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Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis ( ) comprise Israel's largest ethnic and religious community. The core of their demographic consists of those with a Jewish identity and their descendants, including ethnic Jews and religious Jews alike. About 46% of the global Jewish population resides in Israel; is uncommon and is offset exponentially by , but those who do emigrate from the country typically move to the Western world. As such, the Israeli diaspora is closely tied to the broader Jewish diaspora.
Israel is widely described as a melting pot for the various Jewish ethnic divisions, primarily consisting of Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, and Mizrahi Jews, as well as many smaller Jewish communities, such as the Beta Israel, the Cochin Jews, the Bene Israel, and the Karaite Jews, among others. Over 25% of Jewish children and 35% of Jewish newborns in Israel are of mixed Ashkenazi and Sephardic or Mizrahi descent, and these figures have been increasing by approximately 0.5% annually: over 50% of Israel's entire Jewish population identifies as having Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi admixture. My Promised Land, by Ari Shavit, (London 2014) The integration of Judaism in Israeli Jewish life is split along four categories: the Hiloni (33%), the Masortim (24%), the Orthodox (9%), and the Ultra-Orthodox (7%). In addition to religious influences, both Jewish history and Jewish culture serve as important aspects defining Israel's Jewish society, thereby contributing significantly to Israel's identity as the world's only Jewish state. (2026). 9781592449439, Wipf and Stock Publ.. ISBN 9781592449439 (2026). 9781560001782, Routledge. ISBN 9781560001782
In 2018, Israel's Knesset narrowly voted in favour of . As the Israeli government considers a person's Jewish status to be a matter of nationality and citizenship, the definition of Jewishness in the Israeli Law of Return includes Patrilineality; this does not align with the stipulations of Judaism's , which defines Jewishness through matrilineality. , all Zera Yisrael and their spouses automatically qualify for the right to immigrate to the country and acquire Israeli citizenship.
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the Israeli Jewish population stood at 7,208,000 in 2023, comprising about 73% of the country's total population. Including non-Jewish relatives (e.g., spouses) raises this figure to 7,762,000, about 79% of the country's population. A 2008 Israel Democracy Institute study found that a plurality of Israeli Jews (47%) identify as Jews first and as Israelis second, and that 39% consider themselves Israelis first and foremost.
Upon the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, the Palestinian Jews of the Yishuv in the British Mandate for Palestine became known as Israeli Jews due to their adoption of a new national identity. The former term has since fallen out of common use.
The area was later conquered by migrant Arabs who invaded the Byzantine Empire and established a Muslim Caliphate in the 7th century during the rise of Islam. Throughout the centuries the size of the Jewish population in the land fluctuated. Before the birth of modern Zionism in the 1880s, by the early 19th century, more than 10,000 Jews were still living in the area that is today modern Israel.
Following centuries of Jewish diaspora, the 19th century saw the rise of Zionism, a Jewish nationalist movement that had a desire to see the self-determination of the Jewish people through the creation of a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. Significant numbers of Jews have aliyah to Palestine since the 1880s. Zionism remained a minority movement until the rise of Nazism in 1933 and the subsequently attempted extermination of the Jewish people in Nazi-occupied areas of Europe in the Holocaust. In the late 19th century large numbers of Jews began moving to the Ottoman and later British-controlled region. In 1917, the British endorsed a National Home for Jews in Mandate Palestine by issuing the Balfour Declaration. The Jewish population in the region increased from 11% of the population in 1922 to 30% by 1940.
In 1937, following the Great Arab Revolt, the partition plan proposed by the Peel Commission was rejected by both the Palestinian Arab leadership and the Zionist Congress. As a result, believing that their position in the Middle East in the event of a war depended on the support of the Arab states, Britain abandoned the idea of a Jewish state in 1939 in favour of a unitary state with a Jewish minority. The White Paper of 1939 capped Jewish immigration for five years, with further immigration dependent on the agreement of the Arabs. In the event, limited Jewish immigration was permitted until the end of the mandate.
In 1947, following increasing levels of violence, the British government decided to withdraw from Mandatory Palestine. The 1947 UN Partition Plan split the mandate (apart from Jerusalem) into two states, Jewish and Arab, giving about 56% of Mandatory Palestine to the Jewish state. Immediately following the adoption of the Partition Plan by the United Nations General Assembly, the Palestinian Arab leadership rejected the plan to create the as-yet-unnamed Jewish State and launched a guerrilla war.
On 14 May 1948, one day before the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine led by prime minister David Ben-Gurion, made a declaration of independence, of the State of Israel though without any reference to defined borders.Harris, J. (1998) The Israeli Declaration of Independence The Journal of the Society for Textual Reasoning, Vol. 7
Israel's Jewish population continued to grow at a very high rate for years, fed by waves of Aliyah from round the world, most notably the massive immigration wave of Soviet Jews, which arrived in Israel in the early 1990s following the dissolution of the USSR, who, according to the Law of Return, were entitled to become Israeli citizens upon arrival. About 380,000 arrived in 1990–1991 alone. Some 80,000–100,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel since the early 1980s.
