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11 Sivan 5759 - May 26, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Impressions From a Trip to Yemen

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

"Suddenly the driver stops and signals to me to approach a huge boulder, jutting out like an island on the flat plateau. When I approach the boulder, I see a natural monument, on which Jews immortalized their names before setting out on the long journey across desert and mountain crest to Eretz Hakodesh. Countless names have been etched in Hebrew letters on the sand boulder. I also discover here the names of friends, new immigrants who recently arrived in Rechovot."

These impressions appear in an article in the journal Masso Acher (Another Journey), written by Naftali Hilger, who recently took a trip back to North Yemen.

The author of the article was joined by a driver, armed guards and two other Jews, Saadya and Yaakov Tzabari, who live today in Rechovot. Until six years ago, they were residents of a small village in the Amlach wadi, the region reviewed in the article.

Hilger tells about the coexistence between the Jews and the members of the Bedouin tribes: "The Jews always lived here under the aegis of the local sheik, and the Arabs are not considered gentiles by the Jews, but rather family. They always protected us from the authorities or from members of other tribes who at times sought to attack us. Many of the Jews of Yemen who made aliya to Eretz Yisroel during recent years keep in touch with their Moslem friends. When the sheikh of Tzaada died last year, the news spread rapidly in the Rechovot absorption center. The new Israelis collected money and sent a special messenger to Tzaada to purchase sheep and goats in honor of the mourners and to honor the memory of the great sheikh."

Many of the members of the tribes are waiting for Israel to open a consulate in San'a, so that they will be able to visit Israel, the article relates.


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