Six million is a number. It is symbolically significant as the usually-cited number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. Scholarly estimates of the death toll actually range between five and seven million, but the specific figure of "six million" has achieved a special status in modern Jewish discourse.

The number six as a shorthand for six million is often evoked in the elements of Holocaust memorials.

For the significance of this number in Israeli society see also Tom Segev's book "The Seventh Million" - a book about the after-effects of the death of about six million Jews on the remaining one million living in Israel after the Holocaust during the early years after the State of Israel was founded in 1948.

Jewish populations today

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• The Jewish population of North America (United States and Canada combined) at the present time is estimated to be at about 6,000,000 Jews.

(Data based on a study by Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI). See Jewish people near zero growth by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2004.)

• The Jewish population of Israel at the present time is approaching 6,000,000.

(Data based on a study by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. See Israel’s population is 6.8 million by Zeev Klein, Globes online September 13, 2004. Includes (about 370,000) Israeli citizens living in the West Bank and Gaza.)

References

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• Jewish Population Survey
• Geography of the Jewish Population
• Estimated Jewish Population of Europe by 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry (Appendix III) at Avalon Project, Yale University

Famous numbers | Holocaust