Since 1948, Israel has been involved in a series of major military conflicts, including the 1956 Suez War, 1967 Six-Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon War, and 2006 Lebanon War, as well as a nearly constant series of ongoing minor conflicts. Israel has been also embroiled in an ongoing conflict with the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories, which have been under Israeli control since the Six-Day War, despite the signing of the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993, and the ongoing efforts of Israeli, Palestinian and global peacemakers.
When Israel was first established in 1948, it had the third-largest Jewish population in the world, after the United States and Soviet Union. In the 1970s, Israel surpassed the Soviet Union as having the second-largest Jewish population. In 2003, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Israel had surpassed the United States as the nation with the world's largest Jewish population. The report was contested by Professor Sergio Della Pergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Considered the greatest demographic expert on Jews, Della Pergola said it would take another three years to close the gap. Statistics bureau: Israeli Jews outnumber Jews in the U.S. Haaretz In January 2006, Della Pergola stated that Israel now had more Jews than the United States, and Tel Aviv had replaced New York as the metropolitan area with the largest Jewish population in the world, while a major demographic study found that Israel's Jewish population surpassed that of the United States in 2008. Due to the decline of Diaspora Jewry as a result of intermarriage and assimilation, along with the steady growth of the Israeli Jewish population, it has been speculated that within about 20 years, a majority of the world's Jews will live in Israel.Bayme, Steven: Jewish Arguments and Counterarguments: Essays and Addresses (Page 385) In March 2012, the Israeli Census Bureau of Statistics reported on behalf of Ynet has forecast that in 2019, Israel will be home to 6,940,000 Jews, 5.84 million which are non-Haredi Jews living in Israel, compared with 5.27 million in 2009. The number is expected to grow to anywhere between 6.09 million and 9.95 million by 2059, marking a 16%–89% increase with the 2011 population. The Bureau also forecasts that the ultra-Orthodox population will number 1.1 million people by 2019, compared with 750,000 in 2009. By 2059, the projected Haredi Jewish population is estimated to be between 2.73 million and 5.84 million, marking a 264%–686% increase. Thus the total projected Israeli Jewish population by 2059 is estimated to be between 8.82 million and 15.790 million. In January 2014, it was reported by demographer Joseph Chamie that the projected population of Israeli Jews is expected to reach between 9.84 million by the year 2025 and 11.40 million by 2035.
| +Israeli Jews by District | |||
| 1 | Central District | 1,592,000 | 92% |
| 2 | Tel Aviv District | 1,210,000 | 99% |
| 3 | Southern District | 860,000 | 86% |
| 4 | Haifa District | 652,000 | 76% |
| 5 | Jerusalem District | 621,000 | 69% |
| 6 | Northern District | 562,000 | 46% |
| 7 | Judea and Samaria Area (the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem) | 304,569 | ≈15–20% |
| +Significant population centers | ||||
| 1 | Jerusalem | 773,800 | 63.4% | Jerusalem District |
| 2 | Tel Aviv | 393,900 | 91.4% | Tel Aviv District |
| 3 | Haifa | 265,600 | 80.9% | Haifa District |
| 4 | Rishon Lezion | 227,600 | 93.9% | Central District |
| 5 | Ashdod | 211,300 | 91.0% | Southern District |
| 6 | Petah Tikva | 197,800 | 92.5% | Central District |
| 7 | Netanya | 181,200 | 93.4% | Central District |
| 8 | Beersheba | 187,900 | 87.9% | Southern District |
| 9 | Holon | 172,400 | 92.8% | Tel Aviv District |
| 10 | Bnei Brak | 155,600 | 98.6% | Tel Aviv District |
| 11 | Ramat Gan | 135,300 | 95.2% | Tel Aviv District |
| 12 | Bat Yam | 128,900 | 84.9% | Tel Aviv District |
| 13 | Rehovot | 109,500 | 94.8% | Central District |
| 14 | Ashkelon | 111,700 | 88.4% | Southern District |
| 15 | Herzliya | 85,300 | 96.3% | Tel Aviv District |
For statistical purposes, there are three main metropolitan areas in Israel. The majority of the Jewish population in Israel is located in the central area of Israel within the Metropolitan area of Tel Aviv. The Metropolitan area of Tel Aviv is currently the largest Jewish population center in the world.
| +Israeli Jewish population per metropolitan area |
| 94.9% |
| 70.5% |
| 63.6% |
It has been argued that Jerusalem, Israel's proclaimed capital and largest city with a population of 732,100, and an urban area with a population of over 1,000,000 (including 280,000 Palestinian East Jerusalemites who are not Israeli citizens), with over 700,000 Israeli Jews and Nazareth with a population of 65,500, and an urban area of nearly 200,000 people of which over 110,000 are Israeli Jews should also be classified as metropolitan areas.
