The State of Israel is marking its 77th Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day), in what may be one of the most tumultuous times the country has faced since its formation.
The October 7th attacks, the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, the dozens of Israelis still being held hostage, and the political divides within Israeli society over the government’s plans and actions have taken their toll not only on Israeli citizens, but on Jews everywhere. Israel is more than just the homeland of the Jewish People: it is also a key component of Jewish identity, home to many friends and family of Jews across the globe, and the main exporter of Jewish products, culture and thought to the wider world.
So, to celebrate the country’s 77th, here are five key data points and ideas that have struck me from recent JPR research about the connections between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora.
The 7.2 million Jews living in Israel constitute 46% of the total number of Jews worldwide
Earlier this year, it was announced that the total population of Israel had crossed the 10 million threshold. When Israel was established in 1948, only 650,000 Jews lived in the country that set out to be a home for all Jews, constituting about 6% of the global Jewish population after the Holocaust. Today, the 7.2 million Jews living in Israel make up 46% of world Jewry.
The cultural makeup of the Israeli Jewish population has changed over the years too, primarily due to immigration from post-WW2 Europe, from Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and from the Former Soviet Union following the collapse of communism.Still, in recent years, Israel’s growth has happened primarily due to robust natural growth.
About half the Jews living in Europe say ‘supporting Israel’ is very important to their Jewish identity.
In a pan-European survey JPR conducted for the European Commission Agency for  Fundamental Rights (FRA), we asked Jews across 12 European countries about which aspects of Jewishness were most important to their Jewish identity. 51% of the 16,400 Jews who completed the survey said ‘supporting Israel’ was ‘very important’ to them – lower than the proportions who said ‘remembering the Holocaust’, ‘fighting antisemitism’ and ‘feeling part of the Jewish people’ but higher than the proportions who highlighted ‘Jewish culture’ and ‘believing in God’, and about the same as those who said ‘sharing Jewish festivals with family’.
The country in which you are most likely to meet a Jewish person saying ‘supporting Israel’ is a ‘very important’ part of their Jewish identity is Spain, where two of three adult Jews feel that way. Poland (31%) and Hungary (25%) have the lowest equivalent rates. Did the attacks on Israel on October 7th 2023 change how Jews value ‘supporting Israel’ as a part of their identity? In the UK, they seem to have had an effect, at least in the short-term: when asked in 2022, 38% of British Jews said it is ‘very important’; when we asked again in mid-2024, that proportion had increased to 48%.
Pupils at a Yom Haatzmaut celebration at
Independent Jewish Day School in Hendon.
About one in three British Jews mark Yom Ha’atzmaut
Staying in Britain: when JPR ran its 2022 UK National Jewish Identity Survey, we were interested in diving deeper into the connections between British Jews and Israel, including by asking our research panel members whether they marked Israel’s Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) and Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day). The results showed that 24% of adult Jews in the UK marked Yom HaZikaron ‘either in person or online’ in 2022, whilst a higher proportion (32%) marked Yom Ha’atzmaut (22% marked both days).
We also asked our panel members if they self-identify as Zionists in 2022 and found that while the majority (63%) of Jews in Britain do, that is a decline from the 72% who did so in 2010. When we asked again in 2024, we saw a slight increase from 2022  (to 65%), but equally, a similar increase in those self-identifying as ‘non-Zionist’ (from 15% to 18%) and as ‘anti-Zionist’ (from 8% to 10%).
It was a typically pugnacious Netanyahu speech, full of lines designed to bring the politicians from both sides of the House to their feet
British Jews are concerned about the State of Israel’s democracy today.
Supporting Israel and feeling it is important to one’s Jewish identity does not mean that Jews aren’t critical of the Israeli government. For example, our Jewish Current Affairs Survey, conducted in mid-2024, found that 76% of British Jews disapprove of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, 62% feel that that the Israeli government hasn’t done enough to secure the release of the hostages, and 52% feel it hasn’t done enough to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans.
There are also clear signs that many British Jews are concerned about the state of Israel’s democracy. Whereas 80% felt that democracy in Israel was ‘alive and well’ in 2010, that proportion had fallen to 52% by 2024. The evidence seems to indicate that as much as most Jews feel strongly attached to Israel, many are showing distinct signs of concern about its political direction
630,000 ex-pat Israelis live outside Israel, potentially changing the Jewish Diaspora
In our groundbreaking statistical assessment of the numbers of Israelis living abroad, we found that nearly a million ex-pat Israelis and their children live outside Israel today. The largest Israel-born Jewish communities are in English-speaking countries (US, Canada, and UK). and in Germany.
The ‘Israel-connected’ Jewish population – those either born in Israel or who became Israeli during their life, plus their children – currently constitutes 9% of the population of the Jewish Diaspora; however, in some countries, people born in Israel and their children comprise more than 20% of the local Jewish population. Europe is home to about a third of Israeli ex-pats but only 16% of all Jews living in the Diaspora, and Israel-born Jews make up nearly half of the Jewish population in Norway, 41% of it in Finland, and over 20% of all Jews in Bulgaria, Ireland, Spain and Denmark.
In some places, most notably The Netherlands, the arrival of Israelis may be helping Diaspora Jewish communities to revive themselves, or at least to remain numerically sustainable. If the trends of the past few decades are an indicator of those to come, the number of Israelis living abroad will continue on a growth trajectory, at least in certain countries. The key question to Diaspora Jewish community leaders is clear: are we ready?
