History of the Jews in Chile

The location of Chile in South America. (Chile is highlighted in dark green. Chilean Antarctic Territory – claim, in light green)
Chilean Jews
Judíos de Chile
יהודים בצ'ילה
אידן אין טשילע‎ (Yiddish)
Total population
18,300 (census)[1]
150,000[2] to 175,000 (descendants) [3]
Regions with significant populations
Santiago, Valparaíso
Languages
Chilean Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Peruvian Jews
Ena von Baer during Hanukkah in La Moneda Palace, Santiago.

The history of the Jews in Chile dates back to the arrival of Europeans to the country.[4] Over time, Chile has received several contingents of Jewish immigrants. Currently, the Jewish community in Chile comes mainly from the migrations occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, mostly of Ashkenazi background.

Chile is home to the 4th largest Jewish community in South America. Chile has an estimated 15,900 Jews, according to the American Jewish Yearbook 2021,[5][2][3] representing 0.1% of the total Chilean population. The total amount of Chileans with Jewish ancestry, however, is roughly 28,000 (defined as people having at least one Jewish parent or grandparent, and any spouse of such person).[5]

  1. ^ Congreso Judío Latinoamericano. "Comunidades judías: Chile" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Los judíos residentes en Chile". Agencia EFE. 23 December 2010. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  3. ^ a b H. Harvey (2012): Las relaciones entre Chile e Israel, 1973–1990. La conexión oculta. RIL Editores, 317 pages: pp. 193. ISBN 978-956-284-812-1.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference autogenerated1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b American Jewish year book 2021 : the annual record of the North American Jewish communities since 1899. Dashefsky, Arnold., Sheskin, Ira M., 1950–. Cham: Springer. 2022. p. 330. ISBN 978-3-030-40371-3. OCLC 1164581561.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)