After his infection with cancerPresident orders treating Yemeni Jews Hakham [Archives:2005/881/Local News]

SANA'A- Sept. 27- The eldest son of the 80-year Hakham of Yemeni Jews, Yahya Ya'eesh, known as the religious reference for Jews in Yemen, appealed to the President of the Republic to intervene in treating his aged father. The President in turn issued directives to the concerned authorities to treat the sufferer at the government's expense, official sources said.

Reliable sources told the Yemen Times that Jews in Yemen have recently appointed another Hakham, under the name of Sulaiman Ya'aqub who works in the Jewish School in Amran, to succeed the sufferer.

The Hakham Yahya Ya'eesh has been suffering from cancer in his stomach for a long time and has traveled several times to Israel and Britain for medical treatment while his son stated that he suffers from several chronic diseases that made him disabled, the sources added.

Around three hundred Jewish families, out of a total number of five hundred thousand Jewish families all over the world, live in Yemen, and over the last three decades, most of them were deported secretly to other countries. Some Jewish families still live in Raida District, Amran Governorate.

Five decades ago, the Yemeni Jews were scattered in different parts of the country such as the city of Sana'a, which have a zone called Qa'a al-Yahood, (the Area of Jews). Jews in Taiz already possess numerous religious sites, most important of which is the tomb of Hakham Yahya al-Shidhi.

It is often said the secret deportation of Jews to Israel limited their spread in the Yemeni lands and confined their existence only in the governorates of Amran and Sa'ada.
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