JEWISH POPULATION OF PALESTINE.
By A. Ben Oliel
THE Turkish Government, like that of other lands, has its statistical "bureau" office; but whatever may be its success in the European provinces of the empire, here in Asia its computations are believed to be imperfect, unreliable, and mainly guesswork. The conscription and consequent tax for exemption from military service operate against it. The heads of the several religious communities—Turkish or Moslem, Jewish, Latin, Greek; Armenian, Copt, Maronite, Melchite, etc.—who coöperate in the census, have powerful motives to frustrate exactitude; for it means a larger annual taxation, for which they are made responsible. And apart from this, the inhabitants have strong prejudices against being numbered. Therefore, all estimates of population are merely approximate, and nothing more. A young Jew of the highest family in this city, who is employed in offices of trust in the pasha's court, and has access to official records, tells me that in official circles the population of Jerusalem, including its suburbs—Bethlehem, Bethany, Mount of Olives, etc.—is now computed at 100,000, of which 60,000 are believed to be Jews. He is custodian of the roll of the Sephardim poor—widows, orphans, blind and decrepit old men and their families—amounting to 7,000 souls, that have to be provided for regularly. Yet the Ashkenazim constitute the majority of the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem now, and they have a roll of poor as large proportionately. He says the Sephardim pay £1,000 annually for exemption from military service, and the Ashkenazim £1,250, which, at the rate of two medjidis per head, represents 5,625 men of the age liable to service. Jewish families are prolific, and must therefore be calculated at seven, rather than five, per family; and if one in each family is liable to service, the result is 39,375 souls. But this has reference to the Jewish rayahs—Turkish subjects; whereas there is a large admixture of those under Russian, Austrian, German, etc., protection who are free from military or other taxation. By such a process of reasoning, his estimate of 60,000 Jews for Jerusalem is almost proved mathematically. I have before me Lunez’s first Hebrew almanac for the Jewish year 1895-96—an interesting compilation, astronomic, statistic, historic, etc. It gives the population of Jerusalem thus: "Number of inhabitants, 45,420, of which: Jews 28,112, viz., Ashkenazim 15,074, Sephardim 7,900, Mughrabim 2,420, Gurgis 670, Bucharis 530, Tamanites 1,288, Persian 230; Moslems 8,560; Christians 8,748, viz., Armenians 695, Greeks 4,625, Abyssinians 105, Syrians 23, Protestants 645, Catholics or Latins 2,530, Copts 125." He does not say so, but he can only mean the population inside the walls. How far Jerusalem is now practically a Jewish city becomes strikingly evident on Saturdays and Jewish feast-days, for then but very few shops are open, and business is at a standstill; while the streets are full of groups of Jews, men and women, in holiday attire, on visiting rounds or lounging about.