From my European school perspective it seems like most jews lived in Eastern Europe, for example Poland and the are that is now Ukraine. However, I am aware that a big part of Isreal's current population are jews from or with parents/grandparents from arabic countries. How big was the population of Middle Eastern jews and is my perception that most jews came from Europe to Israel is wrong/eurocentric?
The population distribution changed over time In Israel, today, most Jews are not from Europe. The majority are Sephardi/Mizrahi. Almost the entirety of the Jewish population of the Muslim world immigrated to Israel in the mid 20th century. The general estimate states 800,000-900,000 Jews immigrated from the Muslim world. In the entirety of the Middle East and North Africa, if you include Turkey and Iran, has a population under 40,000. Turkey and Iran has the majority of that population.
Until about the 18th century, most Jews lived in the Middle East and North Africa. The Ashkenazi Jewish population started to explode about 300 years ago. The population growth is attributed to large families and maybe the potato.
At about 1800, the largest Jewish population was in Imperial Russia. In the mid 19th century, German Jews started to immigrate to the US. By the end of the century, eastern European Jews were immigrating in large numbers. After the fall of the Russian empire and WW2, the largest population was in Poland. In the early 20th century, Jewish immigration to the Ottoman Empire increased. Most ended up in Palestine.
Post WW2, the United States had the largest Jewish population. There is also the near destruction of the Jewish population in Europe and total destruction of the community in the Middle East and North Africa outside of Israel. The majority of the MENA Jews ended up in Israel. A smaller number immigrated to France. After the fall of the USSR, there was a large immigration to Israel.