In the early years before the immigration to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

the

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community of

Saada Saada ( ar, صَعْدَة, translit=Ṣaʿda), a city and ancient capital in the northwest of Yemen, is the capital and largest city of the province of the same name, and the county seat of the county of the same name. The city is located in the ...

was numbered around 1000 people. Yemenite Jewish woman

According to Rabbi Yahya Yousef Salem who is the rabbi of a Jewish community that has lived in the northern province of Saada, The community is very old in his words “Jewish settlement in Saada could be as old as the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

”. According to A report made in 1999 by the

US state department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

, Approximately 500 Jews are scattered in a handful of villages between

Sana'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gover ...

and Saada in northern

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

. David carasso who was a Jewish merchant from

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

, spent his years 1874–9 in Yemen, and described the Saada Jews as a “warrior Jews”, he also mentioned the good relationship between the Arabs of the area and the Saada community Jews. The Jews from that area were to be found strong and tall, they were belong to a bellicose race, and were always armed in the Arab way with a curved djambi and the rifle. In 1908 a group left the remote areas of Saada, they made their way to Palestine through the coast of Ashir, with a boat from there. A homemade alcohol was made by the Jews in the area and was consumed with

khat Khat or qat ( ''ch’at''; Oromo: ''Jimaa'', so, qaad, khaad, khat or chat, ar, القات ''al-qāt'') is a flowering plant native to eastern and southern Africa. Khat contains the alkaloid cathinone, a stimulant, which is said to cause e ...

, as a social aspect of life it was consumed in a small group, and described in a testimony from the early 1900s as a "delightful time". An example for a Muslim prosecution was describe in 1992 as Jews from the Saada area were not allowed to put burial stones on their graves, it was forbidden. Another prohibition from 1992 was that a cooking utensils cannot be shared by Jews, if it has been used by

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. Sanaa's Jewish community lives in a guarded district under the protection of the central government, after fleeing to the capital from the town of Saada following

Houthis The Houthi movement (; ar, ٱلْحُوثِيُّون ''al-Ḥūthīyūn'' ), officially called Ansar Allah (' ''Partisans of God'' or ''Supporters of God'') and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that ...

threats in 2007. “We warn you to leave the area immediately... Ignore this message, and we give you a period of 10 days, and you will regret it,” a Houthi representative warned the Jewish community of Saada at the time. They sought refuge in the night with Sheikh Bakhtan – Jews have traditionally been protected by tribal sheikhs. It was Sheikh Bakhtan who drove the rabbi's family to the capital, where the community of 70 remains under the president's protection. According to a report made by The U.S Department Of State in 2008, Jews in Yemen are the only indigenous non-Muslim religious minority. Nearly all of the once-sizable Jewish population has emigrated. Fewer than 400 Jews remain in the northern part of the country, primarily in Amran Governorate. Since January 2007 the historic Saada Governorate community of 45 Jews has lived in Sana'a, under the protection and care of the Government, after abandoning their homes in the face of threats from al-Houthi rebels. The community has abandoned its

synagogues A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wors ...

in Saada. There is at least one functioning synagogue in Amran Governorate. In the year 2015, only 70 Jews from Saada remain. All were driven from their homes in the northern province at gunpoint by Zaidi Houthi rebels and told never to return. Currently to 2016 it is estimated that around 40 Jews are left in Yemen.

References

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Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...