Australian Jews

Australian Jews, or Jewish Australians, (Hebrew: יהודים אוסטרלים, romanized: yehudim ostralim) are Jews who are Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia. In the 2021 census there were 99,956 people who identified Judaism as their religious affiliation and 29,113 Australians who identified as Jewish by ancestry, an increase from 97,355 and 25,716, respectively, from the 2016 census. The actual number is almost certainly higher, due to differing perceptions of Jewish identity, however Australian census data is based on religious affiliation, so secular Jews may perceive it would be inaccurate to answer with "Judaism". Also, since the question is optional, many religiously observant Holocaust survivors and Haredi Jews are believed to prefer not to disclose their religion in the census. By comparison, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz estimated a Jewish-Australian population of 120,000–150,000 (not limited to adherents of Judaism), while other estimates based on the death rate in the community place the size of the community at 250,000, which would make the Jewish population about 1% of the total population. Based on the census data, Jewish citizens make up about 0.4% of the Australian population.

The Jewish community in Australia is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from diaspora communities in Central and Eastern Europe, and their Australia-born descendants. There is, however, a minority from all Jewish ethnic divisions, as well as a number of converts. The Jewish community in Australia comprises a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions, encompassing the full spectrum of religious observance, from Haredi communities to Jews who are entirely secular and atheist.