Yemeni Jewish family reunited after 15 years apart with help of UAE

"I never imagined seeing them again. I never imagined hugging them," said one family member.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A family have breakfast outside their home at a Jewish community in Sanaa, Yemen (photo credit: MOHAMED AL-SAYAGHI/REUTERS)
A family have breakfast outside their home at a Jewish community in Sanaa, Yemen
(photo credit: MOHAMED AL-SAYAGHI/REUTERS)
A Yemani Jewish family who was separated for 15 years was reunited in the United Arab Emirates recently after Dubai facilitated travel for family members living in London and in Yemen, according to the WAM – Emirates News Agency.
“I feel as if I was reborn today. I am so happy to have met all my children and grandchildren. I am also overjoyed to be in the UAE, the land of tolerance, coexistence and goodness,” said the father of the family.
 
Video filmed by WAM showed the family reuniting at the airport, embracing and chatting for the first time in over a decade.
“I never imagined seeing them again. I never imagined hugging them,” said one family member.
Another family member who is now living in London said: “We never imagined we would reunite after all the long, grim years. I feel everything is fine now. We lived alone in exile, without family and siblings... I was lost.”
One family member gave his sincere thanks to the UAE for giving them this opportunity.
“May God bless them, they’ve given us everything we needed. They made it easy for us all,” the family member said. “Thank God we are all fine – My family and I are fine, Alhamdulillah (praise be to God).”
 

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While most of Yemen’s Jews were airlifted out of the country shortly after Israel’s establishment, a couple hundred stayed behind and have slowly trickled out of the country since.

About 50 Jews are estimated to be left in Yemen, but information about them is sparse. The Jews who have stayed in Yemen have resisted efforts to get them out, both from the Houthis and from Israel. A Houthi slogan is “Curse the Jews.”
Yemen’s Information Minister Muammar al-Iryani said in 2017 that the state of the remaining Jews in the country was “unknown.”
Tzvi Joffre contributed to this report.


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