Among Israeli Jews, 75% are Sabras (Israeli-born), mostly second- or third-generation Israelis, and the rest are Aliyah (Jewish immigrants to Israel)—19% from Europe, Americas and Oceania, and 9% from Asia and Africa, mostly the Muslim world.
The Israeli government does not trace the diaspora origin of Israeli Jews.
| Total | 1,610,900 | 4,124,400 | 5,753,300 | 100.0% |
| Asia | 201,000 | 494,200 | 695,200 | 12.0% |
| Turkey | 25,700 | 52,500 | 78,100 | 1.4% |
| Iraq | 62,600 | 173,300 | 235,800 | 4.1% |
| Yemenite Jews | 28,400 | 111,100 | 139,500 | 2.4% |
| Persian Jews/Afghanistan | 49,300 | 92,300 | 141,600 | 2.5% |
| India/Pakistan | 17,600 | 29,000 | 46,600 | 0.8% |
| Syrian Jews/Lebanon | 10,700 | 25,000 | 35,700 | 0.6% |
| Other | 6,700 | 11,300 | 18,000 | 0.3% |
| African Jews | 315,800 | 572,100 | 887,900 | 15.4% |
| Moroccan Jews | 153,600 | 339,600 | 493,200 | 8.6% |
| Algeria/Tunisia | 43,200 | 91,700 | 134,900 | 2.3% |
| Libya | 15,800 | 53,500 | 69,400 | 1.2% |
| Egypt | 18,500 | 39,000 | 57,500 | 1.0% |
| Beta Israel | 81,600 | 38,600 | 110,100 | 1.9% |
| Other | 13,100 | 9,700 | 22,800 | 0.4% |
| Europe/Americas/Oceania | 1,094,100 | 829,700 | 1,923,800 | 33.4% |
| Soviet Union | 651,400 | 241,000 | 892,400 | 15.5% |
| Poland | 51,300 | 151,000 | 202,300 | 3.5% |
| Romania | 88,600 | 125,900 | 214,400 | 3.7% |
| Bulgaria/Greece | 16,400 | 32,600 | 49,000 | 0.9% |
| Germany/Austria | 24,500 | 50,600 | 75,200 | 1.3% |
| Czech Republic/Slovakia/Hungary | 20,000 | 45,000 | 64,900 | 1.1% |
| France | 41,100 | 26,900 | 68,000 | 1.2% |
| British Jews | 21,000 | 19,900 | 40,800 | 0.7% |
| Europe, other | 27,000 | 29,900 | 56,900 | 1.0% |
| North America/Oceania | 90,500 | 63,900 | 154,400 | 2.7% |
| Argentina | 35,500 | 26,100 | 61,600 | 1.1% |
| Latin America, other | 26,900 | 17,000 | 43,900 | 0.8% |
| Israel | — | 2,246,300 | 2,246,300 | 39.0% |
In Israel there are approximately 300,000 citizens with Jewish ancestry who are not Jewish according to Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law. Of this number approximately 10% are Christian and 89% are either Jewish or non-religious. The total number of conversions under the Nativ program of IDF was 640 in 2005 and 450 in 2006. From 2002 to 1 October 2007, a total of 2,213 soldiers have converted under Nativ. In 2003, 437 Christians converted to Judaism; in 2004, 884; and in 2005, 733. Recently several thousand conversions conducted by the Chief Rabbinate under the leadership of Rabbi Chaim Drukman have been annulled, and the official Jewish status over several thousand people who converted through the conversion court of the Chief Rabbinate since 1999 hangs in limbo as the proceedings continue regarding these individuals Jewish status. The vast majority of these individuals are former Soviet Union immigrants.
In his book from 2001 "The Invention and Decline of Israeliness: State, Culture and Military in Israel", the Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling identified and divided the modern Israeli society into seven population groups (seven subcultures): The hiloni upper-middle class group, the national religious group, the Masortim Mizrahim group, the Haredi Judaism group, the Arab citizens of Israel, the Russian immigrants group and the Beta Israel group. According to Kimmerling, each of these population groups have distinctive characteristics, such as place of resident, consumption patterns, education systems, communications media and more.
Not all Jews immigrating to Israel from European countries are of Ashkenazi origin (the majority of French Jews are of Sephardic, and some Jews from the Asian Republics of the USSR are Mizrahi), and the Israeli government does not distinguish between Jewish communities in its census.
During the first decades of Israel as a state, strong cultural conflict existed between Mizrahi, Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews (mainly east European Ashkenazim). The roots of this conflict, which still exists to a much smaller extent in present-day Israeli society, stem from the many cultural differences between the various Jewish communities, despite the government's encouragement of the "melting pot". That is to say, all Jewish immigrants in Israel were strongly encouraged to "melt down" their own particular exile identities within the general social "pot" in order to become Israeli.
The current most prominent European countries of origin of the Israeli Jews are as follows:
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Jews from North Africa and Asia have come to be called "Mizrahi Jews".
