Israel’s Jewish population projected to pass U.S.’s

JERUSALEM — If demographic trends continue, by 2006, Israel will boast the largest Jewish community in the world, according to an Israeli think tank.

The Jerusalem-based Jewish Policy Planning Institute released a report predicting that Israel’s Jewish population, which currently stands at 5.24 million, will overtake its counterpart in the United States, where 5.28 million Jews live, within a year.

The report, released July 12, predicted that the Jewish population of Israel will reach 6.23 million by 2020 and that the number of Jews worldwide would reach 13.5 million, up from the current 13 million.

Jewish population growth is a lively issue in Israel, where Jews and Arabs are engaged in a heated demographic war.