History of The Jews in Aden - History

History

Jews are certain to have appeared in Aden in 200 CE, and although the Jewish community seems to have eluded thorough historical documenting, a letter yet remains, "sent by a Jewish merchant from Aden in South Arabia to Cairo about 850 years ago. In this letter he asks his business correspondent in Cairo to buy for him all kinds of goods for the needs of his household." The Cairo Genizah (discovered in 1896) contains amazing letters from this period of the sages which reveal connections between these two communities. Some of the letters were sent by the heads of rabbinical academies to the Adeni and other communities seeking financial support for there institutions. Digs at Bet She’arim in Israel provide proof that Jews were settled in Aden and Yemen during the mishnaic period (2nd and 3rd centuries CE). A hall was discovered there containing tombs of the Jews from Yemen. These Jews had been brought from Himyar for burial in the holy land. Tombstones were also found in Jewish cemeteries in Aden, dating as far back as the 12th century.

In the 10th century relations between the Jews of Yemen-Aden and of Babylonia became closer as evidenced by the formers adoption of upper pointing, (sometimes called Babylonian pointing, in which the vocal marks are placed above instead of below the line as is the case today.) Although this did not last long they retained this practice even after books began to be printed. Adeni Jewry possessed Saadia Gaon’s translations into Arabic of the torah and the five megilloth. The prayers and liturgies composed by the Babylonian sages, such as the “Hosha’not” for Sukkoth, which is contained in Saadia Gaon’s prayer book, were adopted by the Aden Jews and have been retained by them ever since. In one of the cairo documents there appear instructions from Madmon Ben Yafter Ben Bendar, the ruler of Yemen and himself from Aden, to Halfon Ben Nethaniel Halevi from Fustat in Egypt, which indicates that already in the 10th century there was a small Jewish settlement in Aden. From 1083-1173 Aden was ruled by an Arab dynasty called the Zura’ites. From this time onwards Aden served as an important community centre and became crucial as a port from the commercial sea lanes between the Mediterranean sea, India and further into the far east. The Jews became heavily involved in international trade and as a result they were able to support generously the yeshivoth of Babylonia, Egypt and the Land of Israel. From the 10th to the 13th centuriesm Aden was the centre of Yemeni Jewish life. The “Yemeni governors” or the “ministers of the communities” sat in Aden and from there led the entire community. Their influence spread as far as Persia and Babylonia and throughout the Arabian Peninsula as far as the Hijaz in the north and Hadramout in the east.

For hundreds of years, until 1947 the 8,550-strong Jewish community in Aden, despite some underlying resentment from the Arabs, lived in relative tranquility.