Yemen’s Jews living in danger

Efforts to help based in Far Rockaway and Five Towns

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Feb. 27, 2009 / 3 Adar 5769

Yochi Sabri hasn’t seen his father and four of his siblings in nearly nine years. The Sabris are some of the 350 Jews living in Yemen, part of a dwindling community under threat from neighboring Arabs.

“It is very scary and very tough,” said Yochi, who lives in Bayswater and owns the K4 pizza store in Far Rockaway.

He also serves as a rabbi at Beth Shalom, a local Yemenite congregation, where he reads the Torah and answers questions from congregants, teaching them halacha (Jewish law) and about Yemenite customs and traditions. He said he worries constantly about his relatives in Yemen.

“I speak to my family almost every day and they don’t know what to do,” Yochi said, describing his family’s plight. “They don’t leave the house, except for emergencies and to get food from the market. When they step out, they try to dress up like Arabs to try not to look Jewish.”

Since the December murder of Rabbi Moshe al-Nahari — one of Yemen’s Jewish leaders — by a Muslim ex-pilot, tensions have escalated and the situation is dangerous.

“Raidah [an area in northern Yemen] has gotten too precarious for the Jews to continue living there,” explained Rabbi Yair Yaish, an attorney from Lawrence who is president of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. “Though President Ali Abdallah Saleh has promised to protect the Jews of Yemen, the situation has become worse for Yemen’s Jews in light of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead.”

“In addition,” says Rabbi Yaish, “the verdict for al-Nahari’s killer is scheduled for early March, and his supporters have threatened harm to the Jews if any harm comes to the killer.”

Harassment from anti-Semitic extremists has increased following the war in Gaza. The majority of Jewish Yemeni men work as cobblers or silversmiths but have not worked in the last several months, for fear of attack. Children have also stopped attending school.

Though President Saleh has offered Yemen’s Jews the option of relocating to Sanaa, the capital, where he would give them apartments, many of the families don’t want to leave the comfort of their old homes for a smaller, unfamiliar place. Faced with additional obstacles preventing them from selling their land and houses and obtaining passports and visas, no Jews have moved yet to Sanaa.

“A couple of weeks ago, some Muslims made an announcement at their Friday afternoon prayers that nobody should buy any property or anything from the Jews,” said Yochi, recounting a conversation he had with his relatives.

On Feb. 19, a mission led by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), working closely with Rabbi Yaish, successfully brought 10 Yemeni Jews to Israel, where they will receive the government benefits granted to all new immigrants. Among the émigrés was Said Ben Yisrael, a fixture of the Yemeni community, whose courtyard was firebombed by a grenade several weeks ago. He and his wife and their seven children plan to settle in Beit Shemesh.

Said Ben Yisrael’s brother, Moshe Saade, lives in Monsey, and was extremely relieved to learn of Said’s arrival in Israel.

“He was there [in Yemen] and it was a bad situation,” Moshe told The Jewish Star. “I lived there four years ago, and I was best friends with Moshe al-Nahari. We taught the children together before I left.”

Moshe and Yochi were two of several Yemenites who were brought to America by the Satmar Chassidim over the years. Yochi came in 1994 on a student visa and settled in Far Rockaway. Moshe arrived in 2004 and went to Monsey, where close to 20 Yemenite families reside.

Though some Yemenites have become accustomed to life in America, hundreds of their brethren remain in Yemen, unable to part with their property and reluctant to start life anew in an unfamiliar country, be it America, Israel, or England, another country that is home to some of their friends and relatives.

Yochi’s father, as the rabbi of the community, is also the mohel and the shochet — the only one knowledgeable enough to perform a bris or slaughter animals to provide kosher meat.

“One of the difficulties we face, as faced by so many other rescue missions in the past, is convincing people to detach themselves from their possessions,” Rabbi Yaish explained. “The assets we are talking about are not worth a lot by American standards, but for a Yemenite person, their value is substantial.”

Rabbi Yaish, formerly the leader of Congregation Tifereth Yisrael, a Yemenite shul in Manhattan, is dedicated to helping the Jews of Yemen. Following al-Nahari’s murder, he initiated discussions with several organizations, including JAFI, Agudath Israel, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and UJA New York. He also plans to embark on a large fundraising campaign to aid resettlement efforts in a safe location for the Jews of Yemen.

“We are working to unify the Yemenite Jewish community and help them maintain their cultural and religious environment,” Rabbi Yaish stressed. “My goal is to do what’s best for them and what’s in their best interest in determining the best suited locations for their resettlement.”

Some of these goals include securing refugee status for immigrants living in America and ensuring that they receive the benefits to which they are entitled. JAFI is striving to ensure the safety of those staying in Yemen and is also working to help those who want to immigrate, according to Eli Cohen, Director General of the agency’s Aliyah and Absorption Department.

“They need to know that if they came out of Yemen, they’ll have a place to function,” said Reuven Schwartz of Far Rockaway, who visited the country in 2007 and speaks to Rabbi Yaish on a daily basis. “People have to be willing to help them.”

Since his visit, Schwartz has been in touch with many Yemeni Jews and their relatives, and has made it his personal mission to help them and solicit funds on their behalf.

“We need help from community leaders in terms of fundraising and dealing with some of the political issues surrounding Yemen’s Jews,” Rabbi Yaish added. “This literally is a mitzvah of pidyon shvuyim (redemption of captives), and we are extremely grateful to those individuals who have to date offered their support and sent contributions to help us aid our Yemeni brothers and sisters in danger.”

Donations can be sent to Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, 1312 44th Street, Suite 236, Brooklyn, NY 11219.