Today (Sunday) a Yemenite pre-Rosh Hashannah prayer service was held at the site of the Kfar Shiloach 'Yemenite Village' destroyed following the "Arab Uprising" of 1936.
Dr. Rachel Yedid, chairwoman of the Aa'le Ba'tamar Association, said, "It is impossible to describe the immense excitement that grips us. Just ahead of Rosh Hashannah more than eight decades following the last shofar blast in this neighborhood, it can be heard again as we close a very important chapter in our nation's history. 'And the sons returned to their borders,'" she quoted a Biblical verse referring to the Jewish people's prophesized return to the Land of Israel.
MK Ariel Kallner of the Likud attended the event and said, "On Rosh Hashannah eve, I was privileged to take part in the traditional pre-New Year's services in Kfar Shiloach and to be reminded again of the Jewish people's eternal connection to the Land of Israel and Jerusalem. The Yemenite Village was established following the mass Aliyah from Yemen in 1882, but around 1936, the entire Jewish community was expelled from the area following the 'Arab uprising.'"
Kallner added, "The security situation needs to improve, however. We must strengthen settlement and security in the area. A reality in which Jews require special security arrangements in their national homeland cannot be allowed to continue."
MK Osnat Mark (Likud) who also took part in the event, spoke of the excitement surrounding the renewal of Jewish life in the area, "Pre-Rosh Hashannah religious services stressing forgiveness are being held alongside a hostile Arab population in the area. A truly Jewish message," she proclaimed.
MK Keti Shitrit (Likud) spoke to Arutz Sheva after the event, "About 80 years after the British evacuated it, Jewish life in Shiloach, established by the first Yemenite immigrants to Israel in 1884, is being revived. Jews have returned to build new communities here, and the sounds of prayer are once again heard on city streets," she stated.