The memoirs of Yisrael Yeshayahu-Sharabi (1911-1979), former Speaker of the Knesset in Israel, provide an overview of the thinking of some Eastern Jews who immigrated to and settled in Palestine before or after the establishment of the Hebrew state.
This Jew, who grew up in Yemen with his parents, was now proud and boastful of living in the ‘land of his ancestors’, as he had been taught through religious myths and stories. This is a literature that is still sacred in the current Israeli discourse and defines its political direction and behavioral paths.
Recently published by the Yemeni ‘Dar Maweed’ and titled ‘The Land of the Ancestors’ (Mawtin al-‘Aba), translated by Abdussalam Muhammad Abdullah al-Mahlafi. This book originated with the aim of ‘knowing the enemy’, or in other words, understanding the way other people think. This is an approach we have seen in a series of books published in Egypt and elsewhere in the 1960s.
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The book begins with a foreword by the translator. The translator explains the place of Yemeni Jews in the history of Yemen through many sources and references, going back to the modern period. He emphasizes that Yemenite Jews have unique religious traditions that distinguish them from Ashkenazi Jews, Seferad Jews and other Jewish groups. He describes them as ‘the most Jewish Jews’ and notes that they have ‘preserved the Hebrew language well’. Although they are classified as ‘Sephardic Jews, i.e. Jews living under Islamic rule’, according to the translator, ‘it would be more accurate to call the Jews of Yemen Mizrahim, i.e. Jews from the Middle East’.
Some Yemeni Jews, as usual, interpreted these changes and new improvements in the ease of access to Jerusalem as divine signs.
The translator recalls some of the tragedies suffered by the Jews of Yemen. Among them, he mentioned the edict of King Abdunnebi bin Ali al-Raini al-Humayri of Yemen, issued in 1165. This edict targeted Yemeni Jews with measures such as forced Islamization and included similar measures targeted by his father in an earlier period. Under the influence of this edict, Musa ibn Maimonides, who claimed to be the Messiah and savior of the Jews, sent his famous letter to the Jews of Yemen, containing words of encouragement and support for them in their crisis and answers to the questions they had sent him about the Yemeni Jews that had arisen in 1172. This was before the Ayyubid invasion of Yemen in 1174, which canceled the edict of Ibn Mahdi al-Raini.
In 1618, the Ottoman governor issued an edict for Yemen targeting the Jews of South Yemen. The translator mentions the deportation of Jews by Imam al-Mahdi Ahmad ibn al-Hasan (1681) to Muwazza in southwestern Yemen, but does not indicate where he obtained his information. Rumor has it that the famous Jewish rabbi and Sufi Salim al-Shabzi was among those deported to Muwazza, but he does not reveal the source of this information. It is known that Salim al-Shabzi lived in the city of Taiz and even interceded for Imam Mahdi to return them to their homes in Sana’a when they appealed to him.
Before and after migration
The translator notes that small groups of Yemenite Jews migrated to the Palestinian territories in the 13th century. According to the preface, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the means of travel increased, which reduced the travel time from Yemen to Syria under Ottoman rule. Therefore, some Yemeni Jews saw these changes and new developments as the relative ease of access to Jerusalem and interpreted it as a divine sign that the hour of redemption was approaching.
In 1877 there was a small emigration, but documented waves of emigration began at the beginning of the 19th century in 1881-1882. During this period, about 300 Jews settled, mostly in the cities of Jerusalem and Jaffa. The reasons for emigration include the Ottoman Empire’s rule of Yemen at the time, which required Jews to serve the state free of charge in tasks such as cleaning toilets and grinding flour, as well as economic hardship due to severe drought in Sana’a.
On the eve of 1948, the Jews of Yemen made up about 40 percent of the Jewish community in the Palestinian territories.
According to Mahlafi’s sources, mostly in Hebrew, additional groups arrived from North Yemen between 1905 and 1907. These groups played an important role in the process of building the city of Tel Aviv. Later, between 1910 and 1919, another wave of immigration took place, when more than 1,500 more people immigrated, the majority of whom took up agricultural work.
