Some 200 Israelis of Yemenite origins arrived to pray at the Old Yemenite Synagogue, situated in the heart of Kfar Hashiloach (Silwan) and just below the Old City in Jerusalem.
The community came to Jerusalem from Yemen in 1881, and at its height, ran five synagogues and numbered some 160 families. Encountering Arab violence and attacks for several years, the community was forced to abandon the area in 1938, and the synagogues were desecrated by Muslim attackers.
Israel reunited its capital in 1967, and the Jews began to return to the area some 20 years ago, reacquiring one property after another.
Eighty-one years after the synagogue was ransacked, decedents of the old Yemenite community returned to pray in the refurbished synagogue.
[Jewish Press]
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UPDATE:
New York Times ignores Silwan's Jewish Origins
One would think a story about the US ambassador to Israel celebrating the opening of a new archeology exhibit might include a bit of history. Perhaps it would mention that Silwan’s first inhabitants were Yemeni Jews who in 1881 spent six months traveling to Jerusalem. They arrived broke and were greeted with suspicion by the local Jewish community living in Jerusalem. Settling on the eastern slopes of the Kidron Valley, this group of Yemeni Jews built a thriving community and established a synagogue, the same synagogue that the “right-wing Jewish settler group” is rebuilding and living in.
Perhaps an article that mentions the five thousand Palestinian inhabitants might mention how Silwan became a Palestinian village when it started as a Yemeni Jewish village. [D]uring the 1936–39 Arab Revolt, the village of Silwan was ethnically cleansed of all Jews, and Arab families moved into the homes of Yemeni Jews. One might wonder if the descendants of those Yemeni Jews still have the key to their homes.
[Providence Magazine]
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UPDATE:
New York Times ignores Silwan's Jewish Origins
One would think a story about the US ambassador to Israel celebrating the opening of a new archeology exhibit might include a bit of history. Perhaps it would mention that Silwan’s first inhabitants were Yemeni Jews who in 1881 spent six months traveling to Jerusalem. They arrived broke and were greeted with suspicion by the local Jewish community living in Jerusalem. Settling on the eastern slopes of the Kidron Valley, this group of Yemeni Jews built a thriving community and established a synagogue, the same synagogue that the “right-wing Jewish settler group” is rebuilding and living in.
Perhaps an article that mentions the five thousand Palestinian inhabitants might mention how Silwan became a Palestinian village when it started as a Yemeni Jewish village. [D]uring the 1936–39 Arab Revolt, the village of Silwan was ethnically cleansed of all Jews, and Arab families moved into the homes of Yemeni Jews. One might wonder if the descendants of those Yemeni Jews still have the key to their homes.
[Providence Magazine]
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