Bulgarian Jews in Israel

Bulgarian Jews in Israel

Total population
(7,500 (Bulgarian citizens))
Regions with significant populations
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
Languages
Hebrew (Main language for all generations); Older generation: Bulgarian language
Religion
Judaism

Bulgarian Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Bulgarian Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. They number around 50,000.

Immigration history

After the establishment of the state of Israel, most of the Bulgarian Jewish population left for Israel, leaving only about a thousand Bulgarian Jews living in Bulgaria today (1,162 according to the 2011 census). According to Israeli government statistics, 43,961 people from Bulgaria emigrated to Israel between 1948 and 2006, making Bulgarian Jews in Israel the fourth largest group to come from a European country, after the Soviet Union, Romania and Poland. The current population estimates are 48,900 Jews born or with a father born in Bulgaria or Greece. 32,000 Jews with a Bulgarian- or Greek-born father. 17,000 Bulgarian- and Greek-born Jews.

Notable people

• Binyamin Arditi
• Michael Bar-Zohar
• Shimon Bejarno
• Ya'akov Nehoshtan
• Ya'akov Nitzani
• Victor Shem-Tov
• Emanuel Zisman
• Gabi Ashkenazi
• Menachem Ashkenazi
• Moshe Gueron
• Shlomo Kalo
• Rafael Moshe Kamhi
• Oshrat Kotler
• Shmuel Levi
• Raphael Mechoulam
• Moni Moshonov
• Avraham Ofek
• Israel Pincas
• David Primo
• Rachamim Talbi
• Daniel Zion

See also

• Aliyah
• History of the Jews in Bulgaria
• Jewish ethnic divisions
• One Million Plan
• Bulgaria–Israel relations