Recently, there has been a great deal in the Jewish news and blog-o-sphere, and emails and phone calls are a constant, dealing with the danger to the Yemen Jewish community. Particular emphasis has been placed on the relationship between the UJC and the Satmar community and also whether those leaving Yemen should be settled in the U.S. or Israel. Personally, I’ve heard multiple sides of the same story.
If the situation in Yemen resonates with you, check out this article from The Forward:
In recent weeks, Jewish organizations have insisted that Yemen’s tiny Jewish population is in grave danger and that a secret evacuation is necessary to bring the people to safety. But a new report written by on-the-ground observers suggests that one of the primary barriers to the Jews’ departure is the resistance of the Jews themselves.
According to a copy of the report seen by the Forward, a high-ranking member of the Yemeni government has offered his assurance that Jews are free to leave for any country they like, whenever they like, and one of the primary obstacles to getting the Jews out of the country is their insistence that they be compensated for the houses they will leave behind. The report does say that the Jews there are concerned about their safety, but it also made clear that the Jews’ concerns about their material situation weighs heavily in their decision-making.
UJA-Federation of New York board member Linda Mirels and an unnamed representative of the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote the report.
Both the Jewish Agency for Israel and a coalition of American organizations that includes the United Jewish Communities, New York’s federation, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and the Satmar-run United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg have presented attempts to bring Jews out of Yemen as an essential, life-saving operation. In a public statement released on March 18, UJC president Howard Rieger declared, “The entire Yemenite-Jewish community now lives in fear of Islamic extremists and the persecution they may inflict in response to Israeli and world events. As a result of worsening conditions, this community is actively seeking to leave the country.”
But it now appears that the picture on the ground is more complex.
No one disagrees that the Yemen Jewish community is at peril. Amnesty Internation, the UN — all agree these folks are in danger every day. The issue is the paternalistic attitude folks are taking to this community. The Yemenite Jews are intelligent — they should be entitled to make their own decisions as to where to move. The Jewish Agency imperiled these folks lives for the sake of their Aliyah ideology by releasing information about their refugee applications to the USA. In fact, if one were to check the facts, they would find out that the Yemenite Jews who are moving to the USA are moving next to, no, not the Satmar community and schools in Monroe, but to Monsey, where one of their spiritual leaders, Rabbi Hatuka, resides. It would be nice to show these folks respect — and, it is a credit to Satmar that they are providing them with funds to relocate. People should not be pawns in political movement wars. It was not a fine moment for the State of Israel when Ben Hecht revealed some of the shenanigans in his book Perfidy, and history will probably record Mr. Wexler of the Jewish Agency as a person who put an idealogical goal above human life. For shame.