1839 Census of Eretz Israel & 1840 Census of Alexandria

Patterns of Settlement or Congregations

One of the advantages of a database is that it allows data mining, which enables the finding of information that isn't seen by the naked eye reading a list of names of people in a book. Through analysis of the 1,787 people with places of birth outside of Eretz Israel the following pattern of settlement can be seen. The table is of groups of immigrants according to the listing of the place of birth and where they settled in Eretz Israel. The presentation of the information in this format enables the emergence of a pattern of settlement. The list includes only groups of at least 13 people in the town. The choice of 13 was arbitrary, in that it is greater than the number of people needed for a miyan, and even if one to three of the 13 were widows or orphans under the age of 13, the group would still have had a miyan in which they could pray according to their own customs.

Patterns of Settlement
Country of Birth	Town	Kollel	# of people	Country of Birth	Town	Kollel	# of people
Algeria	Acre	Sephardim	14	Macedonia	Jerusalem	Sephardim	30
	Haifa	Sephardim	21	Morocco	Safed	Sephardim	12
	Safed	Sephardim	102	North Africa	Jerusalem	Sephardim	54
	Tiberias	Sephardim	58	Romania	Safed	Hassidim	28
Belarus	Hebron	Habad	35	Serbia	Jerusalem	Sephardim	17
	Jerusalem	Prushim	118	Syria	Jerusalem	Sephardim	35
	Tiberias	Russia	19		Nablous	Sephardim	22
Bosnia	Jerusalem	Sephardim	21		Safed	Sephardim	14
Bulgaria	Jerusalem	Sephardim	89	Turkey	Hebron	Sephardim	15
Greece	Jerusalem	Sephardim	247		Jerusalem	Sephardim	331
Italy	Safed	Sephardim	14	Ukraine	Safed	Hassidim	28
Lebanon	Sidon	Sephardim	51		Tiberias	Volin	24
Lithuania	Jerusalem	Prushim	41

1840 Census of Alexandria

From the documents available, it seems to be the only commissioned by Montefiore outside of the administrative Ottoman boundaries of Eretz Israel[6], although the city of Sidon in Lebanon was included in the 1839 census of Eretz Israel. The reason for this being that many Jews from Safed found refuge there after the 1837 earthquake that destroyed the city. 

The information collected on the residents of Alexandria is similar to that of the 1839 census of Eretz Israel. An outstanding difference is the registering of the age, which for the majority ends with a 5 or a 0. In the Eretz Israel census the ages registered seem to be more specific.

The population of Alexandria is more homogenous than any of the cities of Eretz Israel. All of the residents are Sephardim, with most of them born in Alexandria. A few of the residents were born in Safed, Sidon, Thessaloniki, Tripoli and Morocco. But since the place of birth is only given for the head of the household it is hard to give exact numbers for those born outside of Alexandria. An in-depth analysis of this census can be found at:

 http://www.nebidaniel.org/documents/E-MONTEFIORE_CENSUS.doc

[2]  Hollingsworth, T. H. (1969) Historical Demography, London.

[3] Feldman, R.A., (2008). A new look at the 1839 Montefiore census of Eretz Israel. Shemot, 16, (2), 13-16.

[4] Feldman

[5] Feldman

[6]  http://www.nebidaniel.org/documents/E-MONTEFIORE_CENSUS.doc