localities with a larger proportion of those originating in Asia and Africa, or a large proportion of Orthodox population, the age structure was younger (a larger proportion of children and a smaller proportion of older people).

Marriages, Births, Deaths, and Natural Increase

The study of the vital statistics of Israel's Jewish population is of interest from many points of view. While it has been established and expanded mainly by immigration, its future development, in the long run, will largely depend on the reproductive capacity of the immigrants and their descendants. Since Israel is a new and small country, the enlarging of its population may be of importance in order to provide a sufficiently large and differentiated basis for its economy and social structure. The demographic situation of the Jews of Israel may be significant in the light of the demography of world Jewry, which emerged from the Holocaust extremely reduced in numbers, and the fact that demographic trends in considerable parts of the Diaspora, such as aging of the population, low fertility rates, and losses due to intermarriage, are producing further population decreases. From a scientific point of view, the analysis of the evolution of marriage habits, fertility, mortality, and health standards among the various groups of the Jewish population in Israel is of interest within the larger framework of modern demographic evolution in general and that of the various branches of world Jewry in particular. Demographic patterns in the Diaspora differ considerably in relation to general environment, cultural development, degrees of religious conservatism, and assimilation of Jews into different social classes. In very broad terms, it appears that in many Asian and African communities the old Jewish customs of universal, early, and endogamous marriage, accompanied by high fertility, still tended to prevail until recently. Mortality rates had begun to fall considerably, creating a comparatively large reproductive force. On the other hand, European Jews, particularly in Central Europe, have in general had comparatively low marriage rates, rather high marriage ages, and generally increasing rates of exogamous marriage. Fertility has decreased (mainly among Central European Jews) to such an extent as in many cases to be well below replacement level, despite the generally favorable age-specific mortality rates among Jews as compared with those of non-Jews in the same countries (see *Demography). The following are some of the main features of the vital statistics of the Jewish population of Israel.

marriage and divorce

Marriage in Israel is almost exclusively endogamous within the Jewish community. Marriage is almost universal in all groups of the Jewish population: the percentage of single persons at the end of the fertility period is generally small. Only recently has there been some tendency toward increased rates of celibacy among Jewish women. In addition, the generally favorable age structure and the influx of unmarried immigrants – who often appear to postpone marriage before immigration and are afterward eager to marry – have contributed to generally high crude marriage rates among the Jewish population in Israeli during periods of heavy immigration. Average age of Israel brides at first marriage was 25.9 in 2001, which is low by European standards, but higher than that found in Oriental countries. The propensity to marry has continued to be comparatively strong in three population groups – the Jews, the Moslems and the Druze – and weak among the Christians. In 2000 the proportion of Jewish women reaching the age of 45–49 without having been married was 6%. Age at marriage tends to become more uniform than in the past among the various groups of the population of Israel. Early marriages which were frequent in the past among the Moslems, the Druze and among Jews of certain Asian and African origins have become by far less frequent.

Among Jews, preference in marriage between people of same origin still constitutes a rather general feature, but this tendency is clearly decreasing in the course of time; it decreases among people born abroad, with length of stay in Israel, and it is weaker among people born in Israel than among foreign born. Data shows that homogamy (tendency to marry people of equal origin) was comparatively higher – within each class of length of stay – among people born in certain Asian and African countries, such as Yemen, India, Iraq, Iran, Morocco and Libya, where the Jewish communities were on the whole more traditional and less "modernized."

Among those of European origin, homogamy by country was generally much lower. However, those Jews of Romanian, Polish, Bulgarian, and Greek origin had a higher homogamy rate than those from Central Europe and other Western countries. Among Jews marrying a partner originating from a country different from their own, there is still some tendency to prefer a marriage mate originating from a country where customs, culture or language are equal or similar to those of one's own country. Among such areas of marriage preference the following may be quoted: Eastern European countries; Central Europe; former French North Africa; Latin America; Anglo-Saxon countries; and the Sephardi community. The frequency of marriages between people of African or Asian origin and those of European origin is gradually increasing.

divorces

Divorce rates, which had decreased in the 1950s and 1960s, have shown a tendency to increase since then. On the basis of the 1972 census it has been calculated that the average yearly number of divorces per 1000 married persons was, among the Jews of Israel, about four and in 2001 about nine. These rates are higher than those prevalent in many other countries, but lower than those found in the U.S.A., and among various Scandinavian, Central European, Balkan, and Muslim populations. Probability of divorce reaches a maximum two years after marriage and then declines slowly. The propensity to divorce decreases with increasing number of children. However, the percentage of divorced couples with children has increased in the course of time. Divorced people have a high tendency to remarry. Actually, divorced men marry more than bachelors or widowers of same age and divorcées marry more than spinsters and widows. This feature is not peculiar to Israel and is sometimes interpreted as showing that divorce is generally less a repudiation of marriage as such, than an expression of dissatisfaction with a particular marriage partner. This may be connected also with the likely fact that some divorces are obtained to marry somebody else. However, divorced people have also a particularly high propensity to divorce again.

fertility

Patterns of fertility differ among various Jewish population groups far more than marriage patterns. Fertility may be indicated by the average number of children born per woman in the entire reproductive period – about 15–49 (it must be remembered that an average of more than two children per couple is necessary for ensuring adequate reproduction, as some children die before reaching maturity). From the scanty statistical material available it appears that at the beginning of the 20th century, Jews in the Land of Israel still had a rather high fertility. However, in the 1920s and 1930s fertility fell rapidly (1927–29, 3.57 children per woman; 1935–38, 2.54; 1939–42, 2.33. This decrease was due to the rapid spread of birth control (by contraception and abortion), mainly among the Jews of European origin, who constituted the great majority of the Jewish population. Limitation of births was particularly strong in periods of political or economic difficulties, like that of the Arab riots (1936–39) and the beginning of World War ii. In the late 1940s there was a "baby boom" among European Jews in Palestine, comparable with that which developed at the time in many Western countries; many of the births may be considered as "delayed" from previous bad times.

Jews born inNon-Jewish populationYearsIsraelAsia-AfricaEurope-AmericaTotalMuslimsChristiansDruze

Data for the five year periods are arithmetical means.

1955–592.795.402.533.568.174.567.211960–642.734.792.383.399.234.687.491965–692.834.352.593.369.224.267.301970–743.053.922.833.288.473.657.251975–792.913.402.803.007.253.126.931980–842.823.092.762.805.542.415.401985–892.823.142.662.794.702.494.191990–942.723.332.142.624.672.183.771995–992,932.624.672.563.2420042.902.714.362.132.66

In 1949–50 the fertility of European Jews reached the top level of 3.24. Later, however, it declined again (1960–63, 2.4; 1965, 2.6; 2002, probably in connection with the recession, 2.64). In 1968–69, after the end of the recession, it somewhat increased, possibly also due to a change in public opinion in regard to the fertility problem. However, in general, the fertility of European Jews in Israel was not much higher than the minimum reproduction level. Fertility differentials were not large among European Jews. The main factors of differentiation were religious outlook (among religious women, particularly those observing the injunction of the mikveh or ritual bath, there was considerably higher fertility and less contraception and induced abortion than among others); work (working women had less children than others); place of residence (women in Tel Aviv and Haifa had lower fertility than in other towns), the highest fertility being found in Jerusalem, with its large proportion of religious people, and the kibbutzim; education (the higher the education, the lower the fertility); length of stay (the veteran settlers and the second generation have a somewhat higher fertility than new immigrants).

Jews of Afro-Asian origin somewhat reduced their fertility during the Mandatory period, mainly in places and among strata having more contact with European Jews. However, their average fertility remained higher than that of European Jews. Mass immigration brought many large families not accustomed to birth control, which considerably increased the fertility of Asian-African Jews. However, in the course of time, birth control spread among them, especially among the younger generation. Differences in fertility in this group were very large; as among the Europeans, religious outlook and work played some part, but the main differentiations are related to length of stay in the country, education, and place of residence. In the higher educational levels and in certain places, such as the kibbutzim, the differences by origin almost disappeared, while women living in more secluded places, like the moshavim, had a very high fertility rate.

