Druze Lawmaker Fulfills Promise to 'Bring Jews Home' - Israel Today

Druze Lawmaker Fulfills Promise to 'Bring Jews Home'

Monday, March 21, 2016 |  Israel Today Staff

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• Secret Israeli operation brings Yemenite Jews home
• Israel's Forgotten Jewish Refugees - Part III
• Israel's Forgotten Jewish Refugees - Part I

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Jewish Refugees

Israel on Monday completed its final rescue of Yemenite Jews, a goal that had been central to the campaign promises of Member of Knesset Ayoub Kara (Likud), a leading member of the Arabic-speaking Druze community.

The mission, accomplished in coordination with the Jewish Agency and the US State Department, saw 19 of the remaining members of Yemen’s Jewish community “come home” to the Jewish state.

A further 50 Jews chose to stay in Yemen, where they all live in a protected compound adjacent to the US Embassy in Sana’a.

“This is a highly significant moment in the history of Israel and of Aliyah,” stated Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky. “This chapter in the history of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities is coming to an end, but Yemenite Jewry’s unique, 2,000-year-old contribution to the Jewish people will continue in the State of Israel.”

Kara, who serves as Deputy Minister for Regional Cooperation, was particularly pleased by the accomplishment.

“I am happy to have achieved this very important goal for my Jewish brothers in Yemen to come to Israel,” said the Druze lawmaker. “We successfully brought Jewish families that were threatened by death and assimilation.”

The Houthi jihadists that are currently in control of much of Yemen had threatened the country’s Jews to either convert to Islam or face execution.

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Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta) 130-Year-Old Testimony of Jewish Life in Shiloah (Silwan), Jerusalem

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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130-Year-Old Testimony of Jewish Life in Shiloah (Silwan), Jerusalem Posted: 03 Dec 2015 An annotated picture found in the British Library's Endangered Archives collection Annotated picture of Shiloah (Silwan) from the Bonfil albums digitized by the British Library (circa 1890s) The Shiloah (Silwan) village south of Jerusalem's Old City dates back to Biblical times. Water from its spring was used in the Jewish Temples. Jewish royalty was buried in its caves with Hebrew inscriptions naming the deceased. Over the centuries the hill was inhabited by Christian monks and Arab families. Below is one of the first photographs taken in Palestine in 1844 showing Silwan's small size.  It was taken by Girault de Prangey, a student of  the inventor of photography, Louis Daguerre.  View more of de Prangey's photographs here. Many of his photographs are now online at the French National Library. The village of Shiloah (Silwan) in 1844 and the Kidron Valley (Smithsonian Magazine) The 3,000 Maison Bonfils photographs from the Fouad Debbas Collection in Beirut digitized by the British Library have the barest of captions -- with the exception of one album with lengthy English annotations. The first photograph above provides an example. It describes the Yemenite Jewish community that moved into the Shiloah village in the 1880s.  Below is the handwritten caption. The caption on the photograph reads, "The village of Siloam on the east bank of the Kidron Valley.  The Pool of Siloam is opposite to the village on the west bank.  The inhabitants are Mohammedans except at the extreme south (right hand of picture) where the Yemenite Jews live in a small colony of tiny stone buildings as shown in a long low patch of white." On the right side of the picture, adjacent to the Jewish housing, the album owner wrote, "The Yemenite Colony." Photographers of the 19th century focused their lenses on the Yemenite residents, especially the photographers from the American Colony where the Yemenites' arrival in 1882 was viewed as the "Gaddites" returning home and as a messianic harbinger. We had the privilege of providing an essential detail to the Library of Congress' picture in its archives of the "village of Siloah" (circa 1901). The man, we explained after consultation with Yemenite historians, is a Yemenite Jew, originally from Habani in Yemen. He was probably among the residents of Shiloah. The American Colony photographers took scores of pictures of Yemenite Jews and helped provide food and shelter to the poor immigrants. Poor Yemenite Jewish family (circa 1890s). An American Colony caption read "Group of Yemenite Jews"  "A scene in a Jewish Yemenite Quarter," according to the Library of  Congress caption. The picture, possibly shot in Shiloah, was taken in  the 1930s when the Jews of Silwan (Shiloah) were suffering  from attacks from their Arab  neighbors. They eventually fled  their homes. Today, Jewish families have returned to Shiloah.

What Is Your Favorite Photo Essay? Here Are Ours (Israel's Picture A Day)

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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What Is Your Favorite Photo Essay? Here Are Ours Posted: 17 Jun 2013 09:22 PM PDT With more than 300 photo essays published, and in preparation for a book, we would like to know which are your favorite photos and essays.   Write your favorites in the comment section below Here are some of our favorites over the last two years: Rabbi Kook * Rabbi Kook, Chief Rabbi of Palestine, meets President Coolidge in the White House in 1924. The Emperor arrives * The Jews of Jerusalem welcome the GermanEmperor in 1898. Expulsion 1929 * The expulsion of the Jews of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1929, 1936, and 1948. First pictures of the Kotel * The first pictures of the Western Wall in the 1850s. German General * The German general who saved the Jews of Palestine from massacre in 1917. Surrender of Jerusalem * The surrender of Jerusalem to British sergeants in World War I. Enter your favorite photo essay in the comment section below Why are these children marching? * The mysterious picture of Jewish children marching - where, why, and when? Rachel's Tomb * First photographs of Rachel's Tomb, Tomb of the Patriarchs and Tomb of Joseph. From Jew to Christian preacher * The first Jewish Tomb of Joseph photographer in Jerusalem. Why did he and his photographs disappear? Contents of the Cigarbox * The "Cigarbox collection" of photos returns to the Land of Israel. Australian light cavalry * The Australians capture Be'er Sheva in 1917. Old Yemenite Jew * The arrival of Yemenite Jews in the 1800s-- "The Gadites" Under Al Aqsa mosque * The secret photos taken under the Temple Mt in Jerusalem. Jaffa Gate * The gates of Jerusalem's Old City. Hebron synagogue * Photos after the 1929 massacre in Hebron. Doctor and elderly Jews * The Christian doctor in Tiberias who treated and photographed Jewish patients. Yemin Moshe * The first Jewish communities outside of Jerusalem, and the new Jewish settlements in the Galilee. Jerusalem child * The little children of the Land of Israel. "Ruth" 100 years ago * The Book of Ruth Re-enacted. Picture A Day website

The Zionist Message Hidden within Antique Pictures of the Holy Land

Journal Article Abstract: The Zionist Message Hidden within Antique Pictures of the Holy Land
By Lenny Ben-David

Abstract reprinted from the Jewish Political Studies Review, May 1, 2013

A 110-year-old trove of pictures taken by the Christian photographers of the American Colony in Jerusalem provides dramatic proof of thriving Jewish communities in Israel.





Hundreds of pictures show the ancient Jewish community of Jerusalem’s Old City and the Jewish pioneers and builders of new towns and settlements in the Galilee and along the Mediterranean coastline. The American Colony photographers recorded Jewish holy sites, holiday scenes and customs, and they had a special reason for focusing their lenses on Yemenite Jews.





The collection, housed in the U.S. Library of Congress, also contains photographs from the 1860s, the first years of photography. These photographs provide a window rarely opened by historians—for several unfortunate reasons—to view the life of the Jews in the Holy Land. The photographs’ display and online publication effectively counters the biased narrative claiming that the Jewish state violently emerged ex novo in the mid-twentieth century.

Read the full article and view the photographs here.