Jews of Yemen

Yesterday morning, I introduced the students to the final edah (Jewish Diaspora community) that we'll be studying this year - the Jews of Yemen. In the Bible, Yemen is referred to as "Teiman," which is the Biblical Hebrew word for "south." It's not surprising that the area (and now the country) should be referred to as Teiman, since it's located on the southernmost tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

I introduced the edah by playing a YouTube video. Just before playing it, I asked the students to focus on the way the Yemenite Jews in the video look and dress, what they do for a living and also on the geology of the country.

After watching the video and sharing the students' impressions, I handed out copies of pages taken from a unit of study of the "The Israel Connection," published by the Jewish Educational Service of North America, Inc. in New York. The unit of study is called "One People, Many Faces," and the readings were taken from a chapter about the Yemenite Jews. We read together about the long history of this edah (going back some 3,000 years according to many scholars), and how their relationships with their Arab neighbors deteriorated with the rise of Islam in the 7th century C.E.. We learned that they were tolerated by the Yemenite Muslims because according to Islamic law, Muslims are not allowed to produce jewels and coins. The Jews thus became the jewelers of the Yemenite Arabs, especially famous for their outstanding work in copper and silver. We also read about Operation Magic Carpet, during which the Israeli government secretly evacuated thousands of Yemenite Jews to Israel.

I then shared with the students that when the Jews of Yemen heard about the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem back in 70 C.E., they began to wear black armbands and vowed never to play musical instruments again until the Third Temple was built. A unique style of music and dance resulted from this oath which has greatly influenced Israeli music and dance. With that in mind, I used the rest of the session for playing a video titled, "Teiman: Music of the Yemenite Jews." It's on YouTube, and is divided into 3 separate parts:  Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

During the coming weekday sessions, the students will "become" Yemenite jewelers, learning how to use the tools of the craft to make Yemenite copper wire beaded bracelets.

During our Hebrew Through Movement session yesterday, we reviewed vocabulary introduced since the start of the year, and then I introduced vocabulary associated with the upcoming holiday of Shavuot: har seenai (Mt. Sinai), beekooreem (first fruits), and aron ha'kodesh (the Holy Ark).

David, l'hatzbee'a al ha't'moona shel har seenai. (David, point to the picture of Mt. Sinai.)

Michael, l'hareem sal shel beekooreem. (Michael, lift up a basket of first fruits.)

And what's a Hebrew Through Movement session without some fun?!

This coming Sunday, all of our 5th graders and their families are invited to join me on a field trip to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, where our assigned docents will lead us through the Rube Goldberg Exhibit and then guide us through an art project relating to it. We'll be meeting in front of the Museum at 9:45 a.m.; the tour will begin at 10 a.m. and at 11 a.m. we'll go to the art room for the art project which will end at noon. I hope you can join us! Please let me know asap if you haven't already.  And while our fifth grade families are at the Museum, our sixth graders and their families will meet with Rabbi Greninger and other clergy for the final B'nai Mitzvah family workshop, from 10:30-12:30.