On the whole, the fertility of people of Asian or African origin was still rather high, and due to their large proportion among women in the reproductive ages, the average fertility of Jews in Israel was considerably above reproduction level. However, the fertility of Jews of Asian-African origin continued to decrease in the period after the Six-Day War. This decrease was connected with spreading knowledge of, and the actual use of, contraceptive methods among this group of the population, as indicated above. This rapid evolution is accelerated by increasing levels of education, a larger proportion of working women, growing secularization and increasing contacts with other population groups.

In consequence the fertility of Jews born in Asia and Africa is lower in Israel than it was in the countries of origin, and it is lower in Israel among those born in Asia and Africa than among those born in Israel from parents of Asian-African origin.

Among those of European origin the opposite evolution has taken place. Fertility is higher in Israel than in the countries of origin and it is higher among Israelis born of European origin than among immigrants from Europe. The fertility of people of European origin (first and second generation) is still lower than that of those of Asian-African origin. However, in the late 1960s and early 1970s it tended to increase to some extent and to remain at a more sustained level than in previous periods. Among groups of European origin, the kibbutz population had a more considerable upsurge of its birth rate. Various demographic, political, psychological, economic and social explanations of the increase of fertility rates among people of European origin during the late 1960s and early 1970s may be proposed. In the late 1970s a tendency toward decline of fertility appeared again also among those of European origin.

Among the non-Jewish population a growing tendency toward control of births and reduction of fertility is also noticeable. These tendencies are strong in the Christian population which is more urbanized and has a higher educational level. They have started later and are less pronounced in the Moslem and Druze populations.

Considerable changes have also occurred with regard to abortions. In Mandatory Palestine regulations concerning abortions were very rigid and heavy penalties were laid down both for the woman procuring her own miscarriage or for any person procuring it. Although these regulations remained theoretically in force in Israel, they were not applied in practice. Abortions were very largely performed, generally by physicians, but almost without any public control. In 1966 penalties against the woman were abolished, and those against persons procuring abortions were mitigated. However, growing uneasiness was felt with regard to the discrepancy between written law and actual practice, and in 1977 a law was passed declaring abortions performed outside hospitals to be unlawful and fixing norms for cases which can be permitted in public hospitals by special committees. Those norms permit abortions for social reasons.

The practice of abortion seems to have been in the past widespread among European women, but to have then declined (probably with the wider spread of birth control) mainly among women of a higher educational level. Later, use of abortion increased among women of Asian-African origin, but also apparently declined. Abortion is practiced to a lesser extent among religious women than among non-religious. Legal abortions stood at 12.4% of live births in 2002 compared with a peak of 16.1 in 1984.

In Table: Total Fertility Rates, fertility has been measured by using – in order to enable comparison – the same method employed in the initial section on fertility above.

A total of 139,535 babies were born in Israel in 2002 (of whom 94,327 were Jewish). The last two decades saw a continuous decrease in the birth rate: from 24.6 births per 1,000 population in 1983 to 22.6 in 1988 and 21.2 in 2002. However, the rate in 2002 was still higher than that found in most developed countries (in 1989 the average birth rate for Europe was 12.9, for North America 15.0) but much lower than developing countries (the average in Africa – 45, Asia – 28).

The number of children per woman (at the end of her fertility period = "total fertility") was estimated as 3.21 in 1983, falling to 3.06 in 1988 and 2.64 by 2002. This number reflects large differences in fertility of the various communities in Israel. The birth rate (per 1,000 population) was 19 for the Jewish population compared to 37 among the Muslim population. The "total fertility rate" was 2.64 for the Jewish population, 4.58 for the Muslim population, 2.77 for the Druze population, and 2.29 for the Christian population.

The fertility of the Muslim population declined from 5.4 in 1983 to 4.53 in 1988, but later increased to 4.58 by 2002.

In the Jewish population large differences in fertility still exist between the various communities. The number of children of an Asian-born mother was 40% higher than of a European-born mother (for an African-born mother higher by 66%). But differences among mothers born in Israel of various origins were much lower.

A very distinct change in fertility for European-born mothers was noticed in the period from 1989 to 1992: a decline in total fertility from 2.6 to 2.05. This was caused by the very low fertility level of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who arrived in the large immigration wave of 1990–92 (total fertility for this group 1.5 children).

The decrease in fertility occurred for mothers of practically all levels.

mortality

Before World War ii health conditions were favorably affected by the fact that most of the immigrants came from Europe, where the Jews, in general, had lower age-specific mortality rates than non-Jews in the same localities, and that candidates for aliyah were generally selected. On the other hand, the change in environment, the transition to harder work, and the presence of an Arab majority with a high mortality rate may have been adverse factors. Since World War ii further adverse factors have been operative, i.e., the mass immigration of people who underwent persecution and suffered in the concentration camps and of unselected Oriental immigrants with low health standards. Large-scale medical services, voluntary health insurance for the majority of the population, an exceptionally high proportion of physicians in the population, preventive services, and supervision of most mothers and children have acted as very favorable factors throughout the Mandatory and statehood periods. On the whole, the double challenge of bringing European immigrants to a prevalently Oriental country (up to 1948) and bringing Oriental immigrants to a prevalently European country (after 1948) has been met with considerable success. Life expectancy has steadily increased – from 54 in 1926 to 77.4 for men and 81.6 for women in 2001, and mortality has decreased at all age levels, especially among children and young people. The infant mortality rate, which in 1924 was ranked in the middle of the world list, decreased at so rapid a pace that in 1947 it was lower than that of 89 countries and higher only than that of four and had reached the record low level of 29.2 per 1,000; with mass immigration, it rose again to 51.7 per 1,000 in 1949, but afterward began to drop again and stood at 5.6 per 1,000 births in 1995 and 4.7 in 1999 for Jews. This level was found in countries having the lowest infant mortality rate in the developed countries. The wide gulf between the mortality of children of Asian and African immigrants and that of children of European origin has been bridged to a considerable extent, and the life expectancies of these two main groups of population are now quite close. For Muslims the decrease in infant mortality was from 21.3 to 13.1.

The total number of deaths from all causes was 35,348 in 1995 (i.e., 7.1 per 1,000 population). The major causes of death were similar to those found ten years earlier: heart conditions and cerebrovascular diseases were responsible for 40% of all deaths and cancers, 20%.

Intermarriage Between Groups of Different Origins

The Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel publishes yearly data on marriages according to country of birth and length of stay in Israel of the bride and groom, and particularly detailed data on this point were collected in the censuses of 1989 and 1995. The figures show that the tendency to marry people of the same origin (endogamy) is still very considerable in Israel. However, endogamy differs from group to group: it is lower in smaller than in larger groups; it is lower among people having higher educational standards and in such places as kibbutzim, where the members are more integrated into the life of the community. The most relevant feature found is that endogamy decreases with the length of stay in Israel. Where both husband and wife are new immigrants, endogamy by place of birth is found to be very high, but it is generally low in marriages between veteran residents and practically vanishes among veterans belonging to smaller groups. This finding and the general decrease of endogamy in the course of time show that there is a clear tendency toward a systematic lowering of marriage barriers between different origin groups. About 70% of marriages are still between couples of the same continent of origin, not because of preference for mates from the same community but mainly because of preference for a given level of education and the availability of single people of different ages in different countries.

Geographical Distribution of the Population

One of the most well known characteristics of modern Israel is the "return to the soil" – the establishment of hundreds of villages and the creation of a rural population, which are almost unknown in the Diaspora. Nevertheless, the Jewish population has been largely urban. With increasing mechanization and efficiency in Jewish agriculture, the proportion of people living on the land has been decreasing (17.3% in 1959; 10.8% in 1969, and 8.8% in 2002). Moreover, the share of the rural population in moshavot and moshavim has tended to increase, while that in the kibbutzim has decreased. Due to industrial development in urban areas the two large conurbations of Tel Aviv and Haifa contained, respectively, 54.7% and 18.4% of the total Jewish population at the end of 2002. Great efforts have been made by the authorities to prevent the over-rapid development of these areas and the over-concentration of the population in the coastal strip. This has been done by policies designed to increase the rural population, particularly in border areas, and by establishing "development towns" (mainly in the southern and northern districts). Some of the main developments in the geographical distribution of the population are shown in the following three tables: Jewish Population in Israel by Type of Settlement; Population and Settlements in Israel by Size of Settlement; and Jewish Population of Israel by District and Sub-District, showing the proportion of Jewish population living in each subdistrict.

