The United States is home to 38,400 Jewish Holocaust survivors — down from 50,000 two years ago and 109,900 in 2003.
A report released Jan. 23 by the Claims Conference, the organization that negotiates reparations with Germany, estimated that, as of August 2023, there were 245,000 Jewish survivors worldwide — nearly two-thirds fewer than in 2003.
According to “The Global Demographic Report on Jewish Holocaust Survivors,” the U.S. accounted for 15.7 percent of the current population. Spread across more than 90 countries, 48.8 percent lived in Israel, 18.1 percent in North America, 17.5 percent in Western Europe, 11.8 percent in countries of the former Soviet Union, 2.5 percent in Eastern Europe, and the remainder in Oceania, South America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.
Get The AJT Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories
Free Sign Up
The report was released in advance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.
The U.S. trailed only Israel, which was home to 119,000 Jewish survivors. In the U.S., 90 percent lived in 10 states, led by nearly 40 percent in New York, followed by California with 16 percent. In descending order, the others are Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Michigan.
The median age of survivors worldwide is 86 years old. They range in age from 77 to 112, with 20 percent older than 90. Some 95 percent are “child survivors,” born between 1928 and 1946 (a small number were in utero in 1945 and born the next year). An estimated 61 percent are female and 39 percent male.
“The data we have amassed not only tells us how many and where survivors are, it clearly indicates that most survivors are at a period of life where their need for care and services is growing. Now is the time to double down on our attention on this waning population,” Gideon Taylor, President of the Claims Conference, said in a statement.
Since its founding in 1951, the Claims Conference…
Read the full article here
