Netanyahu to Yemenite Immigrants: The Torah is Our Shared Basis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday with Jewish Yemenite immigrants, some of the last to leave the community, who arrived in Israel Sunday night in a secret Jewish Agency operation.

Fleeing from war-torn Yemen and Muslim persecution, A total of 19 Jews arrived in Israel in recent days, including 14 from the town of Raydah and a family of five from Sana’a.

They brought with them an 800-year-old Torah scroll. Netanyahu and one of the children read from the Torah scroll together.

“Welcome to Jerusalem, to the Land of Israel,” Netanyahu told them. “I am very excited to see you here. It is moving that you know to read from the Torah. This is the basis. For many years we have thought about bringing you and with God’s help it is over.”

The Olim, immigrants, were very moved and thanked the Prime Minister for bringing them home to Israel.

More than 51,000 Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel since the country’s establishment in 1948. The majority of the community – nearly 50,000 individuals in total – was brought to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 and 1950. Today, hundreds of thousands of Jews of Yemeni origin live in Israel.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel

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