19451948195419611969198319942003

1 Including immigrant transit centers.2 Including collective moshavim.

Urban Population84.683.976.184.689.290.290.591.2Towns64.364.464.569.773.2–Urban settlements20.319.511.614.916.0–Rural Population15.416.123.915.410.89.89.58.8Villages3.23.54.04.51.7–––Moshavim5.24.47.36.45.14.523.924.2Kibbutzim6.37.95.04.03.43.42.82.1Other0.70.37.610.50.61.92.82.5Total100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0

195319692002Size of SettlementSettlementsPopulationSettlementsPopulationSettlementsPopulation

Source: Statistical Abstract of Israel, Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem.

5,000–9,99920139.921148.649341.210,000–19,9999135.723306.440562.220,000–49,99910269.516506.0451,375.550,000+3651.5101,441.19647.2100,000–199,999————81,374.8200,000+————41,523.2Living outside settlements———3.9—Other——————Bedouin tribes—20.1—36.8—n.a.Total421,216.7692,442.81555,828.1

The distribution of the population is marked by the following characteristics. Within the extremely irregular boundaries of Israel (within the 1949 armistice demarcation lines), the population is highly concentrated in certain areas, such as the Coastal Plain, and there is a very low density in the southern areas, which are largely desert. However, in the course of time there has been some tendency to modify these characteristics. The actual distribution has become a little less concentrated than it was in 1948. Population dispersal has increased, and the center of gravity has shifted considerably to the south (toward the Tel Aviv conurbation and southern development towns and zones). These changes have largely been due to the policy of attracting new immigrants to the development zones on the periphery of the country by providing housing and labor facilities in those regions. This policy has had a particularly strong effect on new immigrants from Asia and Africa.

Population (thousands)PercentagesDistrict and Sub-DistrictNov. 8, 1948May 22, 1961Dec. 31, 1969Dec. 31, 1994Dec. 31, 2003Nov. 8, 1948May 22, 1961Dec. 31, 1969Dec. 31, 1994Dec. 31, 2003

Source: Statistical Abstract of Israel, Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem.1 According to the boundaries of the sub-districts in the years listed.2 Including Israel residents in the Administered Territories.3 Following the disengagement from Gaza in Aug. 2005, the approx. 8,000 Jewish residents of the Gaza region were dispersed elsewhere in Israel.

Jerusalem district84.2187.7237.6473.2560.512.09.79.510.710.9Northern district53.4194.3244.6458.7516.47.610.09.810.310.0Safed sub-district8.942.651.473.879.81.32.22.11.71.5Kinneret sub-district14.435.438.060.063.82.11.81.51.31.2Jezreel sub-district24.166.687.7163.0184.53.43.43.53.73.6Acre sub-district6.049.767.5148.5172.50.82.62.73.33.3Golan sub-district15.80.3Haifa district147.7322.3386.3562.6608.421.116.715.512.711.8Haifa sub-district116.4257.6311.9430.2438.816.613.312.59.78.5Ḥaderah sub-district31.364.774.4132.4169.64.53.43.03.03.3Central district106.2380.148.241,071.81,391.815.219.719.424.126.9Sharon sub-district26.585.1106.1209.8261.93.84.44.34.75.1Petaḥ Tikvah sub-district45.9131.8171.5392.2492.86.66.86.98.89.5Ramleh sub-district1.863.974.7133.9212.20.23.33.03.04.1Reḥovot sub-district32.099.3130.0335.9425.04.65.25.27.68.2Tel Aviv district302.1692.6852.51,115.41,095.443.235.934.125.121.2Southern district6.0155.3292.5632.6766.60.98.011.714.214.8Ashkelon sub-district4.876.4139.2313.2399.70.73.95.67.17.7Beersheba sub-district1.278.9153.3319.4366.90.24.16.17.27.1Judea, Samaria, and Gaza3226.34.4Not known17.1—————————Total716.71,932.32,496.424,441.15,165.4100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0

These developments have been strengthened by the fact that there are more of the more prolific elements in the peripheral zones, while a higher proportion of the less fertile sections of the population and the older age groups is to be found in the central areas. Natural increase is therefore higher in peripheral zones and lower in the center, which increases population dispersal. These developments are offset, to some extent, by the effects of internal migration, as recent immigrants move mainly from the periphery to the center. Since the settlement of new immigrants in development areas has been the main factor in population dispersal, the latter has increased more in the periods of considerable immigration.

As new immigrants in the more peripheral areas have been largely of African and Asian origin, there has been a certain tendency toward regionalization. The immigrants of European origin, especially the veterans, are more concentrated in the large conurbations and the older settlements of the Coastal Plain, the Jezreel Valley, etc., while there is a higher proportion of people of African-Asian origin in the southern and northern regions. This regionalization explains the peculiar distribution of the population according to social, economic, and cultural characteristics (such as concentration of veteran immigrants in the central part of the country and dispersion of more recently arrived persons over more peripheral regions), higher educational standards and better economic conditions along the Mediterranean coast, and so on.

[Roberto Bachi /

Elisha Efrat (2nd ed.)]

The Communities of Israel

In 2002, Jews constituted 76.8% of the total Israeli population. Most of the others were Arabs and Druze. These were divided by religion as follows: Muslims – 15.5% of the total Israeli population, Christians – 2.1%, and Druze and others, 5.6%.

The percent of the Jewish population declined from 84% in 1980 to 81.5% in 1989 (owing mostly to the large differences in the rate of natural increase of Jews and Arabs). The large immigration from Russia in 1989–1991 caused the proportion of Jews to increase to a smaller extent to 81.9% by the end of 1991.

CountriesUntil 19181918–381939–471948 and unknown dateTotal no. of immigrantsYemen and Aden1,8008,5105,67631616,302Syria and Lebanon4594,2435,85023710,789Turkey3994,8974,0421,21410,552Iraq4705,2722,9832779,002Iran5632,833423973,916The rest of Asia381,4516457172,851Egypt1522,0612,1652514,629Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria4685065343,8235,331Libya72974395071,250Asia and North Africa4,35630,07022,7577,43964,622Rest of Africa excluding South Africa1017016467411Soviet Asia4283,0353782614,092Europe, America, South Africa, and Oceania7,478211,42496,33476,347391,783Unknown565763626651,695Total12,328245,265119,99584,979462,567

the various jewish communities

The large immigration which arrived in 1989–1991 brought some important changes in the size of the various communities of Israel. The proportion of the "Israeli-born" population, which increased continuously in the previous decades and reached 64% of the total Jewish population in 1989, declined to 60.5% in 1991 (37% of this group were second generation Israeli-born, i.e., born to fathers who were born in Israel). The Israeli-born population was composed of 55% young persons (less than 20 years old), while only less than 1% were aged 65 and over.

The immigration of 1989–91 – which brought mostly immigrants from the former Soviet Russia – increased the proportion of those born in Europe, after a long–term reduction in their proportion. The proportion of those born in Europe and America among the total population decreased from 25% in 1981 to 20% in 1989, but by the beginning of 1992 the proportion returned to 25%. The Asian and African communities born abroad declined continuously from 20% of the total population in 1981 to 16% in 1989 and 15% in 1992.

Use of Languages and Literacy

From statistical data on the use of languages in Israel, collected at the population censuses in 1916–18, 1948, and 1961 and in various sample surveys, two dominant features of the linguistic situation in Israel are obvious: the amazing variety of languages brought by the immigrants from the countries of the Diaspora; and the important role played by the Hebrew language. The revival of Hebrew began at the end of the 19th century, when the majority of immigrants still spoke Yiddish, while the minority generally spoke Ladino or Arabic. At the end of the Ottoman period, Hebrew had succeeded in winning over some 34,000 (40% of the total Jewish population), mainly among the younger generation in "modern" localities (e.g., the new settlements and Tel Aviv). At the close of the Mandatory period, almost all those born in the country were Hebrew speakers, and those born abroad who had arrived before the age of 20 were found to use Hebrew almost to the same extent. At higher ages, it was found that the adoption of Hebrew diminished in speed and intensity in proportion to the age of the immigrants upon arrival. By 1948, 511,000 persons, 75% of the total, used Hebrew as their only or principal language. After the establishment of the State of Israel, the percentage of newcomers who knew Hebrew before arrival was far lower than that of pre-state immigrants, who were largely preselected and ideologically motivated. This decreased the proportion of Hebrew speakers in the period of mass immigration. Subsequently, however, the use of Hebrew again largely increased. The following table shows the changes in numbers and proportions of Hebrew speakers in the course of time. In 1966 they constituted some 70% of adults and there is no doubt that they were the overwhelming majority among the children.

