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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

And the nation with the second highest percentage of Jews is....

Gibraltar?

Pew just came out with statistics showing the religious populations of every nation.

The nations with the highest percentage of Jews are:

1) Israel 75.6%
2) Gibraltar 2%
3) United States 1.8%
4) Monaco 1.7%
5) Belize 1%
6) Canada 1%

JTA looked at Gibraltar's impressive Jewish community a year ago:

Four synagogues, a mikvah, a kosher coffeehouse and separate boys and girls religious high schools.

Combined, they suggest a community far larger than just 750 Jews. But Gibraltar -- the tiny British overseas territory of 30,000 that sits at the foot of Spain and at the gateway to North Africa and the Mediterranean -- has spent centuries cultivating its individuality.

"We've got an infrastructure that could cope with a community of 2,000, and we've only got 700," said Mark Benady, a native Gibraltarian and vice president of the territory's Jewish community.

From the tables, we can also see how many nations have more Jews than Muslims:

Israel, United States, Monaco, Belize, Cayman Islands, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, San Marino, US Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Chile, and Hungary. Moldova is a tie, along with many nations that have less than 0.1% of both.