Most African and Asian Jewish communities use the Sephardic prayer ritual and abide by the rulings of Sephardic rabbinic authorities, and therefore consider themselves to be "Sephardim" in the broader sense of "Jews of the Spanish rite", though not in the narrower sense of "Spanish Jews". Of late, the term Mizrahi has come to be associated with all Jews in Israel with backgrounds in Islamic lands.
Cultural and/or racial biases against the newcomers were compounded by the fledgling state's lack of financial resources and inadequate housing to handle the massive population influx. Austerity was the law of the land during the country's first decade of existence. Thus, hundreds of thousands of new Sephardic immigrants were sent to live in tent cities in outlying areas. Sephardim (in its wider meaning) were often victims of discrimination, and were sometimes called schwartze (meaning "black" in Yiddish). The most egregious effects of racism were documented in the Yemenite children affair, in which Yemenite children were placed in the foster care of Ashkenazim families, their families being told that their children had died.
Some believe that even worse than the housing discrimination was the differential treatment accorded the children of these immigrants, many of whom were tracked by the largely European education establishment into dead-end "vocational" high schools, without any real assessment of their intellectual capacities. Mizrahi Jews protested their unfair treatment, and even established the Israeli Black Panthers movement with the mission of working for social justice.
The effects of this early discrimination still linger a half-century later, as documented by the studies of the Adva Center, a think tank on social equality, and by other Israeli academic research (cf., for example, Tel Aviv University Professor Yehuda Shenhav's article in Hebrew documenting the gross under-representation of Sephardic Jewry in Israeli high school history textbooks.) All Israeli Prime Ministers have been Ashkenazi, although Sephardim and Mizrahim have attained high positions including ministerial positions, chief of staffs and presidency. The student bodies of Israel's universities remain overwhelmingly Ashkenazi in origin, despite the fact that roughly half the country's population is non-Ashkenazi. The tent cities of the 1950s morphed into so-called "". Scattered over border areas of the Negev Desert and the Galilee, far from the bright lights of Israel's major cities, most of these towns never had the critical mass or ingredients to succeed as places to live, and they continue to suffer from high unemployment, inferior schools, and chronic brain drain.
While the Israeli Black Panthers no longer exist, the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition and many other NGOs carry on the struggle for equal access and opportunity in housing, education, and employment for the country's underprivileged populace—still largely composed of Sephardim and Mizrahim, joined now by newer immigrants from Ethiopia and the Caucasus Mountains.
Today over 2,500,000 Mizrahi Jews, and Sephardic Jews live in Israel with the majority of them being descendants of the 680,000 Jews who fled Arab countries due to expulsions and antisemitism, with smaller numbers having emigrated from the Islamic Republics of the Former Soviet Union (c.250,000), India (70,000), Iran (200,000–250,000), and Turkey (80,000). Before the immigration of over 1,000,000 Russian, mainly Ashkenazi Jews to Israel after to collapse of the Soviet Union, 70% of Israeli Jews were Sephardic or Mizrahi Jews.
The current most prominent countries of diaspora origin of these Jewish communities are as follows:
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Most Jewish Argentines are Ashkenazi Jews.
Over time, the Ethiopian Jews in Israel moved out of the government-owned mobile home camps that they initially lived in and settled mainly in the various cities and towns throughout Israel, mainly with the encouragement of the Israeli authorities who granted the new immigrants generous government loans or low-interest mortgages.
Similarly to other groups of immigrant Jews who made aliyah to Israel, the Ethiopian Jews have faced obstacles in their integration to Israeli society. Initially the main challenges of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel were due in part to communication difficulties (most of the population could not read or write in Hebrew, and much of the veteran population could not hold a simple conversation in the Hebrew language), and discrimination in certain areas of the Israeli society. Unlike Russian immigrants, many of whom arrive with job skills, Ethiopians came from a subsistence economy and were ill-prepared to work in an industrialized society.
Over the years there has been significant progress in the integration of this population group in the Israeli society, primarily due to the fact that most of the young Ethiopian population is conscripted into the military service (mandatory for all Israelis at 18), where most Ethiopian Jews have been able to increase their chances for better opportunities.
The 2013 Miss Israel title was given to Yityish Titi Aynaw, the first Ethiopian-born contestant to win the pageant. Aynaw, moved to Israel from Ethiopia with her family when she was 12.
While not all Jews disapprove of intermarriage, many members of the Israeli Jewish community have expressed their concern that a high rate of interfaith marriages will result in the eventual disappearance of the Israeli Jewish community.
In contrast to the current moderate birth rates of Israeli Jews and the relative low trends of assimilation, some communities within Israeli Jewry, such as Orthodox Jews, have significantly higher birth rates and lower intermarriage rates, and are growing rapidly.
Through the years, the majority of Israeli Jews who emigrated from Israel went to the United States and Canada.
For many years definitive data on Israeli emigration was unavailable.Henry Kamm. "Israeli emigration inspires anger and fear;" The New York Times 4 January 1981. In The Israeli Diaspora sociologist Stephen J. Gold maintains that calculation of Jewish emigration has been a contentious issue, explaining, "Since Zionism, the philosophy that underlies the existence of the Jewish state, calls for return home of the world's Jews, the opposite movement—Israelis leaving the Jewish state to reside elsewhere—clearly presents an ideological and demographic problem."