Age 12 and over TotalAge 2 and over*Age 2–14*Age 15 and over*

* Rates per 100 of the Jewish population.1 Palestine.2 Aged one year and over (estimate).3 Excluding Jerusalem.4 Aged 2–13.5 Aged 14 and over.

19141334,000240.02,353.72,325.62,31948511,00075.193.469.51950679,00060.080.352.01954861,00060.983.9452.851956———58.4519611,391,40075.392.867.41966———69.35

Before statehood, the Jewish population was characterized by the low proportion of illiterates. This was due to the high educational level of the immigrants, who were largely of European origin, and to the fact that most of the Jewish population saw to the education of their children, although it was not compulsory at the time. Only among women in the higher age groups was the proportion of illiterates considerable. With mass immigration from Asia and Africa, the proportion of illiterates increased considerably, mainly in the higher age groups and especially among women. Due to the efforts made by the State of Israel in the educational field, the situation has improved in the course of time. The following table shows the classification of the Jewish population by number of years of schooling according to continent of birth, sex, age, and period of immigration. The higher standards of those born in Israel, Europe, and America, as compared with those of people born in Asia and Africa, are immediately seen.

Number of Years of Schooling01–45–89–1011–1213–1516+Median

Source: Statistical Abstract of Israel, Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem.

Jewish Population 2004Total2.41.17.19.836.823.319.512.6SexMales1.516.910.537.622.52012.6Females3.31.27.39.13624.11912.6Age15–172.243.753.511.218–240.20.21.13.463.927.63.612.425–340.50.31.83.933.230.729.61435–440.80.22.57.436.925.227.113.345–541.10.579.631.724.525.51355–643.31.41310.125.722.52412.765+10.6522.511.420.516.713.211County or continent of birthIsrael0.42.98.444.823.619.812.7Asia and Arica12.312.512.739.214.78.611.6Europe and America1.35.211.629.229.223.513.3Jewish Population 1961–1994196112.67.535.434.66.33.68.419709.36.331.739.78.14.99.319757.64.325.518.826.110.77.010.319855.03.117.316.633.614.210.211.519943.42.010.812.637.319.314.612.1Non-Jewish Population 1961–2004196149.513.927.57.61.51.2197036.113.735.113.01.7(0.4)5.0197522.912.938.012.69.13.11.46.5198513.47.732.019.319.25.92.58.620046.44.419.018.732.910.48.011.1

The Regional Distribution of the Population

In 2002, the distribution of the population of Israel by the various regions of the country was very similar to that of a decade earlier, although some differences can be traced, brought about mostly by the dispersion of the large wave of immigration that arrived from the end of 1989 onwards.

At the beginning of 2002, 70% of the population resided in the various sub-districts along the coastline of Israel. (These include the sub-districts of Acre in the north through Haifa District, Central and Tel Aviv Districts, and down to Ashkelon sub-district in the south.) This is similar to the proportion in 1983. Some small increase is found in the part of the population living in the peripheral area in the North and the South and the population living in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Regions on the other side, but the population of the Tel Aviv and Haifa Districts grew at a slower rate than other districts. (Tel Aviv District population increased in the period 1983 to 2002 by 15.8%, Haifa by 45.8%, while other areas grew by 27 to 30 percent.)

The large immigration which arrived from 1989 did reside to a larger extent in the Haifa and the Northern Districts, and to a smaller extent in the Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the Central Districts, compared to the veteran part of the Jewish population in these regions. Thirty-three percent of the immigrants (of the 1990–91 wave) resided in Haifa and Northern Districts compared to 25% of the Jewish population. The percent of immigrants entering the Tel Aviv and Central Districts was 46% (compared to 51% of the population). These movements continued the trend of decrease in the part of the Jewish population of the Tel Aviv District (in 2002, 21.5% of the population compared to 30% in 1983 and 43% in 1948). Data on internal migration of these new immigrants show that the Northern, Southern, and Central Districts did gain on balance from their movement.

As the regional distribution of the Arab population did not change to an important extent, the part of the Jewish population in the Northern District was 50.3% in 1992 compared to 48.4% in 2002.

The population of Israel is an urban population. Only 8.4% live in the small localities of less than 2,000 persons while 43.7% (50% of the Jewish population) reside in 13 localities of 100,000 persons or more. This is very similar to the distribution a decade ago. The three large cities (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and Haifa) continued the decline in their proportion of the population, while the population of towns of 100–200,000 inhabitants increased. These localities are Holon – population 165.8 thousand; Petaḥ Tikvah – 172.6; Bat Yam – 133.9; Rishon LeZiyyon – 211.6; Netanyah – 164.8; Be'ersheva – 181.5; Ramat Gan – 122.6; Bene Berak – 138.9.

The largest city of Israel was Jerusalem with 680,000 at the end of 2002 (of whom 459,000 were Jews), followed by Tel Aviv-Jaffa with 360,000, and Haifa with 270,800. If the population of the whole conurbation of Tel Aviv is added a total is reached of 1.5 to 1.8 million, depending on how the boundaries of the metropolitan area are defined. The population of the Haifa conurbation is 971,000.

Within the rural area, the population of the moshavim and the kibbutzim grew at a slower rate than did the total Jewish population, so that the percent of the population residing in moshavim declined within a decade from 4.5% to 4.1% and that of the kibbutzim from 3.5% to 2.1%.

human resources

In 2002 the labor force of Israel (i.e., those employed and those unemployed seeking work) numbered about 2.5 million. In the decade from 1982 to 1992, the labor force grew by some 480,000 (i.e., by more than a third or 3.0% per annum). Parallel to the population change, the labor force grew at a slow pace in the period 1982 to 1989 (by 2.3% yearly), and at a much higher rate in the period of the mass immigration (by 4.9% per year).

This decade marked a high increase in unemployment compared to that of the employed. While in 1982 the rate of unemployment (unemployed as a percent of the labor force) was 5%, it increased to 6.4% in 1988 and increased sharply up to 10% in 2002. This was caused partly by the entry into the labor force of a large number of new immigrants who were still looking for a job in the first stages of their stay in the country.

The main trends regarding labor force participation found in the 1970s continued through the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. The major development is the continuous increase in the participation of women in the labor force; from 36% of the women aged 15 and over in the labor force in 1982 to 48.4% in 2002, with women constituting 42% of all the labor force. Another continuous trend was the decrease in the labor force participation of men, mostly in the retirement and pre-retirement ages. The participation of men aged 55–64 in the labor force declined from more than 80% in 1982 to 65.9% in 2002, and of those aged 65 and over from 28% to 15.4%. Smaller declines are also found in age 35 and over. Thus, the labor force has become more feminine and of a younger age. The continuous increase in the proportion of those aged 35–44 in the labor force was related to the changes in the age structure and to the decline in participation in other ages.

The labor force is of a higher level of education. Thus persons who had 13 years and over of schooling constituted 28% of the labor force in 1982 and 38% in 2002 (17% had 16 years and over of schooling). The high level of education of the mass immigration which arrived from 1990 contributed to this trend.

The average number of hours worked by the employed population was 36.0 per week. No important trend changes were noticed in the decade 1982–2002.

The large increase of the employed population between 1982 and 2002 was absorbed in the various branches of the economy in similar proportions. Some differences were noticed; a continued decrease in the proportion of those employed in agriculture and industry; the proportion working in construction increased as activity in this branch grew in 1990–91 owing to the large-scale building for immigrants. In addition to the Israelis employed in the construction industry, some 70,000 workers from Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Region were employed in this branch in Israel. The proportion of those working in commerce, business, and personal services continued its growth.

The occupational distribution of the employed population did undergo some changes: the percent of those in scientific and academic (8.2%, 1982; 8.9%, 1991), professional and technical (14.6%, 1982; 16.8%, 1991), managerial/administrators (4.2%, 1982; 5.1%, 1991; 7.3%, 2002;), clerical (18.5%, 1982; 16.5%, 1991; 17.0%, 2002), sales (7.5%, 1982; 8.7%, 1991), and service workers (12%, 1982; 13.2%, 1991; 18.5%, 2002) rose, while those in agricultural (5.2%, 1982; 3.4%, 1991), skilled (25.1%, 1982; 23.7%, 1991; 20.3% 2002), and other occupations declined.

