Nikola YOZGOF-ORBACH
Senior lecturer, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Zefat Academic College, Jerusalem st 11, Zefat, Israel 1320611. Tel: 972-4-692-7866
yozgofo@zefat.ac.il
Abstract
This article discusses demographic, spatial and economic aspects of Greek Jewry in Israel from 1919 to 2019, focusing on its spatial distribution and its demographic processes over the years. This study is based on historicist and interpretive content analysis and on processing and analysis of statistical reports by the Central Bureau of Statistics, as well as analysis of the findings of questionnaires from 2008 and 2019 transmitted among Greek immigrants and their descendants in Israel. The findings show that after the Holocaust, most of the Greek Jews lived in Israel. Many of them settled mainly in urban centers, near the Israeli coastal plain, in the center of the country (Tel Aviv, Bat Yam and Rishon Lezion) or in Haifa. The waves of immigration from Greece to Israel are continuing, but the number of immigrants has diminished greatly over the years. In recent decades, only a few dozen have emigrated to Israel. Demographically Greek Jewry in Israel is characterized by an education rate that is higher than the general average in the country; with a higher level of secularism than the national average; with a low fertility rate compared to other Jewish women in Israel and with a higher income than the average in Israel. It is also found that among the first generation, only a few hundred are still alive today. It was also revealed that the total number of Greek Jewry today, is 58,238 people and not 10,300 people as shown in the CBS publications of 2018.
Keywords: Jewish Demography, Israel, Greek Jews , Greek immigrants, Jewish Greek Economy
JEL classification:
pp. 299-313