Apr 1, 2016

Secret Aliyah Operation Brings Home Final Group of Yemenite Jewish Immigrants to Israel

It sounds like a movie plot: An undercover operation to bring a group of 19 Jews to Israel from war-torn Yemen, kept under complete secrecy until their arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. But that's what happened earlier this week.

At long last, the final group of Yemenite Jewish immigrants landed in Israel on March 20, 2016, following a complex, covert operation coordinated by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s long-time overseas partner, The Jewish Agency for Israel, thus bringing the historic saga of Yemeni aliyah to a close. Some 200 Jews have been secretly rescued from Yemen by The Jewish Agency in recent years, including several dozen in recent months, as attacks against the Jewish community have increased and the country has descended into civil war.

“This is a highly significant moment in the history of Israel and of aliyah," said Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky. "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."

Nineteen individuals arrived in Israel in recent days, including 14 from the town of Raydah and a family of five from Sanaa. The group from Raydah included the community’s rabbi, who brought a Torah scroll believed to be 500 to 600 years old. The father of the husband from Sanaa was Aharon Zindani, murdered in an anti-Semitic attack in 2012. The Jewish Agency arranged for Zindani’s remains to be brought to Israel for burial and also coordinated the immigration of his wife and children at the time.

Through support from Jewish Federations across North America, more than 51,000 Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel since the country’s establishment in 1948. The majority of the community – nearly 50,000 individuals in total – was brought to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 and 1950. Today, hundreds of thousands of Jews of Yemeni origin live in Israel, and many have had a profound impact on Israeli society, including singers Ofra Haza, Achinoam Nini (Noa), Gali Atari, and Shoshana Damari; Olympic medalist Shahar Tzuberi; former Knesset Speaker Yisrael Yeshayahu; and noted rabbi Amnon Yitzhak.

Attacks against Jews in Yemen have risen sharply since 2008, when Jewish teacher Moshe Ya’ish Nahari was murdered in Raydah. In 2012, Aharon Zindani was murdered in Sanaa and a young Jewish woman was abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and forcibly wed to a Muslim man. As Yemen has descended into civil war and the humanitarian situation in the country has worsened, the Jewish community has found itself increasingly imperiled. As a result, The Jewish 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 U.S. 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.

"This chapter in the history of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities is coming to an end," Sharansky added, "but Yemenite Jewry’s unique, 2,000-year-old contribution to the Jewish people will continue in the State of Israel.”