Among the most common reasons for emigration of Israeli Jews from Israel are economic constraints, economic characteristics (U.S. and Canada have always been richer nations than Israel), disappointment of the Israeli government, Israel's ongoing security issues, as well as the excessive role of religion in the lives of Israelis.
In recent decades, considerable numbers of Israeli Jews have moved abroad.Andrew I. Killgore. "Facts on the Ground: A Jewish Exodus from Israel" Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 2004, pp. 18–20 Reasons for emigration vary, but generally relate to a combination of economic and political concerns. According to data published in 2006, from 1990 to 2005, 230,000 Israelis left the country; a large proportion of these departures included people who initially immigrated to Israel and then reversed their course (48% of all post-1990 departures and even 60% of 2003 and 2004 departures were former immigrants to Israel). 8% of Jewish immigrants in the post-1990 period left Israel. In 2005 alone, 21,500 Israelis left the country and had not yet returned at the end of 2006; among them 73% were Jews. At the same time, 10,500 Israelis came back to Israel after over one year abroad; 84% of them were Jews.
In addition, the Israeli Jewish diaspora group also has many Jews worldwide, especially the ones who originate from Western countries, who moved to Israel and gained Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, who lived in Israel for a time, then returned to their country of origin and kept their dual citizenship.
The majority of the Israeli Jews in the UK live in London and in particular in the heavily populated Jewish area of Golders Green.
The phrase demographic threat (or demographic bomb) is used within the Israeli political sphere to describe the growth of Israel's Arab citizenry as constituting a threat to its maintenance of its status as a Jewish state with a Jewish demographic majority.
Israeli historian Benny Morris states:
The Israeli Arabs are a time bomb. Their slide into complete Palestinization has made them an emissary of the enemy that is among us. They are a potential fifth column. In both demographic and security terms they are liable to undermine the state. So that if Israel again finds itself in a situation of existential threat, as in 1948, it may be forced to act as it did then. If we are attacked by Egypt (after an Islamist revolution in Cairo) and by Syria, and chemical and biological missiles slam into our cities, and at the same time Israeli Palestinians attack us from behind, I can see an expulsion situation. It could happen. If the threat to Israel is existential, expulsion will be justified...
The term "demographic bomb" was famously used by Benjamin Netanyahu in 2003 when he asserted that if the percentage of Arab citizens rises above its current level of about 20 percent, Israel will not be able to maintain a Jewish demographic majority. Netanyahu's comments were criticized as racist by Arab Knesset members and a range of civil rights and human rights organizations, such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Even earlier allusions to the "demographic threat" can be found in an internal Israeli government document drafted in 1976 known as the Koenig Memorandum, which laid out a plan for reducing the number and influence of Arab citizens of Israel in the Galilee region.
In 2003, the Israeli daily Ma'ariv published an article entitled, "Special Report: Polygamy is a Security Threat," detailing a report put forth by the Director of the Israeli Population Administration at the time, Herzl Gedj; the report described polygamy in the Bedouin sector a "security threat" and advocated means of reducing the birth rate in the Arab sector.Manski, Rebecca. "A Desert 'Mirage:' Privatizing Development Plans in the Negev/Naqab;" Bustan, 2005 The Population Administration is a department of the Demographic Council, whose purpose, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics is: "to increase the Jewish birthrate by encouraging women to have more children using government grants, housing benefits, and other incentives." HRA: Weekly Review of the Arab Press, Issue No. 92 In 2008 the Minister of the Interior appointed Yaakov Ganot as new head of the Population Administration, which according to Haaretz is "probably the most important appointment an interior minister can make."
The rapid population growth with the Haredi Judaism may affect, according to some Israeli researchers, the preservation of a Jewish majority in the state of Israel. Preserving a Jewish majority population within the state of Israel has been a defining principle among Israeli Jews, where Jewish couples are encouraged to have large families. Many financial incentives were given on behalf of the Israeli government. For instance, Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion set up a monetary fund for Jewish women who gave birth to at least 10 children. To further increase the Israeli Jewish fertility rate and population, many fertility clinics have been opened and are operated throughout the country. As part of Israel's universal health-care coverage, Israel spends $60 million annually on publicly funded fertility treatments and operates more fertility clinics per capita than any other country in the world.
A study showed that in 2010, Jewish birthrates rose by 31% and 19,000 diaspora Jews immigrated to Israel, while the Arab birthrate fell by 1.7%. By June 2013, a number of Israeli demographers called the so-called Arab demographic time bomb a myth, citing a declining Arab and Muslim birth rate, an incremental increase in the Israeli Jewish birth rate, unnecessary demographic scare campaigns, as well as inflated statistics released by the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli former Ambassador Yoram Ettinger has rejected the assertion of a demographic time bomb, saying that anyone who believes such claims are either misled or mistaken.
