YEMENI JEWS ESCAPE WAR FOR NEW LIFE
In a secret mission involving an assortment of local tribes, 17 Jews from Yemen escaped their country’s deadly civil war and landed in Israel early Monday.
Representatives of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a quasi-governmental organization that assists in Jewish immigration, said the group included 12 Jews from the town of Raydah and a family of five from the capital, Sanaa.
They will join close to 200 Jews who have been brought to Israel secretly over the past few years, as well as a much larger community of Jews with Yemeni origins who came to Israel more than 60 years ago.
Uzi Rabi, an expert on Yemeni Jews at Tel Aviv University who assisted in bringing the latest group of Jews to Israel, said that only about 40 to 50 members of the community now remain in Yemen.
Rabi said the escape was facilitated by individual tribes and tribe members.