Yemeni Jews and Their Immigration to Israel (Operation Magic Carpet)

The Jews of Yemen form one of the oldest communities in the Jewish world, whose presence is attested since Antiquity and which preserved, in relative isolation, liturgical traditions, customs, and a pronunciation of Hebrew considered particularly archaic and precious. Subject under the Zaydite imamate to dhimmi status with severe restrictions, they maintained an intense religious life, as witnessed by the figure of the poet Shalom Shabazi in the seventeenth century. Nearly the entire community emigrated to Israel shortly after the founding of the State, during Operation Magic Carpet, which transported by air, in 1949–1950, nearly 50,000 people. Their integration in Israel was difficult, marked by the hardships of adaptation and by the painful "affair of the Yemeni children," named after families claiming their children had been taken from them in the absorption camps. This chapter remains a vivid subject of memorial and historical debate.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World — Brill
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan