Most non-Jewish people are very often not familiar with the different facets of Judaism and indeed, many Jewish people are equally unaware of them. What are the differences between Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi ones? Is Kabbalah part of the Torah, and how does the Talmud fit into the puzzle?
These are just common questions many other exist including such examples as what is the difference between the many Jewish religious sects: Orthodox, Hasidic, Conservative, Reform and other Jewish streams all having slightly different religion views and often rival one another in more ways then one.
All the questions raised here are not unique to the Jewish religion. Most religions worldwide are divided into many different sects that while common sense dictate should get along, that is not always the case.
This blog is not about religious provocations and disputes, so I will this subject be for now and focus on numbers: the division of Israel’s population into religious and secular by percentage.
There are approximately 5.6 million Jews in Israel, amongst which:
- Around 17% of all Jewish Israelis regards themselves as religious belonging to one of the sects described earlier.
- 39% more define themselves as believers or traditional Jews.
- 44% of the population is believed to be secular
Among the secular sector, only a minor percentage defines itself as opposing religion – which is a fact correlating with other religions as well. Most countries see a rise in the number of religious people – in almost any existent religion today, Christianity and Islam more than others.