Over 30 Yemeni Jewish families move to New York

Thirty Yemeni Jewish families are expected to move to New York, after a Jewish Agency succeeded in smuggling a Jewish family to Israel last February.
Jewish sources in Yemen said that the emigration came because of the increased threats that Jews are facing in Yemen and the failure of the government to protect them and to live up to their commitments of transferring them to Sana’a.

The sources added that, “We waited in vain for the government to fulfill their promises, but now we fear for our lives.”

On the other hand, the Jewish Community Coalition, which contains over 500 Jewish organizations, announced that they are launching campaign for raising contributions to transfer about 113 of the Yemeni Jews to New York, which contains the largest Jewish population in America, amid objections from a large Jewish organization that demands their transfer to Israel.

The coalition’s central committee announced last March that they are providing an extra $800,000 to Jewish agencies donations to contribute to the costs of re-settlement of the Yemeni Jews in New York, as they are expected to be housed in a community with Jews from Hungary, Romania, and Eastern Europe.

The head of the United Jewish Community said, “We should not rest if there is one Jew in danger, and we are going to work hard with our partners in Israel and America to secure the peaceful transfer and resettlement of our Jewish families in Yemen.”

The Jerusalem based, International Zionist Organization, told the Jewish Association in North America to stop paying money to the 113 Yemeni Jews who want to leave Yemen for New York.

Pola Edelstein, Chairperson of the International Zionist Organization and Participating Head of the Commission of Immigration and Absorption in the Jewish Agency, told the Jerusalem Post on Monday that they should be given the option of coming to Israel when they are offered money without stipulations.
 
The government announced last January that it will transfer the Jewish community from Raida and Kharif Districts in Amran to Sana’a, following the threats and attacks that led to the murder of one of them last December 11.

According to official sources, Yemeni Jews do not exceed 380 persons after many of them immigrated to Palestine in an operation known as the “flying carpet” in 1948-1950. That period witnessed the immigration of over 50,000 Yemeni Jews.

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