Around three years ago, in 2021, an Arab country, allegedly Saudi Arabia, aided Israel in evacuating nearly 100 Jews from Yemen, relocating them to a third country, Egypt. “Zman Yisrael,” the Hebrew site of “Times of Israel,” reveals the details of this operation for the first time, within the limits allowed by censorship.
At that time, the Jews – the last remaining ones in Yemen – were residing in a secure compound in Sanaa, protected by authorities during the long civil war that erupted in the Muslim country in 2013.
The Jews had moved to Sanaa after living in a less secure compound in the city of Rida, north of Sanaa, where a large Jewish community was concentrated.
Israel urgently sought help from an Arab country with which it had no diplomatic relations. Envoys from this country arrived in Sanaa to negotiate the evacuation of the Jews from the compound.
Some of these Jews, influenced by the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidic movement, did not wish to migrate to Israel, which they view as an occupying state built on the blood of Palestinians and Arabs.
Thus, nearly 100 Jews left Yemen in 2021, relocating to a compound in Cairo, all funded by foreign money. The operation was led by a special envoy on behalf of that Arab country, whose name is known to the editorial board.
However, one Jew, Salem Levy Marhabi, remained in Sanaa, as authorities prevented his departure. According to our knowledge, the special envoy from that Arab country visits Sanaa monthly to check on Marhabi’s well-being.
Marhabi had lived in Israel in the past but returned to Yemen after facing assimilation difficulties. Before returning to Yemen, he was photographed in March 2016 with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alongside other Yemeni immigrants, gazing at an ancient Torah scroll smuggled out of Yemen, dating back 800 years.
Sources from the concerned Arab country claim that the Jews now residing in the closed compound in Cairo do not burden Egyptian authorities. They work as goldsmiths, earning their livelihood with their hands, and their artistic products have even become sought after in the city.
In reality, these Yemenite Jews from Sanaa might be the only Jews living in Egypt today, following the dissolution of the Jewish community in the country over the years. The Egyptian police are the ones monitoring these new Jews today.
