History of The Jews in Australia - Demography

Demography

At least 15 Jews are known to have come to Australia as convicts on the First Fleet in 1788, 14 convicts and one "free" child, though the actual number is uncertain. In 1828, there were 100 Jews in Australia, and that number increased to just over 1,000 in 1841. As a result of the Victorian gold rush, the number increased to 5,486 in 1861. In 1933, the combined Australian Jewish communities numbered 23,000, with the dominant Jewish culture of Australia being Anglo-Orthodoxy. Between 1933 and 1939, 8,000 Jews immigrated to the country; and between 1945 and 1955 another 27,000 immigrated, prominently Holocaust survivors of Eastern and Central Europe. The arriving post-War migrants were helped to settle by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Australian Jewish Welfare Societies and Australian Jewish Welfare and Relief Society. A majority of the migrants settled in Melbourne, particularly in Carlton, while others settled in Sydney in suburbs such as Kings Cross, Bondi and St. Ives. Sydney is also home to a significant Sephardic population, composed largely of Iraqi Jews from India and other parts of Asia. Smaller Sephardic communities are present in Melbourne and Adelaide (in the latter case largely originating from Egypt). In recent years, significant numbers of Jews have immigrated from South Africa, the former Soviet Union and some from Israel.

The Jewish population of Australia was 97,335 in the 2011 census. One estimate put the Jewish population at 120,000. with 60,000 in Melbourne and 45,000 in Sydney.