Jerusalem Post
by Sam Sokol
March 21, 2016
The Jewish Agency has declared an end to immigration from Yemen this week, following the successful conclusion of a covert operation that brought 19 people here over the past several days.
The quasi-governmental organization’s spokesman Avi Mayer admitted that around 50 Jews remain under government protection in the war-torn country, which is embroiled in a bitter and protracted civil war. He indicated that as they have expressed no interest in emigration, it is possible to term this week’s arrivals the “historic end of Yemeni aliya.”
The final group arrived Sunday evening, including the rabbi of the town of Raydah, who brought with him a Torah believed to be more than half a millennium old.
In an interview on Channel 2 broadcast on Monday, the rabbi held up the scroll and recited the sheheheyanu blessing, which is generally said at exceptionally happy occasions.
The remains of Aharon Zindani, who was murdered over accusations of witchcraft in 2012, were also flown to Israel.
According to agency chairman Natan Sharansky, Sunday’s flight was “a highly significant moment in the history of Israel and of aliya.
From Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 until the present day, the Jewish Agency has helped bring Yemenite Jewry home to Israel. Today we bring that historic mission to a close.
This chapter in the history of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities is coming to an end, but Yemenite Jewry’s unique, 2,000-year-old contribution to the Jewish people will continue in the State of Israel.”
Around 51,000 Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel since 1948.
Anti-Semitic violence has been a growing problem in Yemen in recent years, with incidents such as the 2008 murder of Jewish teacher Moshe Nahari in Raydah and that of Zindani, as well as the forced conversion and marriage of a Jewish woman to a Muslim the same year.
Concern for the community reached a fever pitch January 2015 with the takeover of Sanaa, the capital, by Houthi rebels who had previously kicked out Jews from the town of Saada in 2007.
The Houthi logo features the phrases “Death to Israel” and “Damn the Jews.”
“The Jews of Yemen are in big danger now,” said Michael Jankelowitz, a former agency spokesman, said at the time, adding that the situation “should trouble the leaders of the Jewish Agency who have been, trickle by trickle, bringing them out.”
According to Mayer, the agency has “undertaken numerous covert operations to spirit Jews out of Yemen and bring them to Israel, rescuing some 200 in recent years.
“Some 50 Jews remain in Yemen, including approximately 40 in Sanaa, where they live in a closed compound adjacent to the US Embassy and enjoy the protection of Yemeni authorities. They have chosen to remain in the country without Jewish communal or organizational infrastructure. The Jewish Agency will continue to assist any Jew who wishes to make Israel his or her home,” he said in a statement.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Mayer declined to comment on a Channel 2 report claiming US State Department involvement, although Manny Dahari, who moved from Yemen to the United States a decade ago and whose parents were on Sunday’s flight, confirmed an American role in the rescue.
Speaking by phone from Washington, Dahari said that he had been in contact with the Jewish Agency and the State Department since October regarding the matter.
“It’s weird and emotional, especially since I have been working tirelessly with the State Department and Jewish Agency,” he said.
“It’s sad that Yemenite Jewish history has come to an end but at the same time it’s exciting that they have come home.”
Advocates for Middle Eastern Jews praised the operation, with Stanley Urman of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries calling it “another chapter in the continuing saga – the displacement of Jews from Arab countries – and Israel’s historic role as the homeland of the Jewish people.
“We praise the Jewish Agency for diligently working to assist the last Jews of Yemen, affirming the State of Israel’s important role in providing rescue and refuge to endangered Jewish communities in the Middle East and beyond. With far fewer than 75 Jews remaining in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, we feel a sense of sadness and loss as the gates of our pilgrimage sites, holy burial sites, cemeteries, synagogues and Jewish quarters will be forever closed marking an end to over 2,500 years of continuous Jewish history,” said Sarah Levin of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa.
“Our greatest hope is for the last Jews of Yemen, now settled in Israel, to thrive and for Mizrahi and Sephardi communities and elders to continue proudly passing down and sharing the vibrant traditions and contributions of our Mizrahi and Sephardi ancestors.”