The History of the Yemeni Jews 3rd in a series [Archives:1999/42/Reportage]

By: Mohammed Hatem Al-Qadhi 
& Mohammed bin Sallam 
 
Traditions and conventions: 
All the Eastern Jews including the Yemenis, the Iraqis and the Northern Africans knew nothing about their destiny before they migrated to Palestine. They had never expected that they would be second class citizens in the Zionist territory. Though they formed the majority among the people of Israel, they had never reached any high positions in Israel. Although, they have a strong electoral force, being a section with specific features in the partisan as well as social conflicts in the Zionist society, they could not reach any top places in the existing parties. 
The first reason behind the victimization of the Jews and the mounting suppression on a certain section is the following: most of these Jews especially those who came from Arab countries held fast to their conventions which they embraced in these Arab countries and transferred with them to Palestine. They never showed any tendency to abandon them. 
The Yemeni Jews were among those who were harassed and suppressed. They were famous for their love for music, especially the Jews of the old city of Sana’a. Very often they used to arrange festivals and ceremonies that had common Yemeni features. They also brought Qat plants with them so as to have Qat sessions. Furthermore, they exported this plant to different countries where Jews existed. 
In America there was a huge Jewish congregation estimated to be more than 5000. They were headed by Mossa Al-Shara’abi, the leader of the Jews community in America. He had visited Yemen along with his wife at different times. During his last visit in March 1997, he was interviewed by the Yemen Times in which revealed all the difficulties they had faced in Israel. He also talked about the Jews whose children were stolen or forcibly taken away from them after they reached Palestine in 1948. He also said the following: “I, like many other Jews, persist a nostalgia for Yemen and a longing to come back. Even in New York, where I live, I associate with Yemenis whether Arab, Muslims, or Jewish”. 
Concerning the stealing of the Yemeni children Jews after their arrival to Palestine, he said that the Jews were shocked to find their children disappearing. “They were stolen and shipped to the USA where they were sold to parents who adopted them. They told their parents that their children had died.”, Mossa Al-Shara’abi said. “They refused to show the parents their children’s bodies, graves or even issue date certificates . They just ignored all basic human matters. We did not know what was behind the scheme”, Mossa added that “almost every family at that time lost one, two or sometimes three children.” Parents who tried to complain to the police were ignored completely. They found all doors closed. To make matters still worse, they were treated brutally. We tried hard to get a formal investigation. The complains reached the Kenesset in 1950, but were ignored completely. We still ask ourselves what the motivation was for such cruelty. This can only be explained by the attitude European Jews have towards Middle Eastern Jews. They look down on them. You can not imagine that a people that suffered from such racism and cruelty could turn around and practice the same on others, on their own kind. They treat us unjustly. They considered us primitive.” Mossa explained. 
“In 1966, we formed a small group of Yemeni young people to try reveal the truth. We thought in the beginning that we were dealing with tens or at most hundreds of cases. To our surprise, we came to some 4000 cases of missing children right at the beginning of our work. Today, we know that there are about 10,000 such cases. The issue is being forced on the Israeli community. Israelis have to face the reality of what happened and came to terms with it. We discovered that most of the children were sold in the USA. They were sold to holocaust survivors who had lost their children. We learned that there was a black market for adoption in the 1950s. Between $5,000 and $10,000 was paid for each child. We now know the name of the person who was in charge of the operation in the USA. His name was Bernard Bergman. He was the head of one of the religious parties in Israel called Mabdal. The action is against any of God’s order.” 
“In the 1985, a new committee was formed because of the unrest among the Yemeni Jews community. But again there was no break-through. The real change came with the efforts of a Yemeni rabbi named Zvi Meshona. He used a different tactic. For 20 years, he was smart enough to collect material about this affair. He was well posted in the intelligence service. He got hold of the relevant documents. He decided to devote all his life for this case. He has thousands of students around him. This rabbi publicized the whole affair. The media played a terrible part. Much of the blame falls on them.” Mossa Al-Shara’abi explained elaborately. 
He said that he himself could have been one of the stolen children had not his mother hidden him. “My mother was clever enough to constantly hide me in the shower whenever those people (stealers of children) came.”, he said. 
When asked about the Jews preservation of their Yemeni folklore like the dresses, songs, cuisine and others, Mossa replied by saying, “In fact, we have preserved this culture and tradition more than Yemen itself has. In addition, there is now a serious revival and renaissance. We are working on reviving the old ways without obstructing progress.”The Jews had also the traditions and cultures of the countries they used to live in the same way as the Arab Jews, especially the Yemeni Jews who have been deeply affected by Yemeni conventions and culture. The European Jews refused to be treated equally with the Yemeni Jews and never allowed them to practice the same technical jobs as theirs. The Arab Jews in general were used to construct buildings and guarding agricultural settlement camps. It was obviously difficult for those who used to be skilled technicians as well as talented people in making jewelry to becoming masons and guards in the emigrant community. 
Writers in the Palestine have noticed that the cultural heritage of the Yemeni Jews was deep seated and more original than any other Jewish sect. This may be due to the fact that Yemen was in the past ostracized from the rest of the world. This also applies to their way of life, their cloths, arts including songs, dance, handicrafts, making gold and silver ornaments, sewing, etc. Their wives continued to do the same crafts even after their migration to Palestine. 
Sources also confirmed that the strong adherence of the Yemeni Jews to the Yemeni traditions attracted different research studies into of the Yemeni traditions throwing fascinating as well as valuable light on the social as well as the artistic aspects. Yemeni songs also have an outstanding status among the local repertoire of songs in the Israeli Community. A telling example is the Yemeni Jew singer Afra Haza’a who is living in Europe. She sings Yemeni songs as if they belong to the Israeli tradition. As far as the presence of the Yemeni Jews in Yemen at the present time is concerned, it is actually hard to say for certain their exact number. Many have converted to Islam either by force or on false pretenses so as to keep their possessions safe. A rough estimate shows that they are hundreds in number scattered in different parts of Yemen such as Sana’a, Sa’ada and Raidah. 
Stay tuned till the following issue to know more about the state of the rest of the Yemeni Jews, their worries as well as ambitions, in Yemen.
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