Jerusalem – VIDEO: Netanyahu Meets Rescued Yemeni Jews, Inspects 800 Years Old Torah Scroll Brought Along

Jerusalem – Prime Minister Banjamin Netahyau on Monday met with a group of Yeminite Jewish immigrants who made aliya in a secret mission coordinated with the Jewish Agency and the US State Department.

As reported earlier today on VIN News, The group of 17 are said to be the last of the remaining Jews from their worn torn-native Yemen, 12 from the town of Raydah and a family of five from the capital Sanaa.

“Welcome to Jerusalem, the land of Israel,” Netanyahu told the travel weary group. “I am very excited to see you here.”

Among the new immigrants was Rabbi Saliman Dahari who arrived with his parents and his wife and met his children upon arrival at the absorption center in Israel. The rabbi brought with him a torah scroll that is 700-800-years-old.

“I am very happy to see that you can read the Torah,” Netanyahu added.

After the meeting, the group thanked Netanyahu for his hospitality and for welcoming them to the Jewish state.

The father of one of the new arrivals on Monday was Aharon Zindani, who was murdered in an anti-Semitic attack in 2012. Also in 2012, a young Jewish woman was abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and forcibly wed to a Muslim man. The Jewish Agency said that as Yemen has descended into civil war and the humanitarian situation in the country has worsened, the Jewish community has found itself increasingly imperiled.

More than 51,000 Yemenite Jews have immigrated to Israel since the country’s establishment in 1948. In 1949, Israel organized their mass transfer to the newly-established state in Operation Magic Carpet.

The Jewish Agency noted that some fifty Jews remain in Yemen, including approximately forty in Sanaa, where they live in a closed compound adjacent to the US embassy and enjoy the protection of Yemeni authorities. These last Jews have chosen to remain in the country without Jewish communal or organizational infrastructure, the Jewish Agency said.

Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky said hailed the mission as a “significant moment in the history of Israel and of aliya.”

“From Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 until the present day, The Jewish Agency has helped bring Yemenite Jewry home to Israel. Today we bring that historic mission to a close. 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,” Sharansky said.

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