By 1939, about 28,000 Yemeni immigrants lived in the Palestinian territories, and on the eve of 1948, Yemeni Jews made up about 40 percent of the Jewish communities in the Palestinian territories.
Mahlafi points out that “after the bloody clashes between Arabs and Jews in the Palestinian territories, the Imam of Yemen, Yahya Hamid al-Din, issued an edict warning the Jews of Yemen that they would lose their property. The edict warned the Jews of Yemen that if they decided to emigrate to the land of Palestine, they would lose their property, with the exception of cash. This edict also included those who emigrated under the Turkish rule in Yemen. As a result of this edict, Yemeni Jews were banned from using the port of Hudaydah to exit Yemen and were directed to the port of Aden, which was then under British rule. The Interpreter, however, does not provide information on the advantages that the Jews enjoyed during Imam Yahya’s rule, and thus how far his attitude towards their emigration was in line with what is said about this relationship.
One point Yisrael Yeshayahu-Sharabi makes when summarizing the history of the Jews of Yemen is this: “The status of the Jews was so respected that from them came kings or kings who converted to Judaism.” Sharabi notes that with the rise of the prophet of Islam, Yemeni Jews became isolated in the Arab world and took refuge within the walls of Jewish life. “As the Jews grew stronger in their religious lands, the hostility of the Muslims, the masters of their land, increased in their closed community, and their alienation in a foreign land increased even more,” he explains.
In many of Sharabi’s statements, it appears that he justified the separation of Jews from Yemen, their humiliation, the imposition of harsh regulations on them, and discriminatory practices. For example, Jews were not allowed to build Jewish temples, and if they were allowed to build a synagogue, the roof should not be much higher than the height of a normal person. Jews had to build houses at a low height, were forbidden to wear white clothes and were not allowed to ride on horses or donkeys. If a Jewish person walked in front of or next to a Muslim, he had to move to his left. Also, if a Jew accidentally touched a Muslim’s clothes or body, it was considered defilement and he had to bear the cost of cleansing. The Jew was not eligible to be a witness and was assigned menial tasks, such as removing stones from the streets.
In these references, Sharabi seems to generalize what happened to Jews at one stage of Yemen’s history to all other stages. He therefore believes that the departure of the Jews of Yemen was a blessing in terms of social and behavioral advantages. Yosef Halevy, who has written many books about the Jews of Yemen, believes that there are references to the suffering of the Jews of Yemen after emigration. The translator quotes him as saying about some aspects of discrimination, including the usual things like “rewriting history among Eastern Europeans and minimizing the role of Yemenite Jews”. History books and teaching guides for schools at all levels only emphasize the uniqueness of immigration from Eastern Europe and its contribution to the building of the country. Before and after the First World War, Yemeni activists organized and demanded that institutions like their Eastern European brethren allocate them land to settle on. Their demands were ignored because Yemenis were needed and wanted as laborers, not settlers, and therefore the official institutions always claimed that Yemeni immigrants would work for Ashkenazi farmers. He mentions that after a long and hard struggle, sixty families were allocated sixty acres of land, one acre per family, while Ashkenazi families were given ten acres.
In his lengthy introduction, the translator draws attention to the kidnapping of Yemenite Jewish children from hospitals in Israel and their transfer to Ashkenazi couples, a tragedy that has left a deep mark on the memory of Yemenite Jews with official approval.
According to Mahlafi, “the attitude of Yemeni Muslims towards Jews is generally polite. On the one hand, they were protected by the state, and on the other, the tribes protected them according to traditional customs. In any case, according to Islamic understanding, they were required to pay jizya, but once they reached a certain level of wealth, they were exempted from paying zakat.”