American political scientist Ian Lustick has accused Ettinger and his associates for multiple methodological errors and having a political agenda.
In 2011, roughly 9% of Israeli Jews defined as Haredim (ultra-orthodox religious); an additional 10% are "religious"; 15% consider themselves "religious Masortim", not strictly adhering to religion; further 23% are self-defined "'not very religious' Masortim" and 43% are "secular" ("hiloni"). Characterization of the Jewish Population by Level of Religiosity Based on Linkage to Educational Institutions, p. 20. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.
A 2025 Pew Research Center survey on religious switching among Israeli Jews revealed that 22% transitioned between different Jewish groups. The study found that 45% of Israeli Jews identify as hilonim (secular), though only 38% were raised as such. Among masortim (traditionalists), the figures were 24% and 25%, respectively, while datim (Orthodox) accounted for 18% compared to 23% in their upbringing. Meanwhile, haredim (ultra-Orthodox) comprised 13%, slightly higher than the 12% raised in that tradition. This data highlights a notable shift: hilonim experienced the most significant net gain (+7%), whereas datim faced the steepest decline (-5%). The other groups saw minor changes, with masortim decreasing by 1% and haredim increasing by 1%.
In 2020, the ultra-Orthodox Israelis are already numbered more than 1.1 million (14 percent of total population).
However, 78% of all Israelis (virtually all Israeli Jews) participate in a Passover seder, and 63% fasting on Yom Kippur.
Some who consider themselves ethnically Jewish follow other religions such as Christianity or Messianic Judaism.
Unlike American Jews, according to the 2013 Israel Democracy Institute's data, the majority of Israeli Jews tend not to align themselves with Jewish religious movements (such as Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism or Conservative Judaism, although they also exist in Israel, like in the West) but instead tend to define their religious affiliation by degree of their religious practice.
On the other hand, among the religious and Orthodox groups in Israel, many individuals chose to part from the religious lifestyle and Hiloni (they are referred to as Yotz'im bish'ela). A research conducted in 2011 estimated that about 30 percent of the national religious youth from the religious lifestyle embrace a secular lifestyle, but 75 percent of them go back to religion after a formation process of their self-identity, which usually lasts until age 28. The percentage from those who grew up in Chassidic homes, is even higher than that. Contrary to Baalei teshuva, the Orthodox Jews whom wish to embrace a secular lifestyle have very few organizations whom assist them in parting from the Haredi world, and often they end up finding themselves destitute or struggling to complete the educational and social gaps. The most prominent organizations whom assist Yotz'im bish'ela are the NGO organizations Hillel and Dror.
Modern Hebrew is also the primary official language of the modern State of Israel and almost all Israeli Jews are native Hebrew language and speak Hebrew as their primary language. A variety of other languages are still spoken within some Israeli Jewish communities, communities that are representative of the various Jewish ethnic divisions from around the world that have come together to make up Israel's Jewish population.
Even though the majority of Israeli Jews are native Hebrew speakers, many Jewish immigrants still continue to speak their former languages—many immigrants from the Soviet Union continue to speak primarily Russian language at home and many immigrants from Ethiopia continue to speak primarily Amharic at home.
Many of Israel's Hasidic Jews (being exclusively of Ashkenazi descent) are raised speaking Yiddish.
Classical Hebrew is the language of most Jewish religious literature, such as the Tanakh (Bible) and Siddur (prayerbook).
Currently, 90% of the Israeli-Jewish public is proficient in Hebrew, and 70% is highly proficient.
Some prominent Israeli politicians such as David Ben-Gurion tried to learn Arabic, and the Mizrahi Jews spoke Judeo-Arabic although most of their descendants in Israel today only speak Hebrew.
Through the years, as Israel's continued existence as a "Jewish State" has relied upon the maintenance of a Jewish demographic majority, Israeli demographers, politicians and bureaucrats have treated Jewish population growth promotion as a central question in their research and policymaking.
The Law of Return declares that Israel constitutes a home not only for the inhabitants of the State, but also for all members of the Jewish people everywhere, be they living in poverty and fear of persecution or be they living in affluence and safety. The law declares to the Jewish people and to the world that the State of Israel welcomes the of the world to return to their ancient homeland.
are only officially sanctioned if performed abroad. As a result, it is not uncommon for couples who may for some reason not be able (or chose not) to get married in Israel to travel overseas to get married.
During its time of existence the legal settlement that gives the rabbinical courts the monopoly on conducting the marriages and divorces of the entire Israeli Jewish population has been a source of great criticism from the secular public in Israel, but also to the ardent support from the religious public. The main argument of the supporters of the law is that its cancellation will divide the Jewish people in Israel between the Jews who would marry and divorce each other within the Jewish religious authorities and the Jews who would marry and divorce each other within the civil marriages—which would not be registered or inspected by the religious authorities, and thus their children would be considered illegitimate to marry the children of the couples married within the religious court, from fear of them being considered Mamzer. Opponents of the law see it as a severe offense to the human civil rights made by the state of Israel.
