(Newser)
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New census figures show that the Jewish population in Israel has passed the 6 million mark. It's a "significant" milestone, reports the Guardian, as that's also how many Jews died at the hands of the Nazis. A hair more than three-quarters of the 7.98 million people living in Israel are Jewish; another 20% are Arab, with the remaining residents categorized as "other." But the number of Jews worldwide hasn't changed much since the Holocaust, with the global population hovering just above 13 million.
The chief historian of the country's Holocaust museum says that while there is "great joy" in the number, "now Israel's Jewish population is close to half the Jewish nation worldwide. We are almost the only Jewish community that is growing." Meanwhile, a Palestinian agency released figures that estimate that the number of Arabs living in Israel and Palestine will match the Jewish population by 2016 and surpass it by 2020.
