Yemenite Jewry

Some live posts and observations, while reading Yemenite Jewry. Origins, Culture and Literature, by Reuben Ahroni, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1986

- Not surprinsingly, when Yemeni Jews arrived in Israel, many Askenazim were took by surprise as they never saw Jews with a different complexion before. More to come after the Ethiopians arrived. See also the problems of discrimination at the beginning of the state.

- According to a legend, they are considered the descendants of the group whom Ezra called upon to return to Jerusalem for the building of the second Temple, but they refused it. Another source accuse them of not being of Jewish extraction, as descendants of indigenous Arabs who embraced Judaism in pre-Islamic times.

- About 80% of the Yemeni Jews lived in villages and in small towns, the only non-Muslim minority in a country with strong tribal divisions and frequent fratricid wars.

- The community didn't generate reknown writers and scholars, but their isolation contributed to the preservation of old customs and traditions. Meanwhile, there are not available sources to establish precisely the origins of the Jews of Yemen.

- "The Galut theme, namely lamentation, mourning, and woe, is central in Yemenite Jewish literature" (p. 134). In 17th century, the Jews from Yemen were forced to move to Mauza and the synagogues from the rest of the country destroyed.