Christianity in Israel

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Christianity (Hebrew: נצרות, romanized: Natsrút; Arabic: المسيحية, romanized: al-Masīḥiyya) is the third largest religion in Israel, after Judaism and Islam. At the end of 2022, Christians made up 1.9% of the Israeli population, numbering approximately 185,000. 75.8% of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians. Christians make up 6.9% of the Arab-Israelis.^[1]

Ten Christian churches are formally recognized under Israel's confessional system, for the self-regulation and state recognition of status issues, such as marriage and divorce: the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Latin Catholic Church, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Maronite Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church.^[2] However, the practice of religion is free, with no restrictions on the practice of other denominations. Approximately 300 Christians have converted from Islam according to one 2014 estimate, and most of them are part of the Catholic Church.^[3] About 20,000 Israelis also practice Messianic Judaism, usually considered a syncretist form of Christianity. They are mostly classified as being "without a religious affiliation" rather than being classified as either Jewish or Christian.

Arab Christians are mostly adherents of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church (60% of Arab Christians in Israel).^[4] Some 40% of all Israeli Christians are affiliated with the Melkite Greek Church, and some 30% with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.^[4] Smaller numbers are split between the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, with 13% of Christians, as well as an unknown number of Russian Orthodox Christians, about 13,000 Maronites and other Syriac Christians, 3,000 to 5,000 adherents of Armenian churches, a community of around 1,000 Coptic Christians, and small branches of Protestants. The number of Christians in Israel is higher than in the Palestinian territories.

Israeli Christians are historically bound with neighbouring Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian Christians. The cities and communities where most Christians in Israel reside are Haifa, Nazareth, Shefa-Amr, Jish, Mi'ilya, Fassuta and Kafr Yasif.^[5] Arab Christians are one of the most educated groups in Israel. Maariv newspaper has described Arab Christians as "the most successful [group] in the education system",^[6] since Arab Christians fared the best in terms of education in comparison to any other group receiving an education in Israel.^[7] The Christian communities in Israel run numerous schools, colleges, hospitals, clinics, orphanages, homes for the elderly, dormitories, family and youth centers, hotels, and guesthouses.^[8] The Christian community in Israel is the one of the few growing Christian populations in the Middle East.^[9][10]