According to the Yemen News Agency (Saba), most of the country's remaining Jews are planning to emigrate to Israel within days. A report in the Jerusalem Post indicates that only half of Yemen's 250 Jews are planning to come to Israel, while roughly 100 will immigrate to the United States and 20 or 30 will remain in Yemen.
Several Jewish families from Yemen have immigrated to Israel this year. Immigration picked up following the murder of Jewish community leader Moshe Yaish al-Nahari, the brother of Chief Rabbi, Yahya Yaish, at the hands of a Muslim killer who warned him to convert to Islam or die. Among the latest immigrants from Yemen to Israel were three sons of Moshe Yaish. His three daughters came to Israel in late 2008, shortly after his murder, to live with their aunts.
A century ago, Yemen had an estimated Jewish population of over 75,000. Several thousand left for pre-state Israel around the turn of the century and some Yemenite families were among the pioneers of the first neighborhoods built outside Jerusalem's walls. The bulk of Yemen's Jewish population, roughly 47,000 people, was brought to Israel shortly after the state of Israel was established in an operation called “Magic Carpet."