RUSSIA ACTUALLY HAD THE LARGESTJjEWISH POPULATION IN THE WORLD IN 1880

This was why the British dangled the carrot of Israel to Russia during the War.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Russian Empire had not only the largest Jewish population in the world, but actually had a majority of the world's Jews living within its borders. In 1897, total Jewish population of Russia was 5,189,401 persons of both sexes (4.13% of total population). Of this total 93.9% lived in the 25 provinces of the PALE. The total population of the Pale of Settlement amounted to 42,338,367—of these, 4,805,354 (11.5%) were Jews.

Jewish emigration from Russia, 1880–1928

Destination	Number
Australia	5,000
Canada	70,000
Europe	240,000
Palestine (modern day Israel)	45,000
South Africa	45,000
South America United States                 1,749,000	111,000