Annual Assessments

2019 Annual Assessment

Global Trends and Policy Recommendations
Integrated Anti-Semitism Index: Europe and the US
Special Chapters: Jewish Creativity and Cultural Outputs

PROJECT HEAD

Shmuel Rosner

Contributors

Avinoam Bar-Yosef, Dan Feferman, Shlomo Fischer Avi Gil, Inbal Hakman, Michael Herzog, Dov Maimon, Gitit Paz-Levi, Steven Popper, Uzi Rebhun, John Ruskay, Noah Slepkov, Adar Schiber, Rami Tal, Shalom Salomon Wald

EDITOR

Barry Geltman

2019 Annual Assessment

The fact that most Diaspora Jewish communities’ fertility rates have dropped below replacement level has conferred greater weight on the older population groups. This trend has intensified recently due to the baby-boom generation’s entry into the older age brackets (“boomers” are those born during the period 1945-1960). Starting next year (2020), all boomers will actually belong to the 60+ group. This transition can be seen in most Diaspora Jewish communities. In the US, France, and England, those aged sixty or over account for a third of all adult Jews (aged 60 or 18 and over). In a few countries, such as Germany, where many adult Jews from the FSU have settled, the share of those aged 60 and over in the adult Jewish population is over 40 percent (Graph 5).9 Jewish fertility in Israel is high, and the Israeli population has not exhibited boomer-type fluctuations. Nevertheless, the many babies who immigrated to Israel during the years immediately after the state’s founding, or were born in Israel during that period, especially to families from Asia and North Africa whose fertility levels were in the area of 5-6 children per woman, are now also reaching their senior years. Thus, 28 percent of all adult Jews in Israel (ages 20 and over) currently belong to the 60+ age group.

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