#temanim

Handcrafted Yemenite silver filigree Mezuzot (png) by Chaim Gershon "Gershi" in Bnei Brak. x

Thanks so much!

What do you mean by “have anything” — As in reading recommendations? I have a few tags for “Yemen,” “Yemenite Jews” [while the general demonym for people from Yemen is “Yemeni,” Jews from Yemen are most often referred to as “Yemenite” and not “Yemeni”], and “Temanim” (the term for Yemenite Jews in Hebrew).

I would start with some of these articles on virtualjewishlibrary and the Jewish Women’s Encyclopedia. If you have access to a university library you should be able to see the entry for Yemen in the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. For academic work on Yemenite Jews, this anthology of essays by Yosef Tobi is essential, as is the work of Tudor Parfitt, Reuben Ahroni, Mark Wagner, Ari Ariel, Tova Gamliel, and Bat-Zion Eraqi-Klorman, on various episodes in Yemenite Jewish history. And of course if you can speak Hebrew there is much, much, more.

And then I would start researching whatever you were particularly most interested in! Clothes, food, music, dance, folktales... I’ve written about Yemenite Jewish henna traditions here, here, and here. Some of my favourite Yemenite singers to listen to are Ofra Haza, Shoshana Damari, and Gila Beshari (whom I was privileged to work with while I was researching in Israel some years ago). If you can speak Hebrew I would recommend this very sweet vintage documentary on Yemenite Jewish music which is very charming, if somewhat dorky and hyperbolic.

I don’t find it surprising to find out he was a Rabbi and had an additional occupation. The coolest part is that he was a silversmith — can you imagine all the beautiful stuff he created? :D I’d love to see his work.