Jews, originally Judaean Israelite tribes from the Levant in Western Asia, migrated to Europe just before the rise of the Roman Empire. A notable early event in the history of the Jews in the Roman Empire was Pompey’s conquest of the East beginning in 63 BCE although Alexandrian Jews had migrated to Rome before this event.

The pre-World War II Jewish population of Europe is estimated to have been close to 9 million. Around 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, which was followed by the emigration of much of the surviving population.

The current Jewish population of Europe is estimated to be ca. 2.4 million (0.3%), composed of:

Ashkenazi Jews (about 1.4 million, mainly in France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Hungary and Belgium)
Sephardi Jews (about 400,000; mainly in France, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Mizrahi Jews (some 300,000; mainly in France, Spain, Georgia, the United Kingdom and Azerbaijan)
Turkish Jews (some 250,000; also known as Djudios Turkos, with minorities of roughly 20,000 Selaniklis and 25,000 Sephardics)
Italian Jews (about 45,000; mostly Italian)
Romaniotes (about 6,000; mostly Greek)
Georgian Jews (some 8,500 – mostly in Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan and Belgium)
Crimean Karaites (about 1,500 – mainly in Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland)
Krymchaks (Jews of Turkic descent in Crimea) (about 2,000 – mainly in Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia)
Mountain Jews (Jews of the Caucasus mainly in Azerbaijan)