For Jews, Yemen no longer a place to call home

[Forkboy]

SANA, Yemen - The last remaining Jews in Yemen are vanishing, driven out by politics, war, and hatred. Once numbering 60,000, one of the oldest Jewish populations in the Arab world now has fewer than 350 members.

In recent months, persecution by Islamist extremists has intensified, accelerating Jews’ flight from Yemen. Many are heading to the United States.

With the help of the US government and US-based Jewish organizations, 57 Yemeni Jews have been resettled in New York since July. At least 38 are expected to arrive soon and many more are eligible, American officials said. Others are seeking refuge in Israel and Europe.

In the capital, Sana, 65 Jews who fled their northern villages are living in a government compound under heavy security. Recently, police arrested two men suspected of planning to assassinate the community’s rabbi, according to Yemeni news reports.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/12/20/for_jews_yemen_no_longer_a_place_to_call_home/

[Behind the Aegis]

1. This has been happening for some time now.

The historical roots of Jews there is long. It is also one of the places thought to have hosted the "lost tribe of Jews" who are believed to have moved on to Ethiopia. It may have have been a route of the moving of the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem.

[JCMach1]

2. You are right... there was also a historic airlift that took the lionshare

of Jews out of Ethiopia... called Operation Magic Carpet, many Yemeni Jews became Israeli at the time of independence.

The remaining Jews in Yemen are just a shadow of the community that was once there.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Didn't you post an article about the Yemeni Jews awhile back?

I seem to recall it was about a massacre and locals hiding Jews and sneaking them out of the country at risk to themselves. Was it you that posted that article?

[JCMach1]

4. I do remember the article... Yemen is coming apart at the seams now

and there is little the government can do to protect the remaining Jews. It is really sad as there culture stretches back even before Islam.

They also made some of the most beautiful jewelry (gold and silver work) the world has ever seen. All of that is lost.. :(

[eridani]

5. Surely US air attacks on civilians will make all of them be nicer to each other

Not.

[cali]

6. It was over for Jews in Yemen long before U.S. airstrikes. n/t

and it's hardly an issue of "being nice to one another". It's about an oppressed and virtually vanished minority.

[BigBearJohn]

7. K/R