is estimated that about 10,000 Italian Jews were deported to concentration and death camps, of whom 7,700 perished in the Holocaust, out of a pre-war Jewish population that amounted to 58,500 (46,500 by Jewish religion and 12,000 converted or non-Jewish sons of mixed marriages). The surviving community was able to maintain its distinctiveness throughout the following decades and continued to have a significant role in the fields of politics, literature, science and industry. Writers such as Giorgio Bassani, Natalia Ginzburg and Primo Levi were among the leading figures of the Italian culture in the post-war years. A significant event that marked the Italian Jewish community was the conversion to Catholicism of the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, in 1945. The size of the Italian Jewish community has faced a slight but continuous drop throughout the postwar decades, partly because of emigration to Israel or the United States and partly because of low birth rates, assimilation and intermarriage, especially in the small congregations of the North. A significant increase occurred during the 1970s due to the arrival of Iranian Jews (following the ousting of the Shah) and North African Jews (mainly coming from Libya in the aftermath of Gaddafi's seizure of power). 21st century In 2007 the Jewish population in Italy numbered around 45–46,000 people, decreased to 42,850 in 2015 (36,150 with Italian citizenship) and to 41,200 in 2017 (36,600 with Italian citizenship and 25–28,000 affiliated with the Union of Italian Jewish Communities), mainly because of low birth rates and emigration due to the financial crisis. There have been occasional antisemitic incidents in the last decades. On 13 December 2017 the Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS) was inaugurated in Ferrara. The museum traces the history of the Jewish people in Italy starting from the Roman empire, and going through the Holocaust during the 20th century. Demographics In 2007, there were approximately 45,000 Jews in Italy, of a total Italian population of 60 million people (i.e., 0.05-0.1% of the total), not counting recent migrations from Eastern Europe. The greatest concentrations were in Rome (20,000 people) and Milan (12,000 people). See also History of the Jews in Italy by region History of the Jews in Apulia History of the Jews in Calabria History of the Jews in Florence History of the Jews in Livorno History of the Jews in Naples History of the Jews in Sardinia History of the