Some 81% of all employed persons in 1992 were wage and salary earners, 14% were employers, self-employed persons and members of cooperatives, 4% were kibbutz members, and 1% were unpaid family workers.

The Israeli Household

The average Israeli household (i.e., the group of people living regularly in the same apartment and sharing common meals, including households of one person) consisted in 2002 of 3.37 persons (3.4 persons in the Jewish household and 5.5 persons in the Arab household).

There were in Israel in 2002, 1.85 million households (1.56 million Jewish). The typical household (68.3% of all households) consisted of a couple with or without children, and in some of them also additional members; 17.6% were households of one person (i.e., widows living alone, young persons living on their own outside their family, etc.), 4.6% were one-parent households with children. Other households consisted of various other structures.

The long-term trend of a slow decrease in the size of the average Israeli household was not found in the 1990s. This trend was reversed in the Jewish population, and a small increase was registered in the Jewish population. This resulted from the entrance of immigrants in 1990–92 in larger households. Though immigrants from Russia came in small nuclear families, some proportion of the families lived together in the same household (i.e., a couple with a parent or parents of the husband or wife).

The proportion of single-member households, which increased continuously up to 1989 (15% of Jewish households in 1981 and 17% in 1989) decreased somewhat (17.6% in 2002), as did larger households of 5 members and over (from 27.2% in 1989 to 24.7% in 1997). Large differences in the size of households were found between households of various communities. The average household of those born in Africa in 1997 was 3.54, in Asia 3.17, and in Europe and America 2.80. The household of those born in Israel was 3.65, resulting from the young age structure of this group.

household formation and dissolution

The number of marriages and their frequency continued decreasing in the 1980s, as formal marriage was postponed, by some one year for grooms and brides who married for the first time. This occurred as cohabitation of younger men and women continued increasing. The decrease in the marriage rate was found in all age groups but especially in the younger age groups.

The dissolution of families by divorce increased to a small extent. One of every nine marriages contracted in Israel was broken by divorce. The divorced couple was married on the average for 11.5 years and had 1.8 children on divorcing.

[Moshe Sicron]

jewish communities ("edot")

Jews who went to Ereẓ Israel from a particular geographical region, country, or sometimes town or district often brought with them a characteristic cultural heritage, comprising language (in some cases specifically Jewish, like *Yiddish, *Ladino, *Judeo-Arabic, *Judeo-Persian, Georgian, or Kurdish *Aramaic), religious rites and customs, habits, and traditions. They are sometimes referred to, figuratively, as modern "tribes" (shevatim). Members of such a group, known as an edah (plur. edot), usually established their own synagogues, burial societies (see *ḥevra kaddisha), and mutual aid or charitable organizations, built their own quarters or (in modern times) settled in the same villages, and tended to support each other in local or, to a smaller extent, national politics. The term edot often applies specifically to those groups of immigrants who came from, or trace their origin to, the Islamic countries ("Oriental" immigrants). The edot preserved their identity, to a greater or lesser extent, for several generations, their members tending to marry within the edah, and the tensions between them were of some importance in the history of the yishuv and the State of Israel (See *Israel, State of: Population, section on Intercommunal Problems). There are no accurate statistics on the sizes of the various edot, as census figures specify only countries of origin and language groups, which are not identical with community membership.

Communal separatism is particularly recognizable in the composition of the populations of neighborhoods and various streets in Jerusalem, in which about 100 quarters were founded up to the establishment of the State of Israel – most of them on a communal basis – and also in greater Tel Aviv, Haifa, and some other towns. The attempt to mix various communities in the new-immigrant moshavim after the creation of the State of Israel was generally unsuccessful. It was abandoned in the 1950s, after which most of the new settlements were established on a more-or-less homogeneous basis from the point of view of origin and social mores. In the kibbutzim the percentage of non-Ashkenazim is small, but in many of them youth groups composed of immigrants from Asia and Africa have been successfully absorbed.

The Ashkenazi Community

This is the largest and, socially, politically, and economically, the most important and influential community in the country. The Ashkenazim consist of Jews of European origin and their descendants, including most of North and South American Jewry. Most Ashkenazi families spoke – or at least understood – Yiddish at some point in their history. Ashkenazim first went to Ereẓ Israel as individuals or as families from the 13th century onward, and, at the latest by the middle of the 15th century, founded their own community in Jerusalem. In the 18th century it numbered a few hundred souls, but ceased to exist, temporarily, after the first quarter of the century. In Safed, however, there was an Ashkenazi community from the 16th century, and it grew particularly after the ḥasidic immigration in 1777. Some of the newcomers moved to Tiberias, and it was from those two towns that the Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem was revived. In 1816 the Perushim, the opponents of the Ḥasidim, organized their own community in Jerusalem.

According to a census held in 1839 on behalf of Moses *Montefiore, the number of Ashkenazim in the country was 1,714 – 26.2% of the total Jewish population. In the next 75 years, until the outbreak of World War i, when the Jewish population grew to about 85,000, most of the immigrants who created the "old yishuv" were Ashkenazim. In 1876/77 they numbered 6,800 in Jerusalem – 43% of the city's Jewish population; two-thirds of them were Perushim and the rest Ḥasidim. By the time of the First Aliyah (1882), they constituted half of the 25,000 Jews in the country, and for many years afterward the proportion of Ashkenazim among the immigrants was on the increase. It is estimated that in 1895 they numbered 25,800 – 63% of the 40,700 Jews; in Jerusalem they constituted 15,000 out of 28,000 Jews, in Safed 4,500 out of 6,600, in Tiberias 1,600 out of 3,200, and in Jaffa 1,700 out of 3,000. The overwhelming majority of the 2,200 Jews in the new agricultural settlements were Ashkenazim.

According to the 1916–18 census, Ashkenazim accounted for 60% of the 56,700 Jews left in the country after the hardships of World War i. They constituted the majority (about 85%) of the immigrants from the end of the war until the creation of the State of Israel (1948). At the time of the declaration of the state, more than 80% of the 650,000 Jews in Israel were Ashkenazim, but since then their proportion of the total population has been steadily on the decrease, due to the increased immigration from Asian and African countries and the comparatively low Ashkenazi birthrate. In the 1961 census, community of origin was not recorded, but on the basis of the information on country of origin and father's country of origin, it may be estimated that Ashkenazim constituted 52.5% of the population; by 1965 they had declined to less than half the total.

In 1948, 46.8% of the Jews speaking foreign languages spoke Yiddish as their sole language or as the first after Hebrew. By 1961 the proportion had decreased to 22.7% (273,615 persons). Other languages spoken by Ashkenazim were German (73,195), Romanian (69,945), Polish (51,760), English (46,615), Hungarian (43,245), Russian (21,255), Czech and Slovak (4,095), Dutch and Flemish (1,530); smaller groups spoke French, Spanish, Serb, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Danish, and Swedish.

The Sephardi Community

The Sephardim in the strict sense of the term, that is, those speaking Ladino or their descendants, have the longest continuous history in the country, the origin of the community dating back to the 15th or early 16th century. It assimilated the Portuguese Jews, expelled a decade or two earlier, who are mentioned by the 16th-century travelers, the remnants of the Byzantine Jews, and, at a later period, the *Musta'rabs (Arabic-speaking Jews) and Jews from other communities, including some Ashkenazim. Individual Jews of Spanish origin were living in Ereẓ Israel as far back as the 11th century, but there was little immigration in medieval times, and, moreover, few of the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century made their way to Ereẓ Israel because of the insecure conditions in the country. By the end of the 15th century, however, there were many Sephardim in Safed and in 1509 there was a separate Sephardi community in Jerusalem. The flow of immigration increased after the Ottoman conquest, the immigrants receiving aid from their brethren who had settled in Turkey. The Sephardi community of the 16th century developed a flourishing social and cultural life; it included many famous talmudic scholars and served as a center for learning for the whole of the Diaspora. In the census of 1839 Sephardim were incorporated with the Jews from the Oriental communities, but on the basis of the country of origin of Jews born abroad, it can be estimated that at least half of the total were Sephardim. With the creation of the post of *ḥakham bashi (chief rabbi) of Jerusalem by the Ottoman authorities in 1842, this honored post was always occupied by a Sephardi.

