Jews in Yemen ?
The above couple are a Jewish couple from Yemen, a place where most people wouldn’t think there would exist a historic Jewish population because well, Yemen is considered an ‘Arab country’ and most of the world always identifies the term ‘Arab’ and the religion of Islam. These Jews call themselves ‘Yehudei teiman’, and many of them aren’t even in Yemen anymore. Between 1949 and 1950, the greater majority of the Yemeni Jews were airlifted to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet, which is one of the many airlifts used by Israel to bring back Jewish populations to Israel. According to tradition, there is 2 ways they could’ve gotten to Yemen:They are simply followers of the Judaism brought back by the Queen of Sheba, Bilqis, upon her return from Jerusalem.
That with the prophet Jeremiah some 75,000 Jews came to Yemen, 42 years before the destruction of the Temple of Solomon by the Babylonians. (Basically around 545 BC)
While they may just be a mix of both scenarios, it is well known that they are in fact a population with an ancestral tie to the ancient Israelite people, and they are carriers of the Kohanim Marker distinctive of Jewish populations. The Yemeni Jews have a very distinct identity from other Jewish populations for a number of reasons. For one, their form of Hebrew, Yemeni Hebrew, is considered the most accurate modern day form of Biblical Hebrew. Second, they do have their own unique traditions including the marriage traditions as pictured above. The Yemeni Jews aren’t simply some recent phenomenon, it is known that at one point they had power in Yemen. During the 5th and 6th century, they had power over the kingdom of Himyar. In fact the Himyarite King deposed by Negus Kaleb of Aksum was in fact a Jewish man named Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar, who’s Jewish mother was possibly of Mesopotamian origin. The Yemeni Jews of our day in Yemen face an uncertain future, they’re mainly centered around the capital Sana'a, which is currently in Houthi control. The Yemeni Jews have no real say in Yemen, and are as vulnerable as the very structures holding together Yemen as a country