I’d also always thought there were about as many Jews in America as in Israel. I looked it up and at the most conservative figure I could find, there are 5.3 m Jews here and 6.1 m in Israel.
About six million Jews in Israel. What a tempting number for certain horrid beliefs and tempting for the deathcult itself.
There are slightly more Jews in America than in Israel. The Israeli “population count” also includes a bit over one million Arabs and Muslims as Israeli citizens. And the latest numbers for Jews in America (just within a year ago) show it approaching 7 million.
Also, some of those figures which are lower (which you may have seen) are variances from being an older count and/or a count that is more strict on their “interpretation” on “who is a Jew” and that lowers the US figure.
In Israel you can reject the religion of Judaism and be an atheist and you’re still counted as a Jew. Some counting in the USA wouldn’t put them in the population count here.
Anyway, that’s how you get all those variances.