Collection of Documents from the Estate of Ya'akov Schreiboim – Transport of Yemenite Jews to Israel, 1949

Collection of Documents from the Estate of Ya'akov Schreiboim – Transport of Yemenite Jews to Israel, 1949
Collection of documents from the estate of Ya'akov Schreiboim, related to the transport of Yemenite Jews to Israel known as "Operation Magic Carpet" ("On the Wings of Eagles"), and the planning and production of this operation. Yemen, 1949.
Ya'akov Schreiboim (1913-1991), born in Warsaw, immigrated to Palestine in 1934 and was sent to study in the Gur Chassidic Yeshiva "Sefat Emet" in Jerusalem. In 1946 he was sent by the Jewish Agency to Africa to serve as Rabbi of the Etzel and Lehi detainees and take care of their religious needs, and in 1947 - served as rabbi in Cyprus detention camps (until 1949). In 1949 Schreiboim was sent by the Minister of Interior to Yemen, to try and rescue the Jews who were there and transport them to Israel. After arrival in Yemen he met with the British Governor in Aden and revealed, to his surprise, that 50,000 Jews lived in Yemen (this number was unknown to the Israeli authorities). Schreiboim persuaded the Israeli authorities to accept the Yemenite Jews which led, in the end, to operation "Magic Carpet" through which 48,500 Jews arrived in Israel.
Collection includes :
* 23 letters handed or sent to Ya'akov Schreiboim; some letters addressed to him and some others - through him - to the institutes of the young State of Israel and its leaders. In the letters, written in a rich, poetic, language, Jews of Yemen tell about their state and their wish to immigrate to Israel. Many of the letters were written in response to letters which Schreiboim wrote to Jews in villages throughout Yemen. The letters were written between May-June 1949 and were sent from the villages of Ludar, Rada'a, Bicha, Muda’aya, Asla, Kam’a, and some other villages. Among the letters - a letter from “Agudat Shocharei Geula” in Aden, with the Union’s ink-stamp; letter from rabbi Yosef Shalom Korah of Sana’a; and a handwritten list of Jewish families in Bicha, Amtafa (Um-Dafa), Amsuma’a (Um-Suma’a), Na’em and Umsbaj. * Three reports, (memorandums) typewritten, sent by Rabbi Ya’akov Schreiboim to the Aliya Department of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem, from Aden, Yemen, during the months of May-July 1949 (As well as an “addition” to one of the memorandums). In the memorandums Schreiboim described the state of Yemenite Jews, the actions in “Ge’ula” camp, the urgency to leave Yemen, and supplies much information necessary to assist in the transport of Yemenite Jews to Israel.
Enclosed is a booklet titled “Shoshanat Ya’akov - Life Story of Shoshana and Ya’akov Schreiboim” (published by the Schreiboim family in 2005).
Size and condition vary.