W W W.T H E B J H . C O M
THE BALTIMORE JEWISH HOME
APRIL 28, 2022
16
The Week In News
15.2M Jews Worldwide The world’s Jewish population reached 15.2 million by the end of 2020 – approximately 1.4 million less than on the eve of the Holocaust in 1939, when the number was 16.6 million, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Israel is home to 6.9 million Jews; when the state was established in 1948 there were only 650,000 Jews living there. Six million Jews live in the United States. France has the largest population of Jews outside of Israel and the United States, with 445,000 Jews living there. The next nine countries with the
most Jews are Canada (393,000 Jews), the United Kingdom (292,000 Jews), Argentina (175,000 Jews), Russia (150,000 Jews), and Germany and Australia, which are tied at numbers eight and nine, with 118,000 Jews each. Of the Jews living in Israel, 5.4 million were born in Israel, and 1.5 million immigrated. Two-thirds of the Jews who made aliyah came from the U.S. or Europe, and most of the rest came from Africa or Asia.
MK Chikli Ousted The Knesset House Committee on Monday authorized Yamina’s request to oust renegade Yamina MK Amichai Chikli, after raucous deliberations that stretched out for some 12 hours. The move, which carries significant personal sanctions on Chikli, is widely seen as a sign to other Yamina lawmakers to stay in line after former coalition whip Idit Silman destroyed the coalition’s majority by leaving it in early April. Yamina filed its request
to eject Chikli from the party a day after Silman’s departure. Chikli will now be barred from running in any existing Knesset faction in the next election, among other punitive measures.
Seven members of the committee voted in favor of declaring Chikli a defector, while three, including Silman, did not participate in the vote. Silman, who is a member of the committee, said during the hearing, “I felt that I am loyal to my values and to my voters. This hearing is vengeful.” Grouping herself with Chikli, she said: “We are not the defectors; we are going with the promises, the platform and the values we promised to Yamina voters.” Chikli and his supporters claim that diverging with the party over
ideological grounds may be allowed under Knesset rules and that Chikli has maintained Yamina’s electoral promises while the party has abandoned them. The party, represented by Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana, has in turn claimed that Chikli actively worked against the Yamina-led government – from refusing to vote for its investiture to voting no-confidence in the government to voting against key legislation. “MK Chikli, if values were the basis of your decision, how did you dare to vote against the Citizenship Law? How did you dare to vote against a clear security interest of the State of Israel?” Kahana said, adding that Chikli had agreed ahead of time to vote in favor and then did the opposite. In all, Chikli voted against Yamina’s position 754 times, including against the state budget, Kahana said. “The legal situation before us is simple, clear and unequivocal: MK Amichai Chikli has taken every possible action to defect from the Yam-
