A claim by a University of Manchester researcher that Britain’s Jewish population is growing for the first time since the Second World War has been questioned by the Board of Deputies.
Yaakov Wise, of the University’s Jewish-studies department, claimed that the population was 275,000 in 2005, but had increased to 280,000 by 2008. He said the main factor was the steady increase in births in the strictly Orthodox community.
Charedi families "reversing a trend"
These had been calculated from annual records completed in December 2007 and showed, he claimed, that secular Jewish women had on average 1.65 children whereas Charedi women were having on average 6.9 children, and in some areas even more.
Dr Wise said: “Though Britain’s Jewish population is the fifth largest in the world, it has declined by 40 per cent, from over 450,000 in 1950 to only 280,000 today.
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