Judaism is the world’s oldest Monotheistic faith, dating back nearly 4000 years. Over time it has built up a huge core of laws, rituals and observances that have been passed down from generation to generation. These act to connect us to our ancestors and to our future generations and provide a framework to base our practices on. They influence our everyday lives, both religious and secular. Jewish life centres around prayer and following God’s laws. These encompass the home, the Synagogue, life cycle events such as birth, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, marriage and death and festival and cultural customs. Such customs include food, literature, clothing, art, music and dance etc. Jewish education is of paramount importance.
Even though Jews are to be found all over the world (known as the Diaspora) we link some of our traditions to Israel which we view as our spiritual and historical homeland. Links may be found in our prayers, in which we always pray for peace and harmony for ALL its inhabitants, Israeli food eaten on Shabbat and listening and dancing to Israeli music. Our religious artefacts usually come from Israel or the USA because they are the main centres of Jewish world population.
In terms of current Jewish World population, the total Jewish ‘core’ world population is 14.6 million. (Most recent figure from Wikipedia 2018). There will be others who claim a connection for example, people who have one Jewish parent or come from a Jewish background. 51% of the 14.6 million live in the USA, 30% in Israel, 3% each in France, Canada and Russia, 2% in the UK – the latest figure is 263,346 Jews in England and Wales which is 0.5% of the UK population- the fifth largest religious community in the UK, after Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs.
In terms of world geography, there are 2 main groups of Jews: Ashkenazi Jews who come from Eastern Europe and are the largest group. Sephardi Jews originate in the Iberian Peninsula of Portugal and Spain and also Arabia. (This separation explains the slight difference in language, customs and practices).
In Israel, the total population is approximately 9.25 million of which 74.2% are Jewish. (As of July 2020). A little over half of these are Mizrachi (a subdivision of Sephardi) Jews. They are descended from Jews who have lived there since ancient times or who were forced out of Arab lands when Israel was founded.
Most of the rest of the population are Ashkenazi, descended from Jews who came to the Holy Land instead of the US in the late 1800s. Some are Holocaust survivors who came to Israel after the war or other immigrants who came after the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 and still continue to make ‘Aliyah’ today.
About 1% of the population are black Ethiopian Jews who fled because of famine or their persecution in the late 1980s and early 1990s.