Rare 1940s Yemenite Jewish Photo Archive Reveals Lost Faces of a Community

A historic album of about 250 authentic photographs from Yemenite Jewish life in the 1940s has surfaced after decades in dusty old boxes in an attic. The pictures, taken by Yehiel Haivi, said to be the first Jewish photographer in Yemen, were found by his widow and are now being published in a newly released volume.

The archive is described as an unusually broad visual record of Jewish life in Yemen, especially in Sanaa before the mass emigration. It includes old synagogues, rabbis and teachers studying, original Sabbath and weekday clothing, ancient customs, and family scenes, some of which had never been shown publicly before.

Researchers spent nearly two years working day and night to identify the people in the photos, with help from elderly members of the Yemenite community who recognized themselves as children. The book also includes an extensive historical introduction by Dr. Adam Ben Nun.

The release moved prominent rabbis when they recognized relatives and themselves in the images. Rabbi Shlomo Machpud, head of the Yoreh Deah court and a member of the Council of Torah Sages, identified his father-in-law, Rabbi Yom Tov Giaat. Rabbi Pinchas Korach broke into tears after seeing himself as a small child beside his father, Rabbi Yosef ben Mari Salem Korach, the famed teacher of the Beit Alksar synagogue in Sanaa. Community leaders say the album preserves a unique historical legacy for Yemenite Jewry.