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January 22, 1999/5 Shevat 5759, Vol. 51, No. 17
Mission accomplished
Book tells of effort to bring freedom to the Jews of Yemen
LOU HIRSH
Contributing Editor
Members of the International Coalition for the Revival of the Jews of Yemen meet with some residents during a September 1989 visit to Yemen.
Photo courtesy of Belkis Press
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It was a low-profile battle as Middle East conflicts go, but a hard-fought one just as well. It was waged by just a handful of passionate warriors, but it brought freedom for hundreds of people living thousands of miles away.
The fight to free the Jews of Yemen, a small Arab nation on the southwestern tip of the Saudi Arabian peninsula, was a mostly behind-the-scenes struggle over the course of four years, led by a small band of advocates that included Phoenix attorney Bill Wolf. Their big weapons were no more than letters, pleadings and meetings, but the payoff was rewarding: After nearly 30 years of political restrictions and societal persecution, the approximately 1,200 Jews of Yemen were granted permission to emigrate to Israel.
"This is a situation that was getting worse by the year, and nobody was doing anything," Wolf recalled recently in an interview with Jewish News. "We felt we had to bring this to people's attention, or nothing was going to happen. Nobody was allowed to go anywhere for 30 years."
The advocates' struggle, including the political obstacles and general apathy they had to overcome to reach their goal, are chronicled in "Operation Esther - Opening the Door for the Last Jews of Yemen," a new book by Hayim Tawil, a professor of Hebrew studies at Yeshiva University in New York. The book also describes life for the Jews of Yemen and their quest to remain true to their beliefs, despite the often harsh treatment they endured as a small minority population, which tended to worsen over the years amid political changes in the region.
Jews in Yemen had been free to emigrate to Israel since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948, but the borders were shut by the Yemenite government in 1962 in the midst of a civil war.
Finally, from 1990 to 1992, about 800 of the 1,200 Jews still in Yemen left the country to move to Israel, many of them reuniting with family members they hadn't seen in three decades. Wolf notes that the rest of the Jews in Yemen, approximately 400 people, apparently decided to stay for personal reasons, even after the government said they were free to emigrate.
"We've done what we could to help the people who wanted to leave. That's the important thing," Wolf said.
As described by Tawil, who was among those leading the grass-roots push to gain the Yemenite Jews' freedom, the effort began with letters to American Jewish newspapers, which caught the attention of a small number of U.S. congressmen and senators, who in turn took the case to diplomats in the U.S. State Department, the Israeli government, international aid agencies and, finally, the leaders of Yemen.
Tawil, whose family came to the future state of Israel from Yemen in 1899, served as chairman of the International Coalition for the Revival of the Jews of Yemen (ICROJOY), formed in the late 1980s to press the issue in the diplomatic community. The group's mission, "Operation Esther," was named after the author's mother, whom he describes in the book as "an honorable and devoted Jewess."
For the opening of a 1989 written proposal to the U.S. State Department stating the goals of ICROJOY, Tawil included a sentence of Scripture from the Book of Esther: "The Jews had light and happiness and joy and honor."
As described by Tawil, the push to bring light and happiness to the Jews of Yemen took years of struggle and persistence. The author notes that Phoenix's Wolf played a major role in making the American Jewish community aware of the situation.
Wolf, who had long been an activist for Jewish causes such as the plight of Soviet Jewry, joined the effort to free the Yemenite Jews in 1988, after reading a story in the Jerusalem Post's international edition, headlined "Yemenite Jews said facing danger of extermination." The article included a quote from David Shuker, chairman of the Public Committee for Yemenite Jewry in Israel, who said the arrival in North Yemen of 2,000 terrorists from Lebanon had led to the onset of robberies, rapes and abductions targeting the country's Jewish residents. Shuker also claimed that many Yemenite Jews were being forced to convert to Islam.
With the help of Dvora Rosenberg, a former Phoenix neighbor who had moved back to her native Israel, Wolf was able to locate Shuker and subsequently traveled to the Jewish state to meet with him. After learning more from Shuker about the situation in Yemen, Wolf returned to the Valley, authored a letter describing the plight of Yemen's forgotten Jews, and sent it to the editor of every Jewish newspaper in the United States and Canada. Wolf invited readers to respond to him in Phoenix, and he in turn would mail to interested parties documentation of the situation and information on how to contact and influence congressional representatives.
As Tawil describes it, "The mailbox at the offices of Arnold & Wolf was soon filled with responses from across North America."
Wolf subsequently hosted Shuker on a visit to Phoenix, as Shuker traveled the country to drum up interest in the cause. By that time, the effort was beginning to gain momentum and caught the attention of a small group of U.S. senators and House members, including Arizona's then-Sen. Dennis DeConcini, who began making inquiries on the subject to the State Department.
Over the course of several months, a series of diplomatic contacts - with continued pushing from ICROJOY - led to a decision by Yemen's government to let the Jews leave if they wished.
In August 1991, Wolf had the opportunity to witness one of many tearful reunions that took place between Yemenite Jews and the loved ones they hadn't seen for decades. Wolf flew to New York to take part as three Yemenite Jews were reunited with 11 family members, now living in Israel, whom the three hadn't seen for 30 years. The three newly freed Yemenites subsequently settled in Israel themselves.
Nearly eight years later, Wolf recently told Jewish News that he remains touched by that New York trip, and extremely proud of what he and his colleagues were able to accomplish on behalf of the Yemenite Jews.
"This has been a story with a very happy ending. The doors have opened for the Jews of Yemen," Wolf said. "People who for years could not go anywhere have been able to move to Israel. People have been united with children and mothers and fathers they haven't seen for years. It's incredible."
"Operation Esther - Opening the Door for the Last Jews of Yemen" is available at area bookstores or by contacting Belkis Press, 24 Bennett Ave., Suite 24B, New York NY 10033.
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