Israel counts 111,000 Holocaust survivors in 2026
Holocaust Survivor Jerry Stein, Who Survived The Auschwitz Concentration Camp And Immigrated To Israel This Year From The United States | Photo: Chaim Goldberg Flash90
Israel is home to some 111,000 Holocaust survivors and victims of antisemitic persecution, according to new government estimates released ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026. Women make up about 63% of survivors, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s.
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday that the global Jewish population stood at 15.8 million at the start of 2025, including 7.2 million Jews in Israel, or roughly 45% of the total, and 6.3 million in the United States. About 60.5% of survivors in Israel were born in Europe, led by immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Romania and Poland, while significant numbers also came from Morocco, Iraq, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria.
Roughly 6% of survivors immigrated to pre-state Israel before 1948, about 30% arrived in the mass immigration wave immediately after independence, and a similar share came between 1952 and 1989. About one-third have arrived since the 1990s, mainly from the former Soviet Union.
Around 95% of survivors live in urban communities, with about 42% concentrated in major cities such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv–Yafo, Haifa, Ashdod, Netanya, Petah Tikva, Beersheva and Rishon Letzion.
Yom HaShoah will be observed in Israel from Monday evening through Tuesday.
Why Israel? by Rev. Willem Glashouwer
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