For those who wish to debate whether Palestine (recognised by most countries of the world as a country) really is one or not, please read the instructions first! That answer is included here on the basis of (a) its declaration of independence and statehood, (b) 139 (71%) countries of the world recognising it, and (c) its observer status at the UN, similar to Vatican City and (until 1992) Switzerland. This topic has been debated extensively, and for years, elsewhere on this website, to the point of tiresomeness, so please give it a rest!
Seems like that would be smart. These places don't have the centuries old Christian/Islamic tradition of hating Jews. Not including countries in the near East and Middle East that have historic Jewish populations (Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Uzbekistan) the Asian countries with the most Jews are China with 8,000 and India with 7,000 including people who self-report as part-Jewish. 5,000 of China's Jews live in Hong Kong so they are fairly concentrated there. Japan has 1400. Numbers in other far East countries are negligible: about the size of a large tour group.
In China, there was a Jewish community of silk traders in Kaifeng, but they largely assimilated. A few remain today but some emigrated to Israel. At other times, China served as a refuge for Jews fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution (settling in Harbin, Tianjin and Shanghai), and to German and Austrian Jews fleeing Nazi Europe (Shanghai was the only place that didn’t require an entry visa). Shanghai and Hong Kong also had a population of Baghdadi Jews since the mid-19th century. In the late 1930s-1945, Shanghai’s Jewish population numbered around 40,000. However, following the end of WWII and the subsequent confiscation of foreign property and businesses by the Chinese Communist Party in the early 1950s, most the the Jews there emigrated to Australia, Israel and the US.
The title of the quiz is ‘Countries with the highest Jewish population’. But the explanation underneath says ‘Which countries have the greatest number of adherents of Judaism?’. These two things are not the same. You can be Jewish without necessarily adhering to Judaism. Judaism is the religion. But Jewish also refers to people who are ethnically Jewish and culturally Jewish.
True, though we think the title points you in the correct subject direction, with the instructions making it quite clear what answers we are looking for.
In China, there was a Jewish community of silk traders in Kaifeng, but they largely assimilated. A few remain today but some emigrated to Israel. At other times, China served as a refuge for Jews fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution (settling in Harbin, Tianjin and Shanghai), and to German and Austrian Jews fleeing Nazi Europe (Shanghai was the only place that didn’t require an entry visa). Shanghai and Hong Kong also had a population of Baghdadi Jews since the mid-19th century. In the late 1930s-1945, Shanghai’s Jewish population numbered around 40,000. However, following the end of WWII and the subsequent confiscation of foreign property and businesses by the Chinese Communist Party in the early 1950s, most the the Jews there emigrated to Australia, Israel and the US.