Nadene Goldfoot
Yemen is being held captive by al Qaeda terrorists today. They have stationed themselves around the parliament with guns pointed at the attendees. So far the Prime Minister and his cabinet have stepped down because these terroristts, called the Houthis, want more power.
The President, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hade, resigned today and is being held captive in his home. He has been backed by Obama. The Shiite terrorists are controlling the capital of Yemen, the poorest of all Arab states. Other countries are now afraid Yemen will break into mini states. Houthis are backed by Iran and are power hungry.
This is the state where Ofra Haza was born and raised. She was one of Israel's most beautiful women and singers in the 80s. She died of a drug overdose.
"Jewish settlement in Yemen existed more than 2,000 years ago, and some claim the Jews' presence there has been longer, from the time Jews were captives in Babylon and the fall of the 1st Temple in 586 BCE. Their presence in Yemen at first was probably small, with about 3,000 Jews, but they made many converts among the native population. According the Muslims, this started under Abu Krib Asad who ruled about 390 to 420 CE. He converted to Judaism and propagated his new faith among his subjects. Judaism became widely spread among Bedouin tribes of S. Arabia and that Jewish converts were also found with the Hamdan, a northern Yemenite tribe. The upper part of society converted to Judaism. After Dhu Nuwas died and his kingdom fell, Christianity gained ground in southern Arabia among the former converts to Judaism. Even then, some Yemenite rulers were of the Jewish faith.
With the rise of Islam, the Jews of Yemen were spared the fate of Jews in Arabia, the Hejaz. Jews there had to pay more taxes, protection taxes. When the Shi'ites ruled the country in the early 10th century, the Jews' position was in danger.
Up to modern times until the Jews left in 1948, they were not allowed to ride on animals or wear the same clothes as Muslims. Any semblance of wealth was incompatible with the Jews' status so they couldn't own property. They constantly suffered from insults and abuses because the Yemenites interpreted Islam as unbelievers should be disgraced. Their late history consists mainly of a series of persecutions.
Somehow they became excellent artisans, like silversmiths in the early 19th century. Before they left they numbered about 30,000of which 10,000 lived in Sanaa.
Yemenite Jews fled to Israel from the worst Arab mistreatment of Jews. The entire Jewish Yemenite community of almost 50,000 came to Israel via "Operation Magic Carpet." They had never seen a plane. Since the Book of Isaiah promised, "They shall mount up with wings, as eagles. The Jewish community boarded the "eagles" happily, and the pilot was shocked when some of them lit a bonfire aboard to cook their food. What did they know? They sat down on the floor of the plane and ate their food.
They believed that David Ben-Gurion was actually the Messiah calling them home. What they left in Yemen were such things as being treated as dhimmis, which all Jews were treated; 2nd class citizens under all sorts of penalties. A Yemenite law decreed that fatherless Jewish children under age 13 were to be taken from their mothers and raised in Muslim homes as Muslims. That was certainly a law that kept parents married and not divorced! The result was that many families arrived in Israel with one or more of their children lost to them....widows had lost all their children this way. I wonder how many Muslims today were born Jewish and are unaware of it.
Persecution was happening to Jews all the time and it was extreme. Stoning Jews was still a common tradition at the time of the 1948 exodus. As to how Jews were treated through the 2,000 years of the time since 70 CE, it depended on whether the rule was Turkish or Arab.
The Yemenite Jews saw life change drastically for the worse in the 7th century with the Arab conquest. After the Jews who lived in what is now part of Saudi Arabia were either expelled by Muhammad or obliterated, Jewish communities in the rest of the conquered Muslim territory fell under the new infidel status. Jews of Yemen came under the more severest possible interpretation of the Charter of Omar and a carefully devised brutal improvisations on the dhimmi theme. For 4 centuries, Jews suffered under the fierce fanatical edict of the most intolerant of all Islamic sects. "
By the 19th and 20th centuries, Jews knew they had to get back to the Holy Land. They fled on foot over the desert. One group decided to sell their goods for half their worth, as we all do today in garage sales, and they started a movement back. In 1912, over 2,000 Yemenite Jews got off ships at Jaffa. Even during World War II, many disguised themselves as Arabs so that they wouldn't wind up in prison. Often it was the Jewish children who exposed the disguise of their parents when the Arabs tested them by offering unkosher food to eat which Arabs would eat, so they wouldn't have tested them with pork or bacon, etc, but perhaps cooked food they knew wasn't kosher. You see, even though Great Britain was to help the Jews to create the Jewish Homeland by law, with the mandate they were given, they helped Arabs instead and kept Jews out.
In 1946 a Yemenite Jewish mother and son had been put into chains for accepting a ride in an American's jeep. It was the American missionary that reported this and it was he who had the jeep.
Today ISIS is gaining ground in Yemen. They are in competition with al-Qaeda. There is chaos in Yemen.
