How many Jews live in Portugal?  The figure should include religious
Jews as well secular Jewish descendants (but only those who are known
to be of Jewish descent; conversos are covered in a different
question).

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Request for Question Clarification by answerfinder-ga on 26 Sep 2005 02:37 PDT

Dear nelson-ga,

These results are rather disappointing. Perhaps another researcher may
be able to provide good Government statistics. Let me know what you
think.

The European Union did not have any information on this subject. Eurostat:
?Can I find data on ethnic groups or religion?
No, Eurostat does not collect statistics with a breakdown by ethnic
group or religion. National legislation and practice in a number of
Member States prevent the collection and dissemination of ethnic group
or religion information in statistics.?
http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/pls/portal/PORTAL.wwv_media.show?p_id=46533202&p_settingssetid=3&p_settingssiteid=0&p_siteid=1854&p_type=basetext&p_textid=46533203

The Portugal Government?s web site had no information.
http://www.portugal.gov.pt/Portal/EN/

The National Statistical Institute, Portugal, which collects census
and other Government and country data had no information on religion.
http://www.ine.pt/index_eng.htm
http://www.ine.pt/prodserv/Indicadores/ultindic_eng.asp

A search through Google produced the following estimates. None of
which are sourced to any document or survey.

Jewish Virtual Library: 739 
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/jewpop.html

Jewish Agency for Israel: Estimated Jewish Population Distribution In
Europe, 1/1/2002 - Portugal: 500
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demtables.html
Repeated on
http://www.jewishpeople.net/WORLDJEWISHPOPULATION.html

Jewish Issues.com: Portugal 900 
http://www.jewish-issues.com/countries_and_their_jews.html

answerfinder-ga

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Clarification of Question by nelson-ga on 26 Sep 2005 09:37 PDT

answerfinder, if those are the best figures available, please go ahead
and post as an answer.  Thanks.

Dear nelson-ga
Thank you for responding. I?ll answer by referring to my posting above.
You may also be interested in reading in Google Print extracts from
the following book which may help your other question.
Jews in Places You Never Thought of by Karen Primack

She writes that in the areas of Braganza and Belmonte are an estimated
one million Marrano Jews.(p74)
On page 75 she writes that Portugal never had more than a thousand
Jewish Citizens (except during WWII).

You may have to register with Google to view the excerpts.

http://print.google.com/print?id=GhD0JZAOTHUC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=%22estimated+one+million+marrano+jews%22&prev=http://print.google.com/print%3Fie%3DUTF-8%26q%3D%2522estimated%2Bone%2Bmillion%2Bmarrano%2Bjews%2522%26btnG%3DSearch&sig=LdyAudM45bPjwNSfkl_Eq8TxTR0


answerfinder-ga

Thank you for the useful info.

Nelson,
The only reliable source of such a statistic that I could find was the
US Census Bureau, which includes statisics for foreign countries in
its database.
Unfortunately, the most recent information the database contains for
the Jewish population of Portugal is for the year 1970. At that time,
only 1,300 persons out of the total population were Jewish.
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbsprd
scribe_ga

This site may be of interest.  If you click on "present day portugal"
you will see that it says there are only 600 Jews there (1997?).

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Portugal.html

Dear nelson-ga,
Thank you for the tip. Pleased I could help.
answerfinder-ga