However, common-law marriage is recognized by Israeli law, without restriction of ethnicity, religion or sex (that is, both for inter-sex and same-sex couples, and between a Jew and a non-Jew). Once, the status of common law marriage is proven and obtained, it gives a legal status almost equal to marriage.
In addition, in the recent decades a growing minority from within the Israeli Jewish conscripts have denounced the mandatory enrollment and refused to serve, claiming that due to financial insecurities they feel that they need to be spending their time more productively pursuing their chosen studies or career paths. Some individual resentment may also be compounded by the typically low wages paid to conscripts—the current Israeli policies see National Service as a duty rendered to the country and its citizens, and therefore the Israeli army does not pay any wages to conscripts, but instead grants a low monthly allowance to the full-time national service personnel, depending on the type of their duty.
While the JNF and the ILA view an exchange of lands as a long-term solution, opponents say that such maneuvers privatize municipal lands and preserve a situation in which significant lands in Israel are not available for use by all of its citizens. As of 2007, the High Court delayed ruling on JNF policy regarding leasing lands to non-Jews, and changes to the ILA-JNF relationship were up in the air. Adalah and other organizations furthermore express concern that proposed severance of the relation between the ILA and JNF, as suggested by Ami Ayalon, would leave the JNF free to retain the same proportion of lands for Jewish uses as it seeks to settle hundreds of thousands of Jews in areas with a tenuous Jewish demographic majority (in particular, 100,000 Jews in existing Galilee communities and 250,000 Jews in new Negev communities via the Blueprint Negev).
Hebrew and Arabic are currently official languages of Israel. Government ministries publish all material intended for the public in Hebrew, with selected material translated into Arabic, English language, Russian language, and other languages spoken in Israel.
The country's laws are published in Hebrew, and eventually English and Arabic translations are published. Publishing the law in Hebrew in the official gazette ( Reshumot) is enough to make it valid. Unavailability of an Arabic translation can be regarded as a legal defense only if the defendant proves he could not understand the meaning of the law in any conceivable way. Following appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court, the use of Arabic on street signs and labels increased dramatically. In response to one of the appeals presented by Arab Israeli organizations, the Supreme Court ruled that although second to Hebrew, Arabic is an official language of the State of Israel, and should be used extensively. Today most highway signage is trilingual, written in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
Hebrew is the standard language of communication at places of work except inside the Arab community, and among recent immigrants, foreign workers, and with tourists. The state's schools in Arab communities teach in Arabic according to a specially adapted curriculum. This curriculum includes mandatory lessons of Hebrew as foreign language from the 3rd grade onwards. Arabic is taught in Hebrew-speaking schools, but only the basic level is mandatory.
Critics of Israel as a Jewish nation state have suggested that it should adopt more inclusive and neutral symbolism for the national flag and anthem arguing that they exclude the non-Jewish citizens of Israel from their narrative of a national identity. Defenders of the flag say that many flags in Europe bear crosses (such as the flags of Sweden, Finland, Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Greece), while flags in predominantly Muslim countries bear distinctive Muslim symbols (such as Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Saudi Arabia).
Through the years some Israeli-Arab politicians have requested a reevaluation of the Israeli flag and Israeli national anthem, arguing that they cannot represent all citizens of Israel, including the Arab citizens of Israel. Although the proposals to change the flag have never been discussed in the state institutions, they do occasionally get to a public discussion, as part of the discussion on whether Israel is, as defined by the , "A Jewish and Democratic State", or if it must become, as demanded by certain circles, "a state of all its citizens". The demand to change the flag is seen among many Israelis as a threat to the very essence of the state. In relation to this, in 2001 the Israeli Minister of Education Limor Livnat ordered the enforcement of the flag amendment she initiated, and ordered the raising of the flag in the front of all schools in Israel, even those serving the Arab population.
During the 1970s, numerous attacks against Israeli civilians were carried out by Palestinians from Lebanon. Notable incidents include the Coastal Road Massacre (25 adults and 13 children killed, 71 injured)," Operation Litani is launched in retaliation for that month's Coastal Road massacre." Gregory S. Mahler. Politics and Government in Israel: The Maturation of a Modern State, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, , p. 259. the Avivim school bus massacre (3 adults and 9 children killed, 25 injured), the Kiryat Shmona massacre (9 adults and 9 children killed, 15 injured), Arab Terrorists Slay 18 In Raid On Israel – published on the Virgin Islands Daily News 13 April 1974 the Lod Airport massacre (26 killed, 79 injured), and the Ma'alot massacre (8 adults and 23 children killed, 70 injured). "Bullets, Bombs and a Sign of Hope", Time, 27 May 1974.
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists 96 fatal terror attacks against Israelis from September 1993 to September 2000, of which 16 were bombing attacks, resulting in 269 deaths.