During the 19th century, there were no organized groups of Sephardi immigrants, but there was increased Sephardi immigration in some years, e.g., after the liberation of Greece in 1829 and of Bulgaria in 1878. By 1877 there were 5,970 Sephardim (not including the Maghrebis – immigrants from North Africa) in Jerusalem, and it appears that 5,500 of this number, 40% of the Jewish population of the city, were descendants of exiles from Spain. Most of them were employed in various branches of commerce, but a few families from Bulgaria settled on the land at Hartuv. There was little Sephardi immigration in the 20th century until 1948, and the Sephardim, therefore, did not found their own quarters in Jerusalem like the other communities. Until 1920, however, when the Ashkenazi chief rabbinate was established, it was the ḥakham bashi (also styled rishon le-Zion) who was the official religious head of the entire Jewish community. In Jerusalem, the Sephardi community maintained its own community council and ḥevra kaddisha. In the 1961 census, 63,000 persons, including some Ashkenazim from South America, entered "Spanish" as their sole or second language; 31,535 spoke Bulgarian; 7,750 Turkish (young people who had been educated in state schools in their country of origin); and 2,635 Greek.

The Italian Community

Visitors and individual settlers came from Italy in all periods and Italian Jews in Jerusalem are mentioned until close to 1870. It was only after Mussolini's anti-Jewish measures in 1938, however, that significant numbers settled in Palestine, when about 500 Italian Jews, including a high proportion of scientists and technological experts, arrived. A number of synagogues have been fitted out with Sefer Torah arks and other furnishings transferred from disused synagogues in Italy. According to the 1961 census, 5,300 persons spoke Italian, 1,650 as their first or only language. This figure, however, may have included some Jews from Libya (Tripolitania).

Jews from the Maghreb

This term includes all the Jews of North Africa, with the exception of Egypt. Jews from the Maghreb had come to Ereẓ Israel as far back as the 11th century, though mostly as individuals, and in 1218 *al-Ḥarizi mentions a *Maghrebi community in Jerusalem. Immigration increased after the defeat of the crusaders, and individual Maghrebi Jews settled in Jerusalem throughout the centuries. In 1509 there was a Maghreb community in Safed as well. From the second third of the 19th century onward, immigration from the area increased, mostly from *Morocco, with smaller numbers from Tunisia. For a time there was also immigration from *Algeria, but it dwindled with the spread of French culture in that country. Jews from these countries were the founders of the Jewish communities in Jaffa, where 18% were of Maghreb origin in 1905, and in Haifa. In the first half of the 20th century there was a decline in the proportion of educated and professional men among the immigrants from this area. Before World War i there were an estimated 2,000 Maghreb Jews in Jerusalem. During the British Mandate period there was hardly any immigration to Palestine from these countries, but since the middle 1950s Jews from the Maghreb have constituted a high proportion of the immigrants. In 2002 there were 163,000 Jews who were born or whose parents were born in Morocco, 41,200 from Algeria and *Tunisia, and 18,800 from *Libya, almost the entire Jewish community of which settled in Israel. Many of them were among the 122,250 persons who in 1961 recorded Arabic as their first or only language. Of the 24,300 who spoke only, or mainly, French, the majority were from Algeria and Tunisia; the majority of the 43,000 who gave it as their second language were Moroccan. Many Jews from Libya also spoke Italian. Some Berber-speaking Jews from the Atlas mountains settled in the Adullam region. The Maghreb community in Jerusalem has its own ḥevra kaddisha.

Iraqi (Babylonian) Jews

It is customary nowadays to describe the Arabic-speaking Jews from southern and central *Iraq, and even from parts of northern Iraq (Mosul), as "Iraqis," but their community and ḥevra kaddisha in Jerusalem, unlike that in Ramat Gan, are still called "Bavlim" – Babylonians. Until the middle of the 19th century, very few immigrants came from that part of the world because of the long and dangerous journey. With the introduction of steamships, which traveled down the Tigris River through the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea to Ereẓ Israel, immigration from Iraq increased. In the 30 years preceding World War i, there was a small community of Iraqi Jews, with three synagogues, which printed its own books in Hebrew with translation in Iraqi Jewish Arabic and booklets in the same dialect. In 1916 the community had 371 members. Between the two world wars, the Zionist idea flourished in Baghdad and Hebrew teachers were sent there from Palestine, but they were expelled in 1935 with the growth of the Arab national movement. Their ties with the yishuv were renewed during World War ii, when many Jews served in the British forces in Iraq or went there to help in the transfer of refugees from the U.S.S.R. and Persia. In 1951 almost the entire Jewish community was forced to leave (* Israel, State of: Aliyah and Absorption), thus virtually liquidating the oldest Jewish community outside Israel. In 2002, 171,700 Jews were registered as of Iraqi origin, among them 2,000–3,000 of Kurdish extraction. The Iraqi community in Israel includes people from all strata of society and of all educational levels.

Jews from Aleppo

Throughout the ages, there had been immigration from *Aleppo, which was an important Jewish economic and scholastic center. Most of the immigrants, however, assimilated with the Musta ʿ rabs and later with the Sephardim. In 1862 they founded the synagogue of Aram Zoba (Aleppo) in the Old City of Jerusalem, and by 1908 eight more synagogues had been founded in the quarters outside the Old City. The second and third generations of the Aleppo community included large numbers of traders and distinguished scholars. It is difficult to estimate the number of Jews of Aleppan origin. In the 2002 census they were recorded with the 36,900 from Syria and Lebanon.

Yemenites

Few Jews from *Yemen settled in Ereẓ Israel before the 19th century. Noteworthy among them were R. Solomon *Adani in the 16th century and R. Shalom *Sharabi in the 18th. The travels of R. Jacob *Saphir and the Orientalist Joseph *Halevy in Yemen may have stimulated Yemenite Jews to go to Ereẓ Israel, and in 1882 a few hundred of them joined together and made their way to Jerusalem with only the clothes on their backs. The help extended to them by the Jews of Jerusalem and the Diaspora did little to alleviate their distress. In 1885 Ashkenazim active in the community purchased a tract of land for them in the village of Silwān, south of Jerusalem, which was extended over the years. In 1908 it contained five synagogues, as the Yemenites in Ereẓ Israel split into two groups: one following the traditional Yemenite (Baladī) version of the prayers, which goes back to the Middle Ages, and the other following the "Syrian" (Shāmī) rite, that of the Sephardi communities (with many deviations). In addition, special houses of prayer had to be established for the devotees of the Zohar and the Kabbalah and their opponents (the "Dor De'ah"); the Yemenites also had prayer houses in the Old City and 14 small ones in the poorer quarters of Jerusalem outside the walls. The Yemenites' reputation as diligent farm workers suggested the idea of bringing more of them to Ereẓ Israel and the plan succeeded through the efforts of Shmuel *Yavnieli, an emissary of the Palestine Office in Jaffa. Three convoys arrived in 1908/09 and settled in the large moshavot of Judea and Samaria, where special neighborhoods were established for them.

The Yemenite Jews separated themselves from the Sephardim and established a separate community with a rabbi, bet din, ritual slaughter facilities, and cemetery plots of their own. They were outstanding for the level of their religious Jewish scholarship and their devotion to the Torah. In spite of the smallness of the community, they printed their special prayer book (tiktāl), R. *Saadiah Gaon's translation of the Pentateuch (Sharḥ), and other religious books. They still preserve their traditional pronunciation and melodies in prayer and the reading of the Torah (together with the Aramaic Targum), the haftarot, and the Five Scrolls.

In 1916 it was estimated that there were 4,058 Yemenites in Palestine: 1,636 in Jerusalem, 859 in Jaffa, 943 in the moshavot in Judea and 620 in Samaria and Galilee. Almost all the Jews in Yemen were transferred to Israel during "Operation Magic Carpet" (1949–50), and many were absorbed in villages and development towns. In the 1961 census close to 120,000 people born in Yemen and Aden, or whose father was born there, were registered and at the end of 2002 the estimated Yemenite population of Israel was 146,000. The veteran members of the community have risen in the social scale and their characteristic leanness has gradually disappeared with the improvement of nutritional standards (although the adoption of the Israel diet has made them susceptible to certain illnesses from which they were previously virtually immune).

