Yemenite Jews (Hebrew: תֵּימָנִים, Standard Temanim Têmānîm; singular תֵּימָנִי, Temani Têmānî) are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen (תֵּימָן, Teman Têmān; "far south"). Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet. Most Yemenite Jews now live in Israel, with some others in the United States, and fewer elsewhere. Only a handful remain in Yemen, mostly elderly.
Yemenite Jews have a unique religious tradition that marks them out as separate from Ashkenazi, Sephardi and other Jewish groups. It is debatable whether they should be described as "Mizrahi Jews", as most other Mizrahi groups have over the last few centuries undergone a process of total or partial assimilation to Sephardic culture and liturgy. (While the Shami sub-group of Yemenite Jews did adopt a Sephardic-influenced rite, this was for theological reasons and did not reflect a demographic or cultural shift).
Read more about Yemenite Jews: Early History, Jewish - Muslim Relationship in Yemen Through Time, Religious Traditions, Religious Groups, Form of Hebrew, Writings, DNA Testing, Emigration of Communities To Israel, Present Situation
Famous quotes containing the word jews:
“No doubt Jews are most obnoxious creatures. Any competent historian or psychoanalyst can bring a mass of incontrovertible evidence to prove that it would have been better for the world if the Jews had never existed. But I, as an Irishman, can, with patriotic relish, demonstrate the same of the English. Also of the Irish.... We all live in glass houses. Is it wise to throw stones at the Jews? Is it wise to throw stones at all?”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)