Israeli expat communities in Europe are among the fastest growing in the world - The Jewish Chronicle

Israelis living in Europe are among the fastest growing expatriate communities in the world, now making up 20 per cent or more of the Jewish population in several countries, according to a new study.

The London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research found that roughly 630,000 Israelis lived outside Israel in the years 2021-23, with a significant rise in their presence in Europe over the past decade.

The “Israel-connected” Jewish population – which includes those born in Israel, those who immigrated to Israel and spent a certain amount of time there before leaving Israel, and children born to these populations – now constitutes nine per cent of the population of the diaspora.

Those in Germany and the UK, whose Israeli-born populations number around 24,000 and 23,000 respectively, make up nearly 50 per cent of all Israelis living in Europe. But Israeli-born populations have also expanded drastically across the continent during the last 10 years. Their numbers rose by 135 per cent in the Baltic countries, 96 per cent in Ireland, 78 per cent in Bulgaria, 74 per cent in Czechia, 39 per cent in Spain, 36 per cent in the Netherlands, 34 per cent in Germany and 27 per cent in the UK.

One can talk about a cultural evolution of the diaspora

The report’s author, Dr Daniel Staetsky, director of JPR’s demography unit, said, “With such a significant presence of Israel-connected populations across the Jewish diaspora, one can talk about a cultural evolution of the diaspora and start asking questions about the demographic impact of Israelis on the prospects of the diaspora Jewish populations.”

According to the study, entitled “Israelis Abroad: The Transformation of the Jewish Diaspora?”, Israeli Jews currently make up nearly half of the Jewish population in Norway, 41 per cent in Finland, and over 20 per cent in Bulgaria, Ireland, Spain and Denmark.

These proportions were “especially large, and thus particularly transformative in the context of small and medium-size Jewish diaspora communities”, the report noted.

Israeli emigration to Europe has also stabilised declining Jewish populations in some countries. The study noted that the Jewish community in the Netherlands, supposedly “destined to decline in size since 1945 due to unfavourable demography”, has managed to escape population decline “due to immigration and, in particular, Israeli immigration In Netherlands”.

The country now hosts a total of 7,000 Israeli-born people who make up 15 per cent of the overall Jewish population. That number is growing thanks to Israel-born expats and their children, who together comprise 24 per cent of the country’s Jewish community.

“Given low fertility, ageing and the wide scale of emigration, many European Jewish communities have been declining,” the report said, suggesting the Dutch Jewish community should be a starting point to examine the shifting demographics of the European diaspora, especially since Israeli populations “are relatively young and commonly arrive in the diaspora at key childbearing ages”.

Of the 630,000 expat Israelis, those who were born in Israel make up a slight majority, numbering 328,000, whereas those who were born outside Israel number 302,000.

The report concludes that there 955,000 “Israel-connected” people living outside the country, given the estimated number of children born to Israelis living abroad.

Dr Jonathan Boyd, JPR’s executive director, commenting on the demographic impact of these figures, said: “It has long been observed and understood that the Jewish population of the diaspora is in a state of decline. While this overall decline continues, it is being curtailed and even reversed in some countries by Israeli emigration.”

He added, “Contrary to some dramatic political interpretations, this results from a long, ongoing and inevitable migration process from the country with the largest Jewish population in the world, an advanced economy, and a strong academic environment, combined with the broader culture of globalisation.”

Boyd said, “To date, the losses to Israel are minimal, but the gains to a small diaspora Jewish population can be highly significant.

“Yet in a stark reversal of the Zionist idea of the ‘ingathering of the exiles,’ this migratory flow raises major and largely unforeseen questions about whether ex-pat Israelis will help to rejuvenate and even transform Jewish life in the diaspora.”

Europe hosts about one-third of all Israeli expats, but only 16 per cent of all Jews living in the diaspora. According to JPR’s study, roughly three-quarters of all Israelis outside of Israel live in English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Ireland), with close to 50 per cent living in the US.

The four largest Israeli populations abroad are based in the USA, Canada, Germany and the UK.

Israeli emigrés comprise six per cent of the Israeli population.

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