Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis (Hebrew: יהודים ישראלים, romanized: Yehudim Yisre'elim) are Israeli citizens and nationals who are Jewish through either their Jewish ethnicity and/or their adherence to Judaism. The term also includes the descendants of Jewish Israelis who have emigrated and settled outside of the State of Israel, where they are predominantly found in the Western world. The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews speak Hebrew, a Semitic language, as their native tongue.
Israeli Jews trace their origins back to the ancient Israelites and Hebrews, and, as a population, are a least partially descended from ancient Middle Eastern Semitic populations. The Jewish population in Israel comprises all of the communities of the Jewish diaspora, including Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Beta Israel, Cochin Jews, Bene Israel, Karaite Jews, and many other groups. The Israeli Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions and encompasses the full spectrum of religious observance ranging from the Haredim, who observe Orthodox Judaism, to the Hilonim, who maintain a secular Jewish lifestyle. Among Israel's Jewish population, over 25 percent of schoolchildren and over 35 percent of all newborns are of mixed Ashkenazi and Sephardi/Mizrahi descent, and these figures have been increasing by approximately 0.5 percent annually. Over 50 percent of the entire Israeli Jewish population is of at least partial Sephardi/Mizrahi descent.Despite the ongoing debate over the question of determining Jewish identity among Israeli Jews, the Jewish status of a person, which is considered a matter of nationality by the Israeli government, is registered and controlled by the Israeli Interior Ministry, which requires a person to meet the Halakhic definition to be registered as a Jew. In a December 2017 estimate by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the Israeli Jewish population stood at around 6,556,000 people, comprising 74.6 percent of the total population of Israel (if the Arab populations in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are included).A 2008 study by the Israel Democracy Institute shows that a plurality of Israeli Jews (47 percent) identify as Jews first and as Israelis second, and that only 39 percent consider themselves to be Israelis first and foremost.Jews living in the Holy Land prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 were commonly referred to in English as "Palestinian Jews" (in reference to the Palestine region and its British Mandate) and in Hebrew as HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el (lit. 'The Jewish Community in the Land of Israel').
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