Georgians

(in the vernacular, Gurjim). The first Jews from *Georgia (Heb. Geruzyah) arrived in Ereẓ Israel in about 1860, after the development of steamboat transportation. By 1862 they had established a house of prayer in the Old City of Jerusalem and before 1914 had five more in their quarters near the Damascus Gate (abandoned in the riots of 1929) and in the Simeon ha-Ẓaddik quarter in the north of the city. After the disturbances of 1936 they dispersed throughout Jerusalem. They spoke Georgian in the Diaspora and are the only Oriental Jewish community that did not employ Hebrew letters to write their vernacular. No scholars from Georgia settled in Ereẓ Israel, but once in the country some members of the community turned to the study of the Torah. The Georgians succeeded in commerce, and some grew wealthy. In 1916 there were 420 Georgian Jews in Jerusalem and 19 in Jaffa. As Russian nationals they were forced to leave the country during World War i, but after the war most of them returned. Since 1916 they have not been registered as a special community in the censuses. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, their language has been growing extinct and their unity as a community has been disintegrating. After the Six-Day War there was a reawakening among Georgian Jews of the desire to go to Israel. Several groups of them are settled in Lydda, Kiryat Malakhi, and other places.

Persians

It appears that the first Persian-speaking Jews who settled in Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple were *Karaites, who came in the middle of the ninth century. In 1839 14 Persians were registered in Safed. In about 1815 the Perushim in Jerusalem were said to have hired an ʿ Ajami ("foreigner" in Arabic, i.e., a Persian) to complete their minyan. The first Persian house of prayer in Jerusalem was founded in 1895 in the Shevet Ẓedek quarter (near Maḥaneh Yehudah) and eight more were established through 1908. In the same year, 80 Persian pupils studied in two talmud torah schools in Jerusalem. In 1916 120 Persians were registered in the city: it appears that many more of them registered as Sephardim. Before the end of the 19th century Jews came to Ereẓ Israel from *Isfahan and, especially, *Meshed, and the numbers grew after the establishment of the State of Israel. The Jews from Meshed, who were descendants of forced converts to Islam, were known as Jadīd al-Islām "neo-Muslims." They were the richest of the Persian community and created international commercial ties in the export of rugs. Since the Ottoman period they have had two synagogues in the Bukharan quarter of Jerusalem and others lived in some of the poorer quarters. During the Mandate and after the establishment of the state, the educated and affluent among them scattered throughout the new quarters of the city. Two communities, the "Persian" and the "Iranian," were registered during the Mandate period, because of an internal dispute, but this distinction later disappeared. Jews from Afghanistan are also counted among the Persians. In 2002 about 135,400 people were of Iranian extraction, 84,600 of whom were born in the country. More than 37,000 of them spoke Persian, and for 16,370 it was their only tongue or their first language after Hebrew (see *Iran).

Bukharans

This term is used to denote Jews who speak a Persian dialect and whose land of origin is *Uzbekistan. In 1827 the first Bukharans set out for Ereẓ Israel and reached Baghdad, but it is not known if any of them actually arrived in Ereẓ Israel. After *Bukhara was conquered by the Russians, individual Bukharans settled in Ereẓ Israel in 1868 and in the middle of the 1870s a number of Bukharan families were living in Jerusalem. Following R. Yaakov *Meir's journey to Bukhara in 1882 as an emissary for charitable institutions, hundreds of affluent families settled in Ereẓ Israel, and in 1892 they established a quarter in Jerusalem ("Street of the Bukharans"), which was uncommonly spacious and elegant for the period. In most of the families some of the members kept up their businesses in Bukhara while others lived in Jerusalem and were supported by the profits of the family business (in some instances, the members abroad and in Ereẓ Israel changed places every few years). In 1908 the Bukharans had 17 beautiful synagogues in Jerusalem, and the number had grown by 1914. During this period the affluent members of the community had books printed in their native language and in Persian, which they understood. During World War i some of the Bukharans fled and some remained in a state of poverty and deprivation. The Communist authorities in Uzbekistan confiscated the property of the Jews, and those who succeeded in returning to Ereẓ Israel supported themselves by renting out houses. In the census of 1961, 2,300 people were registered as "Bukharan"-speaking, but only 660 entered the language as their only or first tongue.

Dagestanis

A few hundred Jews from Dagestan, who speak Tat (an Iranian dialect), settled in Ereẓ Israel at the beginning of the 20th century: some in Be'er Ya'akov, which was established by them, and some in Jerusalem. Their courage and command of weapons won them a reputation in Ereẓ Israel and in the Diaspora, and some of them were outstanding in *Ha-Shomer. As Russian nationals they were also affected by the expulsion at the outbreak of World War i, but some of them returned during the Mandate period, especially to Tel Aviv, where they lived in the "Caucasian" Quarter. Some of those born in Ereẓ Israel do not speak the language used by the community in the Diaspora.

Krimchaks

The Krimchaks are Rabbanites (in contradistinction to the Karaites) from the *Crimea who speak "*Judeo-Tatar"; their aliyah may have had some connection with R. Hezekiah *Medini. Before 1915 they had a small community in Jerusalem and published books and pamphlets in their native tongue, apparently for export. They also departed during World War i and in 1916 there was only one family left. After the war a few returned and established their own synagogue in Tel Aviv.

Kurds

During the 19th century, individuals from the cities and townships of *Kurdistan settled in Ereẓ Israel, and at the beginning of the 20th century, a few hundred more followed. Their language, mistakenly called "Kurdish," is a modern Eastern Aramaic and they consequently called themselves Targum Jews. They lived in some of the poorer quarters in western Jerusalem in huts constructed from discarded kerosene cans, boards, and the like (known as the "Tin Quarter," now called Shevet Ẓedek), although stone houses were later constructed. In 1908 they built their own synagogue. Physically powerful and trained for physical labor over the generations, the Kurds were dominant among the porters in the large cities. Some of them helped the Europeans of the Second Aliyah to establish settlements in Lower Galilee. The conquest of Iraq by the British liberated the Jews in the mountains of Kurdistan from their subservience to local feudal lords, but few of them left their villages. With the call to settle in Israel in 1951, however, they abandoned their property and moved to Israel en masse. Most of them settled on the land and their youth adjusted to the Israel way of life.

In 1916 174 Kurds were registered in Jerusalem and 222 in Galilee (together with the Urfalis, see below). In 1916, 8,560 Kurdish-speaking residents were recorded, and 3,920 entered Kurdish as their only language or first language after Hebrew. The Kurds have their own ḥevra kaddisha in Jerusalem.

Close to the Kurds from the point of view of language (but not in life style) are the Jews of Persian *Azerbaijan, most of whom settled in Ereẓ Israel after World War i (immigrating via various countries) and established synagogues in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other places. Exact population figures are not to be had. Most of the older generation deal in commerce, while the youth are employed in technical trades.

Urfalis

The Urfalis and residents of the other cities of Upper Urfa (in southern *Turkey) speak Arabic. Jews from this area began to settle in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 20th century; their first house of prayer was established in 1904. In 1916 206 of them were registered in Jerusalem and a few more in Galilee (together with the Kurds). Settlers from two towns in the mountains north of Urfa (*Jarmuk and Siverek), who came with the Urfalis, were registered in 1916 and during the Mandate period as a separate community. In 1916 there were about 200 of them in Jerusalem, where they had a special synagogue. In the same year there were several settlers from Diyarbakir, who were joined by others from the same place during the 1920s in the wake of the Kurdish revolt in their area of Turkey. They also established a synagogue in Jerusalem.

Musta'rabs

This term denotes Jews who adopted the language and life style of their Arab neighbors, and some of whom, it appears, were descendants of families that never went into exile. Over the years, most of the *Mustaʿrabs were absorbed into the Sephardi community in the broad sense of the term, and only a few families remained in *Peki'in. In the 20th century, even those families, except for one clan, dispersed in Galilee and Samaria.

Karaites

As early as the middle of the ninth century c.e., a movement to settle in Jerusalem and mourn the destruction of the Temple arose among the *Karaites in Babylon and Persia. In the first generation of the tenth century, the Karaite community in Jerusalem was stronger and larger than the Rabbanite one, but the crusaders destroyed it in 1099. In 1540 Karaites settled for a short period in Hebron. In the middle of the 18th century some settled in Jerusalem and established a synagogue, which continued to exist (but never had a minyan of worshipers) until the fall of the Old City in 1948. After the establishment of the State of Israel, about 2,000 Karaites went from Egypt to the new state and settled mainly in Ramleh, Ashdod, Beersheba, and the moshavim of *Maẓli'aḥ, near Ramleh and *Ofakim in the northern Negev. The determination of their status, as Jews according to halakhah or as a separate religious community, aroused difficult problems.

