After the implementation of the 1947 UN Partition Plan in Yemen, Muslim rioters began clashing with their Jewish neighbors in Aden and began looting and destroying all of Jewish property. In response to the unjust treatment and the newly instilled fear, the Jewish community in Yemen secretly began planning their escape.
On this day September 24th, in 1950, all the Jews from Yemen moved to Israel in “Operation Magic Carpet.” 47,000 Yemenite and 500 Djiboutian and Eritrean Jews were airlifted to Israel for promises of a better and safer future.
Many of the civilians that were transferred had never seen an aircraft before in their life and were very frightened to board. In order to calm the people down their communal Rabbis assured them by quoting different passages from the Torah that expressed how God promised to take his people on the wings like an eagle and soar away. This was the first out of many operations whose purpose was to transport entire communities of Jews from neighboring Arab countries to Israel.