TRIBE OF ISRAEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 547, 27 December 1928, Page 11

TRIBE OF ISRAEL

FIFTEEN MILLION JEWS f PRESENT WORLD POPULATION The present world population of Jews is 15,324,515, according to the new American Jewish Year Book just published. Of this number, the United States has 4,228,000, more than a fourth, distributed throughout the nation in both urban and rural districts. Dr. H. S. Linfield, special agent of the United States Bureau of the Census, stresses this general distribution of Jews in the United States outside the large cities by declaring that Jews inhabit more than 80 per cent, of the cities of 2,500 to 25,000 population, and 30 per cent, of the villages of less than 2.500. They are found on 9,000 places and rural areas in the nation, he says. Dr. Linfield reports that there are approximately 3,000 permanent Jewish

congregations in the country. Ten years ago only 1,900 were recorded, and 20 years ago, only 1,700. His study also indicates that the sum invested in synagogue property must be considerable, for the 1,130 congregations which reported the value of their property, possessed buildings worth over £20,000,000. The same remark may be applied-also’ to the annual expenditures of the congregations. Only 1.235 of the 3,000 responded to the inquiry on this particular point, and these reported an annual expenditure of approximately £3,750,000. Harry Schneiderman, editor of the year book, declares that during the Jewish year E6BB (1927-1928) Jewish life throughout the world has run a normal course. With the exception of Hungary, Lithuania. Turkey and for a time Rumania, the Governments in power have been liberal in character and not discriminatory nor oppressive, he reports. Unofficial anti-Jewish propaganda, too, dwindled in number and intensity, permitting the Jewish communities to turn their attentions freely and apply their energies to communal problems, religious, cultural and educational interests, and to international Jewish questions such as immigration, economic reconstruction and the restoration of Palestine.