Friends,Ester Golan's question has been answered but
will continue to resonate until we can be
certain of the answer. In 1948 there were
600,000 Jews living in Palestine (pre-State).
Within a short period of time, 10-15 years, two
mass migrations tripled Israel's population: One
was approximately 600,000 from North Africa and
Arab countries, and the other, with a similar
number, 600,000, from the remnants of the Shoa
in Europe.
At the time, the estimate was that Israel
absorbed two-thirds of the survivors. Today
according to different estimates, with serious
issues of "who is a survivor" the worldwide
figures stand at between 600-900,000. In Israel,
there are 360,000 survivors with about
two-thirds over 65, and one-third having been
children during the war.
These Israeli figures are based on a paper of
the Brookdale Institute (to be found in our
book, "A Global
Perspective on Working With Holocaust Survivors
and the Second Generation," John
Lemberger, ed., published 1995 by JDC-Israel,
Brookdale and AMCHA). We hope, shortly, to have
updated Israeli figures based on the Israeli
census of people 60+ carried out a few years
ago. The Israeli numbers I cited include
approximately 60,000 survivors from the Former
Soviet Union who have recently emigrated to
Israel.
John Lemberger
AMCHA http://www.amcha.org
THIS
IS precisely the kind of firm statistical basis
needed to extrapolate backwards to 1945 to
establish a realistic figure of Holocaust
survivors. If two-thirds of those in Israel
today, estimated at 360,000, are over sixty-five
years old, an actuary could work backwards and
arrive at an excellent figure.
write
to David Irving