Don’t buy everything
Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi managed to lead the Yemeni community six years after he left Yemen. He then collaborated with other Yemeni community intellectuals to publish a series of articles on the history, culture, traditions and immigration of Yemeni Jews to Israel. He is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles. Some critics consider Sharabi’s political thought to be influential because he consistently rejected the idea that the occupying state was not a religious state and argued that the status of the state was determined solely by the public will of the citizens through the constitution and laws. His daughter, Nimet, stated that ‘her father was the leader and spiritual leader of the Yemeni immigrants and did his best to help them adapt in the Land of Israel. As part of these efforts, he led Operation Bessat er-Rih, deporting some 49,000 Yemeni Jews to Israel.
Mahlafi notes that Sharabi shows a degree of fairness in addressing the reality of Yemen’s Jewish communities, attributing much of their suffering to circumstances that stem from the Jews themselves.
Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi served as speaker of the Knesset in its seventh and eighth terms and was appointed to several ministerial posts. He was a member of the Knesset from the end of the first Knesset term in 1951 until 1977. He also served as Secretary General of the Labor Party from 1971 to 1972. Sharabi was the only one of the leaders of the Histaadrut (labor movement) who was born in Yemen rather than Eastern Europe.
In his memoirs, Sharabi mentions that he was born in the city of Sadah, close to the Beni Bana Valley. Half of the city’s population was Arab and all farmers, while the other half was Jewish, mostly weavers and some merchants. His father came from the Sharabi family, who were weavers, while his mother was from a family of blacksmiths and traders. His father decided to leave the city of Sadah and move to Sana’a. This was a place where there were famous teachers for Yisrael to learn Torah.
Sharabi has revealed much about aspects that seem important when viewed in the context of the events that accompanied or followed them. For example, he recounts that when he was seventeen years old, he saw two men of Ashkenazi origin who had come to Yemen from Vienna to search for and buy ancient manuscripts: “They were white, they were walking through the streets of Sana’a, their skin glowing red, they were hurrying, they were wearing European clothes, behind them were all the children of the neighborhood, not only children but also adults, and there were women looking out of the windows. They were looking at this miracle of creation, as if two creatures from the moon had suddenly appeared here.”
In many of Sharabi’s statements, he justifies the separation of Jews from Yemen with references to humiliating them and imposing harsh laws on them.
Sharabi notes that these visitors ‘bought everything they could get their hands on in order to encourage research’. Indeed, they acquired large quantities of ancient manuscripts and printed works of various kinds. They also took with them many valuable items from Yemen.
With the intention of leaving Yemen, Sharabi sent a written request to these visitors to take him with them, a request expressing his wish to ‘go to Israel’. However, she received no reply. He did, however, save some money through the book trade, buying books in the villages and selling them at a profit to Ashkenazi Jews. This profit supported his decision to leave Yemen and his mother encouraged him to do so, despite the general opposition of his family.
Solid walls
In his memoirs, Sharabi talks about his family and the traditions, homes, holidays, special occasions, education, professions and beliefs of the Jewish community in Yemen. She also makes some observations about specific details in the area where they lived in Yemen. Regarding the Jewish community in Sana’a, where he lived with his family, he says: “My walk, my dress, my accent, my reading style and my prayers were all exactly like Sana’a Jews in everything. However, my brother and my father were not like that, especially my father, whose accent and some of his behavior indicated that he was from the Jews of the country.”
Sharabi mentions various diseases and epidemics in the society at large, particularly smallpox. According to him, the disease affected every household and every family, and children were more affected than adults. “Everyone who contracted the disease died, except for a few lucky ones. These were the terrible days we lived in the Jewish neighborhood in Sana’a. I couldn’t see what was happening in the Muslim neighborhoods because they, like the Jews, forbade walking in the streets for fear of disease and death. I would leave the house to go to the Jewish market, I would look for something to eat at home, but I would find nothing, it was as if life had stopped going on, there were only dead people.” In these memoirs, he describes many details about Jewish social relations with Muslims and the differences between Jewish urban life in the city of Sana’a and Jewish life in the villages.
Sharabi reveals many aspects of the backwardness in Yemen between Muslims or Jews who, like the rest of the Yemeni people, were not only isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, they even isolated themselves from Muslims and did not have any cultural or social contacts other than those necessary to carry out commercial exchanges, business matters or negotiations and sales, he states. He further states that within the framework of Jewish tradition and heritage, relations were inherently closed. Therefore, they built a wall for themselves and over generations the walls became very solid and rigid.