During the Second Intifada, a period of increased violence from September 2000 to 2005, Palestinians carried out 152 suicide bombings and attempted to carry out over 650 more. Other methods of attack include launching and mortars into Israel, Q&A: Gaza conflict, BBC News 18 01 2009 Gaza's rocket threat to Israel, BBC 21 01 2008 kidnapping of both soldiers and civilians (including children), Subscription required. shootings, IDF nabs Ze'ev Kahane's murderer Jerusalem Post, 28 May 2007." Eight killed at Jerusalem school", BBC News Online, 6 March 2008. Terror Attack At Jerusalem Seminary – Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva – 8 Dead National Terror Alert Response Center, 6 March 2008. Jerusalem seminary attacked UPI, 6 March 2008. assassination, stabbings, and lynchings. As of November 2012, over 15,000 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that of the 1,010 Israelis killed between September 2000 and January 2005, 78 percent were civilians. "ICT Middleastern Conflict Statistics Project" Short summary page with "Breakdown of Fatalities: 27 September 2000 through 1 January 2005." International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism. Another 8,341 were injured in what the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to as terrorist attacks between 2000 and 2007.
In 2010, Israel honored the memory of all 3,971 Aurora ( Spanish) Israeli civilian victims whom have been killed through Israel's history, as part of political violence, Palestinian political violence, and terrorism in general.
On 29 April 2007 Haaretz reported that an Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI) poll of 507 people showed that 75% of "Israeli Arabs would support a constitution that maintained Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic state while guaranteeing equal rights for minorities, while 23% said they would oppose such a definition."
In contrast, a 2006 poll commissioned by The Center Against Racism, showed negative attitudes towards Arabs, based on questions asked to 500 Jewish residents of Israel representing all levels of Jewish society. The poll found that: 63% of Jews believe Arabs are a security threat; 68% of Jews would refuse to live in the same building as an Arab; 34% of Jews believe that Arab culture is inferior to Israeli culture. Additionally, support for segregation between Jewish and Arab citizens was found to be higher among Jews of Middle Eastern origin than those of European origin.Ashkenazi, Eli and Khoury, Jack. Poll: 68% of Jews would refuse to live in same building as an Arab. Haaretz. 22 March 2006. Retrieved 30 March 2006. A more recent poll by the Center Against Racism (2008) found a worsening of Jewish citizens' perceptions of their Arab counterparts:
A 2007 poll conducted by Sammy Smooha, a sociologist at Haifa University, in the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon War, found that:
Surveys in 2009 found a radicalization in the positions of Israeli Arabs towards the State of Israel, with 41% of Israeli Arabs recognizing Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state (down from 65.6% in 2003), and 53.7% believing Israel has a right to exist as an independent country (down from 81.1% in 2003). Polls also showed that 40% of Arab citizens engaged in Holocaust denial.
A 2010 Arab Jewish Relations Survey, compiled by Prof. Sami Smoocha in collaboration with the Jewish-Arab Center at the University of Haifa shows that:
A 2010 poll from the Arab World for Research and Development found that:
A range of politicians,"... a fifth column, a league of traitors" (Evelyn Gordon, " No longer the political fringe", The Jerusalem Post 14 September 2006)"Avigdor compared Arab MKs to collaborators with Nazis and expressed the hope that they would be executed." (Uzi Benziman, " For want of stability ", Haaretz undated) rabbis,"We were shocked to hear of the intentions of enemies from the inside..." (Ronny Sofer, " Yesha rabbis: Majadele is like a fifth column", Ynetnews 19 October 2007) journalists,"George looks like a moderate next to Israeli fifth columnists like Bishara." (David Bedein, " Israel's Unrepentant Fifth Columnist", Israel Insider 13 April 2007) and historians commonly refer to the 20–25% minority of Arabs in Israel as being a "fifth column" inside the state of Israel."... many Israeli Jews view Israeli Arabs as a security and demographic threat." (Evelyn Gordon, " 'Kassaming' coexistence ", The Jerusalem Post 23 May 2007)"Why is Arab criticism always labeled as conspiracy to destroy Israel?" (Abir Kopty, " Fifth column forever?", Ynetnews 7 April 2007)"... they hurl accusations against us, like that we are a 'fifth column.'" (Roee Nahmias, " Arab MK: Israel committing 'genocide' of Shiites", Ynetnews 2 August 2006)
Genetic studies have revealed that Jewish populations worldwide share a significant amount of Middle Eastern genetic ancestry, suggesting a common origin in the ancient Near East. This shared genetic heritage likely includes contributions from the Israelites and other ancient populations in the region. Jews also exhibit genetic signatures that indicate some degree of genetic admixture with local populations in the regions where they settled due to intermarriage, migrations, and other interactions with those populations throughout history. Jews of diverse ancestries exhibit genetic connections to neighboring non-Jewish populations in the Levant, such as the Lebanese people, Samaritans, Palestinians, Bedouins, and Druze. Additionally, there are genetic connections to Southern European populations, including Cypriots, Italians (South Italy) and Greeks, which can be attributed to historical interactions and migrations.
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