Report: The Jewish Community in Yemen Is Dwindling due to Antisemitism

A Sky News Arabia report takes a look at the once-flourishing Jewish community of the ‘Amran Province in Yemen, where only three families remain. According to the report, with antisemitism on the rise, most of the Jews have succumbed to the pressure to emigrate. The report was broadcast on April 26, 2014. For more on the Jewish community of Yemen, see MEMRI TV clip 3965.

Following are excerpts:

Reporter: Shaayan, Hroun, and Yaaqub are the only remaining students in this Jewish school in 'Amran Province, which once held one of the largest Jewish communities in Yemen. Three families are all that is left of the Jews of 'Amran. Today, they are struggling to choose between their desire to remain in the country where they were born and raised, and between succumbing to the pressure to emigrate abroad.

[…]

Yemen has witnessed waves of Jewish emigration for various reasons. The forced expulsion of the Jews of Aal Salem, from Al-Sa'dah to Sana'a, by the Houthis, during their war against the Yemeni authorities, exemplifies, some believe, the extent of the hatred towards the Jews.

Commentator: In the past 10 years, and especially since the war in Al-Sa'dah between the Yemeni authorities and the Houthis, hatred towards the Jews there has grown, and this hatred has crossed over into 'Amran Province. This was one of the main reasons that the Jews left Yemen en masse. I expect that within a few years, nothing will remain of Yemen's Jewish community, which was once an important element within the Yemeni people.

Reporter: This Jewish synagogue is now all but deserted, due to the scarcity of worshippers. These homes are locked, after their Jewish owners sold them and left the country.

Perhaps the Hebrew inscriptions in this home, which had once belonged to the chief rabbi of Yemen, and then was sold to a tribesman, will remind future generations of the Jews who once lived here.

The dispersal of the Jews from this area ends a story of coexistence between Jews and Muslims in Yemen, which lasted for centuries.

[…]