Where do the majority of Israelis come from?

Factual Questions
1

Ethnically speaking, are there more Russian and Eastern-European Jews or are there more who are originally situated from the Middle Eastern region (such as Yemenite Jews etc.)?

And are there any real differences between them (I mean things such as the pronounciation of Hebrew or religious ceremonies)?

2

Er, by definition, don’t all Israelis come from Israel?

3

But many migrated from other countries (such as Russia/Poland/Germany).

What proportion were ones who were “local” to the region for an extended period of time?

And are there any cultural differences between groups who were “local” and groups who had migrated?

4

Well to sum up, you’ve got Jews from all over the world. One of the major challenges is how to combine all these Jewish peoples into one nation.

Here’s some major migrations though

  1. Original Zionists, pre ww2, idealist movement to gain Jewish homeland secure against antisemitism.
  2. WW2 Hollocaust survivors
  3. Once Israel declares itself a state, a majority of the Arab states expel their Jews. Guess where they end up? Israel
  4. Soviet Union collapses/loosens up. Finally Jews from the USSR are allowed to emigrate and many do.

There’s probably some between 3 and 4 that I cant recall.

5

How many came from England? And do Israelis hold a special appreciation for us?

6

The CIA World Factbook breaks it down this way:

European- or American-born Jews: 32.1%
Israeli-born Jews: 20.8%
Africa-born Jews: 14.6%
Asia-born Jews: 12.6%
non-Jewish: 19.9 %

Notice, that is percentage of total population.

7

About 17% of Israel’s pop. are former residents of the USSR.

They make up about 600,000 voters and are the largest ethnic voting ‘bloc’ in Israel.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/05/99/israel_elections/341012.stm

8

In the first place, not all Israelis are Jewish. There is a large percentage of Israeli Arabs, those who did not leave when the Arab countries first attacked Israel in 1948.

Many Jews came to Israel around 1900 from various contries. Jews have been living in Israel since biblical times, and there have been emigrations to Israel since then, with, as I said, a large percentage emigrating around 1900.