Over 147,000 Holocaust Survivors Reside in Israel, One-Third From MENA Region

The Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel has released data for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2023. For the first time, this release includes data from the bureau’s Social Survey.

At the end of 2022, the world Jewish population was 15.3 million, with 7 million (46%) living in Israel. In 1939, the world Jewish population was 16.6 million, with only 3% of them living in Mandatory Palestine. By 1948, this figure had increased to 6%.

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2023, 147,199 Holocaust survivors and victims of anti-Semitic acts perpetrated during the Holocaust live in Israel.

Approximately 4.5% of the survivors immigrated to Palestine before Israel’s establishment, in the period 1933–1947. About one-third (31.7%) of the survivors immigrated to Israel in the great wave of immigration (1948–1951) after the establishment of the state. Another 29.7% immigrated in the years 1952–1989, and about one-third (34.1%) immigrated since the 1990s, during the last wave of immigration from the former USSR.

According to the Social Survey 2021, 87% of the survivors were satisfied or very satisfied with their lives, similar to 88% of all “Jews and others” (a statistical category that includes Jews as well as Israelis who are neither Jewish nor Arab) aged 76 and over. However, 17.3% of the survivors frequently feel lonely, compared to 12.6% of all Jews and others aged 76 and over.

In terms of the Jewish population worldwide, in addition to the 7 million in Israel, 6 million Jews live in the United States. France, Canada, the UK, Argentina, Russia, Germany, and Australia also have significant Jewish populations.

Finally, data was released about the age and sex of Holocaust survivors, as well as their marital status and country of birth. Women constitute 61% of the survivors. About 38% of the survivors were born during World War II, between 1939 and 1945. Approximately 50% of the survivors are widowed; 37.7% are married; 10.3% are divorced; and 2% were never married.

Finally, 63% of Holocaust survivors living in Israel were born in Europe, with the largest group consisting of persons born in the former USSR. About 34.7% of Holocaust survivors were born in the Middle East, including survivors born in Morocco (15.7%), those who were born in Algeria and experienced restrictions during the Vichy regime (2.1%), Jews from Iraq who experienced the devastating Farhud pogrom (10.4%) and survivors born in Tunisia and Libya (6.5%).