Worldwide Jewry nowhere near pre-WWII numbers

Worldwide Jewry nowhere near pre-WWII numbers, says foremost Jewish demographer

Contrary to reports that the Jewish population is approaching, and may even have passed, pre-Holocaust numbers, it actually falls more than two million short, says Prof. Sergio DellaPergola. Maybe try again in 35 years Late last week, international media, including this news site, was flooded by optimistic claims, based on a report by the Jewish People Policy Institute report, that the Jewish population had regained losses suffered during the Nazis’ systematic genocide. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement from Sunday’s cabinet meeting got on the bandwagon with the “encouraging data” — while giving it a signature Iran-flavored spin. “According to the Jewish People Policy Institute, the number of Jews in the world has passed 16 million and is approaching – and maybe has already passed — the number of Jews who lived before the Holocaust… Prime Minister Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting on June 28, 2015. (Photo by Alex Kolomoisky/POOL) “There is still a certain symbolic value in that the Jewish People has re-attained the number that it had before the awful destruction,” said Netanyahu. “Seventy years after the destruction of one-third of our people, we will not allow a regime that denies the Holocaust and openly declares its intention to destroy our state have the ability to do so,” he added. ‘We are approaching the number of Jews in the world on the eve of WWII’ — JPPI report summary The JPPI report, formally released at the cabinet meeting on Sunday, was accompanied by a summary which reads: “The worldwide Jewish population has been steadily expanding and now numbers 14.2 million people. If we include those who identify as partially Jewish and immigrants to the State of Israel who are not halachically [i.e., according to Jewish law] Jewish but have qualified under the Law of Return (and do not profess any religion) we are approaching the number of Jews in the world on the eve of WWII.” In conversation with The Times of Israel Sunday, JPPI President Avinoam Bar-Yosef said the report is not stating that there are now 16.5 million Jews, the pre-WWII figure. Rather that for “policy purposes,” there are several million more who should be considered in order “to tailor for them special policies that will enhance their Jewish identity.” While creating “euphoric headlines,” this way of computing is patently false, said demographer DellaPergola in a lengthy conversation with The Times of Israel Sunday. The JPPI report, it seems, is mixing proverbial population apples and oranges into its claim that “we are approaching the number of Jews in the world on the eve of WWII.” But as in many conversations surrounding Israel and the Diaspora, at the base of this controversy is the endlessly unanswerable question, “Who is a Jew?” ‘The headline does not match the news’ DellaPergola, as the world’s preeminent expert in Jewish demography, has been beleaguered by phone calls since Friday’s article. The professor emeritus from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem had just finished updating his decades-long study on worldwide Jewish populations — which now stands at 14.3 million — when the article was published. In looking at a Ynet news article, he saw that his 2014 figure of 14.2 million was the basis for the JPPI’s extrapolations and resulting media reports. He explained how this apparent numbers game stems from “a mixture of misunderstanding — and also journalistic counterfeit. The headline does not match the news. It is a canard.”