Resource: http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/01/22/shiite-rebels-remain-outside-yemen-president-house
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofra_Haza
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters on Yemen, p. 38-41.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRnzTTYk7_Q
https://www.youtube.com/user/OFRAHAZAcom
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/21/politics/isis-gaining-ground-in-yemen/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia- Yemen
.jpg%2BAl%2BQaeda.jpg) |
| Al Qaeda surrounding the Parliament in Yemen, backed by Iran |
The President, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hade, resigned today and is being held captive in his home. He has been backed by Obama. The Shiite terrorists are controlling the capital of Yemen, the poorest of all Arab states. Other countries are now afraid Yemen will break into mini states. Houthis are backed by Iran and are power hungry.
 |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRnzTTYk7_Q |
"Jewish settlement in Yemen existed more than 2,000 years ago, and some claim the Jews' presence there has been longer, from the time Jews were captives in Babylon and the fall of the 1st Temple in 586 BCE. Their presence in Yemen at first was probably small, with about 3,000 Jews, but they made many converts among the native population. According the Muslims, this started under Abu Krib Asad who ruled about 390 to 420 CE. He converted to Judaism and propagated his new faith among his subjects. Judaism became widely spread among Bedouin tribes of S. Arabia and that Jewish converts were also found with the Hamdan, a northern Yemenite tribe. The upper part of society converted to Judaism. After Dhu Nuwas died and his kingdom fell, Christianity gained ground in southern Arabia among the former converts to Judaism. Even then, some Yemenite rulers were of the Jewish faith.
With the rise of Islam, the Jews of Yemen were spared the fate of Jews in Arabia, the Hejaz. Jews there had to pay more taxes, protection taxes. When the Shi'ites ruled the country in the early 10th century, the Jews' position was in danger.
 |
| Yemen, in purple area south of Saudi Arabia |
Up to modern times until the Jews left in 1948, they were not allowed to ride on animals or wear the same clothes as Muslims. Any semblance of wealth was incompatible with the Jews' status so they couldn't own property. They constantly suffered from insults and abuses because the Yemenites interpreted Islam as unbelievers should be disgraced. Their late history consists mainly of a series of persecutions.
Somehow they became excellent artisans, like silversmiths in the early 19th century. Before they left they numbered about 30,000of which 10,000 lived in Sanaa.
 |
| Waiting to board on Operation Magic Carpet and fly home to Israel |
They believed that David Ben-Gurion was actually the Messiah calling them home. What they left in Yemen were such things as being treated as dhimmis, which all Jews were treated; 2nd class citizens under all sorts of penalties. A Yemenite law decreed that fatherless Jewish children under age 13 were to be taken from their mothers and raised in Muslim homes as Muslims. That was certainly a law that kept parents married and not divorced! The result was that many families arrived in Israel with one or more of their children lost to them....widows had lost all their children this way. I wonder how many Muslims today were born Jewish and are unaware of it.
Persecution was happening to Jews all the time and it was extreme. Stoning Jews was still a common tradition at the time of the 1948 exodus. As to how Jews were treated through the 2,000 years of the time since 70 CE, it depended on whether the rule was Turkish or Arab.
The Yemenite Jews saw life change drastically for the worse in the 7th century with the Arab conquest. After the Jews who lived in what is now part of Saudi Arabia were either expelled by Muhammad or obliterated, Jewish communities in the rest of the conquered Muslim territory fell under the new infidel status. Jews of Yemen came under the more severest possible interpretation of the Charter of Omar and a carefully devised brutal improvisations on the dhimmi theme. For 4 centuries, Jews suffered under the fierce fanatical edict of the most intolerant of all Islamic sects. "
By the 19th and 20th centuries, Jews knew they had to get back to the Holy Land. They fled on foot over the desert. One group decided to sell their goods for half their worth, as we all do today in garage sales, and they started a movement back. In 1912, over 2,000 Yemenite Jews got off ships at Jaffa. Even during World War II, many disguised themselves as Arabs so that they wouldn't wind up in prison. Often it was the Jewish children who exposed the disguise of their parents when the Arabs tested them by offering unkosher food to eat which Arabs would eat, so they wouldn't have tested them with pork or bacon, etc, but perhaps cooked food they knew wasn't kosher. You see, even though Great Britain was to help the Jews to create the Jewish Homeland by law, with the mandate they were given, they helped Arabs instead and kept Jews out.
In 1946 a Yemenite Jewish mother and son had been put into chains for accepting a ride in an American's jeep. It was the American missionary that reported this and it was he who had the jeep.
Today ISIS is gaining ground in Yemen. They are in competition with al-Qaeda. There is chaos in Yemen.
Resource: http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/01/22/shiite-rebels-remain-outside-yemen-president-house
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofra_Haza
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters on Yemen, p. 38-41.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRnzTTYk7_Q
https://www.youtube.com/user/OFRAHAZAcom
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/21/politics/isis-gaining-ground-in-yemen/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia- Yemen
Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bill.
ReplyDelete