40 Facts About Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews have a unique religious tradition that distinguishes them from Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, and other Jewish groups.

Yemenite Jews fall within the "Mizrahi" category of Jews, though they differ from other Mizrahi Jews who have undergone a process of total or partial assimilation to Sephardic liturgy and custom.

The Sanaite Yemenite Jews have a tradition that their ancestors settled in Yemen forty-two years before the destruction of the First Temple.

Yemenite Jews became especially numerous and powerful in the southern part of Arabia, a rich and fertile land of incense and spices and a way station on the routes to Africa, India, and East Asia.

Active persecution of Yemenite Jews did not gain full force until the Zaydi clan seized power, from the more tolerant Sunni Muslims, early in the 10th century.

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Yemenite Jews saw it as a violation of the protection agreement and liquidated the Jewish settlement in Hadhramaut as collective punishment.

Under the Zaydi rule, the Yemenite Jews were considered to be impure and therefore forbidden to touch a Muslim or a Muslim's food.

In 1679, under the rule of Al-Mahdi Ahmad, Yemenite Jews were expelled en masse from all parts of Yemen to the distant province of Mawza, and many Yemenite Jews died there of starvation and disease as consequence.

About a year after the expulsion, the survivors were allowed to return for economic reasons; Yemenite Jews were the majority of craftsmen and artisans, and thus a vital asset in the country's economy.

Yemenite Jews rejected the pleas for Jewish deportation by the clerics and maintained ties with the Jewish 'Iraqi family which was charged with the mint house.

The Muslims produced and supplied food, and the Yemenite Jews supplied all manufactured products and services that the Yemeni farmers needed.

Yemenite Jews however resisted their pressure on him to expel the Jews.

Jewish life again improved during Ottoman rule; Jewish freedom of religion was more widely respected, and Yemenite Jews were permitted to have more contact with other Jewish communities.

At the beginning of the nineteenth-century, Yemenite Jews lived principally in Sana'a, with the largest Jewish population and twenty-eight synagogues, followed by Rada'a, with the second largest Jewish population and nine synagogues, Sa'dah, Dhamar, Aden, the desert of Beda, Manakhah, among others.

Yemenite Jews were chiefly artisans, including gold-, silver- and blacksmiths in the San'a area, and coffee merchants in the south central highland areas.

Every Yemenite Jews Jew knew how to read from the Torah Scroll with the correct pronunciation and tune, exactly right in every detail.

On Sabbath days, the traditional Yemenite Jews bread was not the Challah, as found in Western Jewish communities, but the Kubaneh, which was eaten on Sabbath mornings after first making the blessing over two flatbreads baked in an earthen oven.

Three main groups of Yemenite Jews are the Baladi, Shami, and the Maimonideans or "Rambamists".

Yemenite Jews Hebrew has been studied by scholars, many of whom believe it to contain the most ancient phonetic and grammatical features.

Yemenite Jews were acquainted with the works of Saadia Gaon, Rashi, Kimhi, Nahmanides, Yehudah ha Levy and Isaac Arama, besides producing a number of exegetes from among themselves.

For example, formerly in Yemen, Yemenite Jews were not allowed to wear clothing of any color besides blue.

Traditional Yemenite tallit is a full-length tallit made from fine wool or goat's hair of a single black or brown color, called samlah, but it was not unique unto Jews alone.

Yemenite Jews are known for bringing to Israel certain culinary dishes, now popularly eaten by all ethnic-groups living in Israel, namely, the malawach, and jachnun.

Furthermore, the Y chromosome signatures of the Yemenite Jews are similar to those of other Middle Eastern populations.

Certain Yemenite Jews interpreted these changes and the new developments in the "Holy Land" as heavenly signs that the time of redemption was near.

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Hundreds of Yemenite Jews made their way to the Holy Land, and chose to settle in the agricultural settlements.

Specifically, the Yemenite Jews were to arrive in Hashed Camp and live there until they could be airlifted to Israel.

Yemenite Jews cannot imagine such a development as Neve Ilan which sits upon dry rock.

Yemenite Jews was followed by other families in 1992, with the greatest bulk of Jewish families arriving in Israel between 1993 and 1994.

The Yemenite Jews tried to prevent the conversion of orphans in two main ways, which were by marrying them so the authorities would consider them as adults, or by smuggling them out of the country.

Yemenite Jews lost his parents in a major disease epidemic at the age of 8 and together with his 5-year-old sister, he was forcibly converted to Islam and they were put under the care of separate foster families.

Yemenite Jews was raised in the powerful al-Iryani family and adopted an Islamic name.

In 2001 a seven-year public inquiry commission concluded that the accusations that Yemenite Jews children were kidnapped by the government are not true.

Some Yemenite Jews stayed behind during Operation Magic Carpet, many of them not wanting to leave sick or elderly relatives behind.

Those Yemenite Jews that remained behind were forbidden from emigrating and were banned from contacting relatives abroad.

In spite of hostile conditions in recent years for Yemenite Jews still living in Yemen, Yemeni security forces have gone to great lengths to try to convince the Yemenite Jews to stay in their towns.

In 2010, it was reported that 200 Yemeni Yemenite Jews would be allowed to immigrate to the United Kingdom.

In January 2013, it was reported that a group of 60 Yemenite Jews had migrated to Israel in a secret operation, arriving in Israel via a flight from Qatar.

Israeli Yemenite Jews were initially discouraged from practicing their culture from the domination of the Ashkenazi majority, and the practice of using henna before weddings declined.

Yemeni Yemenite Jews are predominant among Israeli performers of Oriental music.