Indian Jews

After the establishment of the State of Israel, members of two closely knit communities went from *India: the *Bene Israel, who speak Marathi, and the Jews from *Cochin, who speak Malayalam. Through 1954, 1,200 of the Bene Israel settled in Israel, and in 1965 their number had grown to 7,000. Because of their remoteness from the Jewish world and their ignorance of rabbinical laws of marriage and divorce, the halakhic problem of recognizing their right to marry within the Jewish community arose on their arrival. In 1970, there were about 3,400 Cochin Jews in Israel, many of whom settled in development towns and moshavim established by them in the Judean Mountains.

[Abraham J. Brawer]

intercommunal problems

A basic factor in the relationship between the "communities" (edot) in Israel is the long-standing dominance of the Ashkenazim in the economic, social, cultural, and political spheres. As a result, the various edot did not undergo a process of mutual acculturation: instead, the non-Ashkenazi communities tended to assimilate with the Ashkenazi community and adopt its values and way of life. To the extent that the process of assimilation was impeded, inter-community tension developed and was made much more acute by the fact that the distinctions between the communities were largely superimposed on the existing economic and educational stratification: on the whole, the Ashkenazim were better educated and more prosperous, while there was a higher proportion of poverty, under-education, and illiteracy among the Sephardim and other Oriental communities, particularly the new immigrants from African and Asian countries. The closing of the gap between "the first Israel" and "the second Israel" became a central problem. The alleviation of intercommunal tension through the "integration of the exiles" (mizzug galuyyot) became a major aim of national policy. At the same time, the opinion was widely held that the tension would be alleviated with the disintegration of the communities themselves and the disappearance of communal allegiances, and that as long as the communities themselves continued to exist there would not be a sense of a united people in Israel. This process of disintegration, however, proved a much more lengthy and complicated process than was initially envisaged.

During the period of the British Mandate, when a large Ashkenazi majority was created by the mass aliyah from Europe and the comparatively small aliyah from Asian and African countries, intercommunal tension was expressed primarily in the relations between various Ashkenazi groups, such as "Russians." "Poles," and "Galicians," but especially between these three groups together (Eastern Ashkenazim) and those from central Europe (Western Ashkenazim). This situation even led to the crystallization of specific political groups (such as the Aliyah Ḥadashah Party established by immigrants from "Central Europe" – actually from Germany).

The sting of this tension became blunted, however, during the first few years after the founding of the state due to the arrival of thousands of immigrants from the Islamic countries, as the differences between the newcomers and the Ashkenazim obscured the much finer distinctions between the groups within the Ashkenazi community. Among the Ashkenazi community no one group was outstandingly superior in the economic, political, and educational spheres: immigrants from Eastern Europe had molded the main institutions of the country and its pre-1948 ethos and they were dominant in the political leadership of the Zionist Organization, the yishuv, and afterward of the state and in their contribution to the shaping of social values. Immigrants from Germany were distinguished in the liberal professions and economic life and those from Western Europe and America were prominent in the technological and scientific developments after 1948. The confrontation between Ashkenazim and non-Ashkenazim, on the other hand, took place under conditions of obvious inequality.

Until the establishment of the new yishuv, the communal frameworks were accepted as the basis of public life and there was no conscious aspiration to merge the edot. This aim was a product of the modern nationalist movement and the new yishuv, and since the builders of the new yishuv were Ashkenazim, the idea of "merging" was conceived as the assimilation of non-Ashkenazim to the way of life and value system of the Ashkenazim. At the same time the secular character of the new yishuv widened the gap between the two groups by undermining the religious base common to Jews of all communities.

Under the Ottoman regime, the Jews of the new yishuv did not hold commanding economic and political positions in the life of the community: indeed, these hardly existed at all until the institution of the Mandatory regime. When the new yishuv acquired such positions during the 1920s, political and communal organizations began to develop among the Sephardim, but they reflected, for the most part, the aspirations of affluent businessmen and products of a Western education, themselves candidates for rapid assimilation to the Ashkenazi way of life.

The problem of intercommunal relations became of central importance with the large immigration after the establishment of the state, which created a situation of numerical equality between Ashkenazim and non-Ashkenazim. The immigrants from Islamic countries, especially from areas that had had all but no contact with Europe (such as Yemen) or countries from which it was mainly the poorer strata who came without the communal leadership (such as Morocco), quickly became an economic, social, and especially cultural proletariat in Israel. They felt uprooted in their new surroundings, where the dominant social forces demanded that they abandon their traditions and culture and assimilate unconditionally into modern Israeli society, which was basically Western. Consciously or unconsciously, the authorities and the prevailing public opinion in the country tended to regard the older generation of new immigrants from Islamic countries as a lost generation that would eventually die off, and their main concern was to help the younger generation throw off the burden of its paternalistic traditions. Israel society, however, was successful in many instances only in shattering the patriarchal family structure, which was the principal framework of the immigrants from Islamic countries, and thus destroying old values without simultaneously transferring its own value system as an integral part of the newcomer's personality. In effect, this resulted in the creation of a segment of society that was socially displaced, living on the fringes of two cultures and attracted to the glittering commercial aspects of modern materialistic culture.

However, manifestations of intercommunal tension and bitterness did not come about principally as a result of cultural deprivation, but because of discrimination affecting the immigrants personally. Basically, this discrimination was a consequence of culture deprivations; but this was not the major complaint of the immigrants from Islamic countries. Their complaint was that their absorption into Western society was not being sufficiently accelerated, that they were being prevented from enjoying its social and material fruits to the same extent as the Europeans, and that prejudice was being displayed toward them. The non-Ashkenazim developed psychological sensitivity toward what the Ashkenazim said and did, and this sensitivity sharpened intercommunal tension.

Most of the communities that came from Islamic countries did not develop a leadership that could serve as their spokesman (with the exception, to a certain degree, of the Yemenites – some of whom were considered veterans – and Jews from Iraq, who came en masse together with their communal elite). Manifestations of bitterness by "the second Israel" generally took the form of outbursts – sometimes violent – by individuals; there were very few mob outbreaks, the most serious of which occurred in 1959, especially in the Wadi Salib quarter of Haifa. However, attempts to establish political parties on a communal basis proved failures. Almost all the political parties made a habit of including in their election lists a token number of candidates from the "Oriental" communities and every government had one or two members from these communities.

In the 1960s there was a slackening in intercommunal tensions. This was partly a result of the integration of children of all the communities in the school system. In the early years of the State it was felt that a common education would eliminate differences, but cultural deprivation was perpetuated even under equal educational facilities. Factors at work here were differences in home background and tradition (Oriental families did not have the same tradition of sacrificing everything for their children's education), in living conditions (Oriental families could not provide the same atmosphere for study), the Western outlook of the schools and the teachers, and the concentration of better teaching facilities in the large cities (whereas the Oriental communities were largely in the development areas). There was thus a high dropout rate among pupils of Oriental origin.

However, steady progress was evidenced, for example, by the fact that whereas 13% of secondary school pupils in 1956 were from Afro-Asian origin, the percentage increased to 26% in 1961/62 and 42.6% in 1969/70 – though in the 12th (highest) grade the percentage in the latter year was still only 30.2%. Conscious efforts were made to help such children, not only by special tuition and scholarships, but even by lowering pass standards for children of Afro-Asian background so as to encourage them to continue their education. The rate of intermarriage between Ashkenazi and Sephardi-Oriental communities has risen less sharply than was forecast in the early years of the State but it has nevertheless shown a consistent increase. In the late 1960s, 17% of all Jewish marriages were between the two groups. In addition, army service, in which members of all communities meet under conditions of equality, also helped to blur intercommunal distinctions and the common experiences of the Six-Day War and its aftermath had a powerful influence in the same direction. In 1971, however, there was some recrudescence of intercommunal tension.

Attempts to draw parallels with community problems in other countries are misleading. There are no racial distinctions between the edot in Israel; there is a feeling of common national (and, obviously, religious) affiliation; there is no legal discrimination against the mem