How have the proportions of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi/Sephardi, Ethiopian, and Russian Jews in Israel changed over the last decades?
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Executive summary
Israel’s Jewish population rose sharply after 1948 and especially during the 1990s with a roughly 1 million-strong wave from the former Soviet Union; by 2024–25 Jews made up about 76–79% of the country and numbered roughly 7.6–7.8 million according to multiple reports [1] [2] [3] [4]. Available sources document overall Jewish growth, rising Jewish births since 1995 (a 73% increase to ~139,000 in 2024) and repeated references to immigration from the FSU in the 1990s as the major driver of the large Russian-origin Jewish cohort [1] [5] [6]. Available sources do not provide a single consistent series of decade-by-decade percentage shares for Ashkenazi, Mizrahi/Sephardi, Ethiopian, and Russian-origin Jews; reporting instead emphasizes immigration waves and changing birthrates [7] [5] [6].
1. How Israel’s Jewish mix was reshaped: mid‑20th century to the 1990s
From Israel’s founding the country absorbed Jews from Europe, Asia and Africa; large early waves included Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab lands, creating a mix of European (later labeled Ashkenazi) and Middle Eastern/North African (Mizrahi/Sephardi) communities, and smaller Ethiopian and other groups [7]. The clearest documented structural change came in the 1990s when “approximately a million” Jews arrived from the former Soviet Union; that immigration surge produced a substantial Russian‑origin Jewish cohort that altered Israel’s ethnic balance more than any single migration since statehood [1].
2. The 1990s Russian wave: the single biggest recent inflection point
Multiple sources identify the FSU aliyah of the 1990s as the decisive demographic event for origin composition — boosting Jewish population growth rates in that decade to about 3% annually and creating a large, identifiable Russian‑origin community whose size stands out in subsequent decades' accounting [7] [1]. Sources cite that immigration rather than natural increase accounted for much of Jewish growth during the 1990s [7].
3. Fertility and births: Jewish births rising since the 1990s
Recent analyses highlight a substantial rise in absolute Jewish births: one study reports annual Jewish births rose 73% from 80,400 in 1995 to about 138,700–139,000 in 2024, making Jewish births 76% of total births in 2024 versus 69% in 1995—this has reinforced Jewish majority numbers and will affect future internal composition [5] [6]. These fertility shifts do not, however, map cleanly onto specific origin‑group shares in the provided sources [5] [6].
4. Ethiopian Jews: growth but limited visibility in the sources
Sources acknowledge Israel absorbed Ethiopian Jewish communities (notably in the 1980s–90s) but do not supply clear time‑series percentages showing how their share rose relative to Ashkenazi, Mizrahi/Sephardi, or Russian Jews across decades. The reporting affirms their presence as a distinct group but available sources do not quantify decade‑by‑decade proportion changes for Ethiopian Jews [7].
5. Ashkenazi vs Mizrahi/Sephardi: a long, gradual shift, not crisply measured here
Historically Israel contained a higher share of Ashkenazi leadership and institutions while Mizrahi/Sephardi Jews (from Middle Eastern and North African countries) became a large segment through early‑state immigration. The supplied sources describe this historical mix and ongoing demographic dynamics but do not provide consistent, comparable percentage‑by‑decade tables for those two groupings; they describe trends (immigration, fertility, urbanization) that would change proportions over time without giving precise shares [7] [1].
6. Population totals and the Jewish share of Israel in 2024–25
Recent population reporting places Israel’s total between roughly 9.3 million and over 10 million in late 2024–2025 depending on the source and definition; Jews numbered approximately 7.6–7.8 million and represented about 76–79% of the total in 2024–25 according to the Central Bureau and reporting outlets cited here [4] [2] [3] [8]. Those totals confirm a sustained Jewish majority but do not resolve internal ethnic‑origin shares beyond noting the large Russian‑origin cohort from the 1990s and rising Jewish births [4] [5].
7. Limits of the public record in these sources—and competing emphases
The available reporting is strong on headline totals (Jewish population size, birth numbers, immigration waves) and on single‑event impacts (FSU aliyah), but weak on consistent, source‑agreed decade‑by‑decade breakdowns of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi/Sephardi, Ethiopian and Russian-origin shares. Some analyses stress Jewish demographic momentum and fertility gains (Ettinger/Second Thought reporting) while encyclopedic sources focus on immigration history and fertility differentials; they emphasize different mechanisms and sometimes different numeric baselines [5] [7] [1].
8. Bottom line for readers seeking precise origin shares
If you need exact percentage shares by origin across multiple decades, current reporting in these sources does not deliver a single authoritative series; instead use the documented anchors here—the 1990s FSU aliyah as the main cause of a large Russian‑origin cohort, the long‑standing Ashkenazi/Mizrahi historical split from early‑state immigration, the absorption of Ethiopian Jews in later waves, and rising Jewish births since 1995—to guide further research in specialized CBS demographic tables or academic studies not included in the provided set [1] [5] [7].