UAE Helps Reunite Yemeni Jewish Family After 15 Years

JERUSALEM, Israel – A Jewish Yemeni family that was separated for 15 years has been reunited thanks to the help of the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE organized the travel of family members from Yemen and London to finally meet after more than a decade in Dubai, according to a report from the Emirates News Agency (WAM). 

 “It was nothing short of a miracle and the realization of an impossible dream,” the family was quoted as saying. “We thank the UAE for their great support in arranging the reunion. This is an example of the UAE’s humanitarian approach, as well as of its noble values of tolerance and coexistence.”

The report did not specify why exactly the family had been separated, but a video shows the reunited family hugging and crying. Some were left speechless.

“I never imagined seeing them again. I never imagined hugging them,” said one family member.

“We never imagined we would reunite again after all these long, grim years,” one man speaking in Arabic said. “We lived alone in exile [in London] without family and siblings. I was lost.”

The father of the family thanked the UAE for helping him see his children and grandchildren. 

 “I feel as if I was reborn today. I am so happy to have met all my children and grandchildren. I am also overjoyed to be in the UAE, the land of tolerance, coexistence and goodness,” he said.

The event is a sign that the UAE is trying to position itself as a country where religious tolerance flourishes. UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan commented on the story on Twitter and said his country is “the homeland of coexistence.”

Jews have a long history of persecution in Yemen and it is unclear how many remain in the war-torn country. Most of Yemen’s Jews were transported to Israel between June 1949 and September 1950.

The ones still remaining in Yemen face intense anti-Semitism.