The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-15
THE YEMENITE JEWS
An Interesting People Now Prosecuted
 by Arabs

l From the American Hebrew.
 1 The Yemenlte Jews are at this moment
 an object of interest throughout the Jew | ish world. The cry of despair that has been wrung from them by their suffering | among the savage Arabs has met With l response in European Jewries.
 l Yemen is a province compriring the
 southwestern part of Arabia, separated | from the northern part by great track
 less desert. Tradition traces the settle | inent of the Jews in that couutry to the | times of King Solomon.
 l During the l;abylonlan exile also some l 75, 900 Jews are alleged by tradition 10 have gone to seek their fortune in Yemen and
 as they did not respond to the call of Ezra | 10 return to Palestine, the latter uttered | a ban upon them, whereupou ne was pun ished in that he was denIed burial in Palestine and to add to his disgrace the Yemente Jews have refrainud since then i! from giving their children the name of Ezra.
 | All this fig, however, mere fiction; the l truth seems to be that the J sws settled in ] Yemen not earlier than in the second cen- | tury of the Christian era For the first | few centuries they seem to have led quiet and prosperous life in friendly inter-
 course with the neghboring Arabs. 1 In their zeal for making converts. zeal ! that seems to have been common at that ' tune 10 Jew ana NilTlsliau, they SltNteb'h | in gaining to Judaism one of the most powerful Yemenite kings. Dhu Nuwas, i who was very jealous in the cause of the
 new faith he had adopted. It was only with the rise and spread of Islam that tie persecution of the Jews began.
 1 The Yemenite Jews do mol differ much Physically from the Arabs, whom they | resemble in the coloring of the eyes and | the hair and in the measurement of the | head. This fact has led many anthropolo- 1 sists to the conclusion that the Nemenite 1 adopted Judaism at an early late. This l resemblance may simply go to prove that I the Yemenite Jews are racially purer than
 their European brethren, and hence re- | semble more their Semitic lsirsmen. However that may be. the Jews of Yemen can easily be distinguished from | the Arabs by external characteristics, | such as dress and long side locks As for | their intellectual standard, they tower above their oppressors, the Arabs. Tner peculiarity of dress has been imposed | upon them, as they are not allowed to wear, except cn Saturdays, my clothing indicating equality with the Moslems. | Nor are they allowed to ride on donkeys, and, to a certain extent. they are for bidden to trade. These restrictions have | thrown the Jews of Yemen into the vari- ous sedentary trades, with Q few eXcep- tons engaged in business and agricnl- tuIes they dfS Ifit Wb1kI1fH t0u dItliitf'o of the country-goldsmiths blacksmths.
 carpenters, tanners, tailors, shoemakers, etc.
 This fact has, in a manner, been the saving grace of the Yefnenite Jews, pro- tecting them against total exterminati5n at the hands of the savage Arab, TOT the
 latter. unskllled in handcrafts as he Is, can simply not get along without the
 Jew, who mends his wife's trinkets ard jewery, repairs his gun and fixes his agricultural implements.
 With all this the life and property of the Jews are hardly safe but are always ex- posed to the fancies of the mop and the arbitrariness of the law. The Je ss live In separate quarters. in small dark houses.
 which look like caves, or. raeher like
 graves, having holes for windows which
 can hardly admit any light, for rear Of thieves at night and robbers, that is 10 gay, the native population, in the day time
 There is no legal justice for them; ard they are compelled to do some of the meanest public work. which the Arab thinks below his dignity to do. Even the Jewish representative. the one responsible to the officials for the community, is not spared. but is subject to all Kinds of in- dignity plus blows and torture. Hence no
 rich Jew is willing to serve in the ca-
 pacity of Jewish representative. but a
 poor Jew Is ssHeidiiy H'reu ioi 'iiis P'i-
 pose, 1. e., to be the scapegoat of the con-
 munity.
 In order to escape all this suffering ard
 arbitrariness the Yemenite Jews had re-
 course to the feudal system of vassalage.
 the one employed in the medaeval ages.
 They would put themselves under the pro-
 lection of some powerful Arab. chieftain
 perhaps, whom they would repay with
 some service for the tenure of his protec-
 ton. The result of this system, however.
 was that the Arab once having got the
 power over the Jew. would force the lat ! ter into a state of serfdom.