Queens, NY Lecture: Sampson Giat on the Yemenite Babies Scandal (2/27)
David Shasha
CENTRAL QUEENS YM & YMHA
67-09 108 ST. FOREST HILLS, NY 11375
Monday FEB. 27, 1:30 P.M.
Lecturer: Sampson Giat
The Disappearance Of Yemenite Babies
During The Aliyah Of 1949-1954.
The Yalde Teman Affair- “one of the most
painful in the history of the State of Israel”
Yitzhak Rabin
My Memoir As An Activist For Israel And Yemenite Jews
Sampson Giat’s life has been intimately intertwined with the saga of Yemenite Jews in the 20th century and not only because he is a member of this community. He was motivated to involve himself in a broad array of advocacy for his people, an activity that spanned decades. A review of the history of Yemenite Jews will provide a useful background for better understanding of Giat’s perceptions and missions, as described in his memoirs.
Yemenite Jews began their mass immigration to Eretz Israel in the early1880’s. By the year 1914, fully one tenth of the Jewish population of Yemen had made Aliyah, an unprecedented percentage compared with other Jewish diaspora’s. It is estimated that when the 50,000 Yemenites who immigrated en masse “On Eagles’ Wings” arrived in the newly independent state in 1949-50, their number roughly equaled the population of their brethren already living there. That led to the tragic disappearance and illegal adoptions in Israel of Yemenite children in the 1950’s.
With his leadership qualities and never-ending devotion, Giat excelled in each chapter of his public involvement and his many contributions to the causes are well documented in the following pages of his memoir. Giat focuses on his personal experiences of the events. His account emphasizes his strong Yemenite Jewish identity. Sampson Giat’s memoirs are a documentary history that will provide a basis for further research of the Yemenite Jewish community, on Israeli society and on the complexity of the modern Jewish experience.