ABSTRACT
In 1949 and 1950 more than 48,000 Jews were flown from Yemen to Israel. They left one of the most isolated, tradition-bound Muslim societies in the world and entered a rapidly changing, experimenting, modern economy and society. The Yemenite Jews moved within a few months from isolated mountain villages and the Jewish quarters of traditional cities to the growing cities and new farming villages of Israel. There is no sense in which these Yemenites are a problem population, “culturally deprived,” or “in need of fostering”. Many are critical of trends in their country and the world, but they have the perspective of full citizens and loyal Israelis. If Kiryat Eliahu’s Yemenites are becoming very much like other Israelis with respect to their occupations, education, and political life, they do, however, have another side, shared with other Israeli Yemenites but not with their non-Yemenite neighbors.
