More than forty years after its establishment as a state, Israel may still be considered the youngest society in the world because nearly 40% of its Jewish citizens were not born in the country. No single group from a particular country or origin is dominant demographically. The largest group of origin is the Moroccans; the Moroccan first and second generation make up 13% of the population. They are followed by the Russians, Poles, Rumanians, and Iraqis (each group comprising 7% to 8%). Various other groups, such as the Yemenites, Germans, and Hungarians each account for between 2% and 5% of the population, while still others, such as the Bulgarians and the Greeks, reach only 1% or 2%. Israel's English, French, or North American Jews number even less. Of the Jewish population, 21% is third generation or more, and Jews of eastern European descent are likely to be the largest group in the adult section of this category.

The Israeli-Jewish ethnic landscape is an intricate one, but it has been simplified (and often oversimplified) by collapsing the various groups into two broad categories: Ashkenazim, who came mainly from European countries, and Mizrachim or edot ha'Mizrach, who came from North African and Asian countries.