NEW YORK (JTA) — After months of stressing the need for silence, two major Jewish organizations and a former Bush administration official are embracing publicity about their roles in bringing Yemenite Jews to the United States.
More than 60 Jews, who were among the last few hundred living in Yemen, have been resettled in the New York suburbs, according to representatives of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Jewish Federations of North America.
Word leaked in the Israeli media last March that the two groups were working with the U.S. State Department and the government of Yemen to help Jews leave the country after a spike in intimidation and violence against the Jews, including the murder of a communal leader.
The stories appeared to be fueled by complaints from the Jewish Agency for Israel that some of the Yemenites were taken to the United States instead of Israel.
To hear what Yemenite tradition sounds like flipped over a Diwon style, check this Hennah song with Miriam Zafri.
Shemspeed is an independent recording label and promotional agency highlighting cross-over music artists with positive and unifying messages. Founded by Erez Safar, an American-Israeli DJ/Producer, Shemspeed promotes over 15 dynamic artists representing a wide range of genres including hip-hop, reggae, and rock. These artists include Y-Love (revolutionary Jewish hip-hop), Diwon (Yemenite / Sephardic hip-hop, Israeli music and more), DeScribe (soul-awakening dancehall, hip-hop, & soul), and Electro Morocco (Israeli rock, dance music.) Shemspeed artists, collectively showcasing the diversity in world Jewish music, have performed with musicians as varied as Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, Idan Raichel and Eminem; they’ve been profiled in Rolling Stone, SPIN, The New York Times and XXL; and they’ve been seen and heard around the world on various TV appearances (Conan O’Brien, CBS and BBC World) and global radio. Shemspeed’s mission is unifying people through culture and education, celebrating diversity and common ground. By way of this work, we add a public Jewish voice to multi-cultural, inter-faith, creative and collaborative bridge-building.
NEW YORK (JTA) — After months of stressing the need for silence, two major Jewish organizations and a former Bush administration official are embracing publicity about their roles in bringing Yemenite Jews to the United States.