In this isolation, Sharabi states that ‘legends are further mixed with religious beliefs and traditions, such beliefs are even mixed in the Talmud’. He also lists among what he learned from society some social customs that have no rational basis. Speaking about his father’s interaction with the “Darda” movement, Sharabi states that his father was more interested in the ideas of this movement. She also learned for the first time the name ‘Rachel’, the name given to her in Yemen. Later it turned out that this name was an abbreviation of the name ‘Rothschild’, who devoted his wealth to the Jews.
One of the most important aspects of the memoir is its study of Jewish literature in Arabic and Hebrew, including one of his favorite commentaries, ‘Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishna’, written in Arabic.
Dar al harp
Yisrael’s father was a skilled weaver. For this reason, Yahya, the Imam of Yemen, offered him some weaving work for the royal family and general needs. Yisrael, along with his brother Hayim, worked for their father. Recounting a memory of his time with Imam Yahya, Sharabi says that he was about fifteen years old at the time and adds: “I was sitting at my workbench, my braids dangling. Suddenly the Imam stood next to me with his entourage. Somehow my hair caught his attention. I didn’t raise my eyes, either out of embarrassment, or because I was afraid he was the King, or because I didn’t want him to think that we were taking our work for granted, as we were still working for a new salary at the time. I continued my work with great enthusiasm and the smell of sweat surrounded me. But he started asking me questions, some serious, some playful. He asked me questions like: What is this fabric? What is the name of this tool? I answered each question without raising my eyes to him and without stopping my work. Then he pointed to my braids and asked: What is this? “It is a sign. In Yemen, false hair was called a sign. Then he asked me what a sign means in Arabic. I answered him. Then he asked me, pointing to this sign: What is this sign? Again, without raising my eyes to him and without stopping my work, I answered: This is a sign to distinguish between a Jew and a Muslim. He said, ‘Why do we need to distinguish them? I said, ‘So that everyone knows that a Jew is a Jew and a Muslim is a Muslim.’ When he said, ‘Don’t you need to become a Muslim?’ I asked, ‘What benefit will I get from that?’ He said, ‘You will enter Paradise: You will enter Paradise. There you will meet with the Huris and other wonderful things.
Sharabi talks about the traditions of her family and the Jewish community before immigration, their homes, holidays, occasions and lifestyles, including education, profession and beliefs
I replied like this: “Sir, no one has yet come from there to tell who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. The whole of the Imam’s entourage was offended by this and wanted to tear me apart like a fish, but the Imam laughed, dispersed the entourage and described me with a derogatory word that I usually say to grumpy people. Not long after, the Imam’s deputy, Abdullah al-Amri, visited the workshop and while talking to my father he said: I think your son will not stay here and will go to the Dar al-Harb before that day comes. This is how the land of Israel was called then. It seems that he prophesied and did not know what he prophesied.
From the details mentioned by Sharabi, we understand that he left Yemen in 1929 at the age of 18. After spending two months in Aden, he sometimes received remuneration for the letters he wrote to Jews to help them with their emigration to Israel and their presence in Aden. These letters were full of pleas and requests, asking for help with their wealth in Aden and with the expenses of immigrating to Israel. For several days he went without food to eat.
Not forgetting Israel, Sharabi said, “Of course I have ambitions since I was a child, and most of them are childhood dreams. For example: I dreamed that I would find treasure, that I would build worlds as I wished, that I would gather armies, that I would buy weapons, that I would fight the Yemeni government, that I would make Yemen my kingdom, a Jewish monarchy. I even drew in my imagination the types of weapons with which I would defeat the Imam. Now I laugh when I remember all my dreams from those times. But I know that these are the dark and imaginary roots of ambitions and desires, and although I have reached a sane age, it is doubtful whether I have yet gotten rid of them.”
Based on Al Majalla magazine
