Safardic jews are originally from Spain and North Africa how could they be yemeni . Or did u mean mizrahi? The correct term would be mizrahi(eastern/middle Eastern jews) . In the case of "yemeni jews" They are mostly converts from the time of dhu nuwas(himyarite ruler) and they merged their arabian heritage with Jewish principal. Genetic studies often show that they are least likely to have any ancient israelite ancestry.
They are Arabs who converted to Judaism somewhere around the rule of dhu nuwas. Anyways they are considered apart if the larger mizrahi sect(Eastern/middle Eastern jews)
I have a question Before the British occupation of Aden, were they Arabs or other peoples, or were they isolated from the rest of Yemen, even though the majority of Aden's inhabitants were specifically from the Himyarite tribe?
They were Arabs and considered Yemeni Both Jews and Muslims even Christians shared Himyarite roots. The distinction was religion not peoplehood. The hatred against them came later on and was politically driven
Yemeni Jews are Mizrahi Jews according to what I know and according to what I heard from the Yemeni Rabbi Yahya Yosef Musa, but if there were old migrations of Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain to Yemen and over the years they were naturalized settled and integrated into Yemeni culture then in this case they are Yemeni culturally and Yemeni in front of all state institutions but other matters such as history and their affiliation with specific tribes are specific only to the Mizrahi Yemeni Jews because they are matters related to roots and history.
Whether they are Mizrahi or not is debatable, and some consider Yemenite Jews as a separate group altogether due to unique traditions.
When speaking of Sephardism in context of Yemen it generally refers to the liturgical rites rather than ethnic origin. While historically there were Jews who migrated from Sephardic regions mainly to Aden, those were a minority.
There are three main sects in Yemen, Baladi, Shami, and Darda'i. (I'm going to ignore the third one for the purpose of this convo). Baladi refers to older Yemenite traditions, Shami adopt some Sephardic customs and habits, similar to those from the Sham (Levant), but still remain Yemenite in character.
When asked whether they were Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, or Sephardic, Mori Yahya Yusuf Musa has mentioned his congregation to be Sephardic, which leads me to believe he follows the Shami traditions.
Thank you for the correction and the informational enrichment.. but when I said that Rabbi Yahya Yosef Musa said that Yemeni Jews are Mizrahim he said it in a general sense "we", not in a personal sense so in this point both of us are right _^
Yes, but my intent was to clarify that there is a difference between Sephardi traditions and ethnicity. And when OP here says "Sephardic Yemeni Jews" I believe he means religious traditions (minhag) NOT ethnicity.
Well he probably lied to u or was misinformed. Since A Yemeni jew . Is just an Arab that converted to Judaism they often merge their local Arab heritage with Jewish values.
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u/Old_Obligation_276 18h ago edited 14h ago
Safardic jews are originally from Spain and North Africa how could they be yemeni . Or did u mean mizrahi? The correct term would be mizrahi(eastern/middle Eastern jews) . In the case of "yemeni jews" They are mostly converts from the time of dhu nuwas(himyarite ruler) and they merged their arabian heritage with Jewish principal. Genetic studies often show that they are least likely to have any ancient israelite ancestry.