Secret??

Jews from Yemen on their way to Israel 60 years ago.


You might have heard that yesterday, 10 Yemenite Jews arrived at Ben Gurion on a "secret" aliya mission--SECRET?? Every journalist in the country received a news release about the new immigrants a few hours before they landed. Meanwhile, the remaining 240 Jews in Yemen are left to their own devices...

We don't know if they didn't want to join their 10 brethren; weren't permitted to leave by Yemeni authorities or preferred to wait for the Satmar and other non-Zionist groups in America to whisk them away to Brooklyn....or was it a case of the Sochnut (Jewish Agency) just needing to show that they're still relevant? In any case, my colleague Jacob Richman posted a nice page of photos of the event at http://www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/history/aliyah.htm

Yesterday's mini-aliya op was sparked by a recent spate of violence against the Jews of Yemen culminating in the murder of a teacher a few months ago.