One of the last remaining Jews in Yemen has fled the war-torn country for Israel, leaving behind a nearly 3,000-year-old Jewish presence that now stands on the brink of extinction.

Badra Yousef, a Jewish woman who lived for decades in the Arhab District north of Sana’a, left Yemen earlier this year following the death of her husband. Her departure, first reported by Israeli media on Wednesday, leaves just four Jews in the entire country—a once-thriving community now reduced to a vanishing trace.

Yousef had lived with her husband, Yahya z”l, under the shadow of the Iranian-backed Houthi regime, which now controls most of northern Yemen and has been widely accused of persecuting religious minorities, including Jews. According to Kan News, Yousef was encouraged by relatives abroad to leave after her husband’s death, ultimately traveling with a local escort to Ethiopia, where she reunited with family and continued on to Israel.

The couple had no children. Following Yahya’s passing, videos of his levaya circulated on a Facebook group for Yemeni Jews. The posts captured a haunting reality: there were not enough Jews left in Yemen to perform a traditional levaya or recite Kaddish. In an act of compassion, Muslim neighbors volunteered to conduct the burial.

The Jewish presence in Yemen dates back to antiquity, but modern history has seen the community systematically dismantled by waves of antisemitism, war, and forced exile. Tens of thousands were airlifted to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet in 1949–50, and successive decades saw the trickle continue.

By the 2000s, fewer than 200 Jews remained. Today, only four individuals are believed to be in Yemen. One of them, imprisoned since 2015, was reportedly jailed for allegedly assisting in the smuggling of a Torah scroll to Israel.

“Badra and her husband were Yemeni Jews who loved their homeland and lived there through both good times and bitter ones,” wrote independent Yemeni journalist Ali Ibrahim Al Moshki, who first shared news of her departure.

Even as the community’s physical presence vanishes, its cultural and religious heritage is being preserved elsewhere. In 2024, the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem received the world’s most extensive collection of Yemenite Jewish manuscripts — some 60,000 historic items, including rare Judeo-Arabic commentaries by the Rambam, handwritten psakim from the Maharitz (Rabbi Yihya Saleh), and centuries-old kesubos.

The collection was curated over six decades by Yehuda Levi Nahum (1915–1998), a Yemenite Jew who immigrated to pre-state Israel at age 14. His work was donated last year by his descendants, providing a vital link to a world that is now slipping into memory.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)