Israeli population rising: U.S. will no longer have largest Jewish population

If demographic trends continue, Israel will boast the largest Jewish community in the world by 2006. The Jerusalem-based Jewish Policy Planning Institute released a report predicting that Israel’s Jewish population, currently at 5.24 million, will overtake its counterpart in the United States, where 5.28 million Jews live, within a year. The birthrate among Israeli Jewish women stands at 2.7 children, far higher than the Jewish birthrate overseas.