Moshe Yaish Nahari, of saintly and martyred memory, from Raidah, Yemen (above photo, right, seen with another murdered relative during a trip to Egypt) jampacked much into his short life before Arab murderers brutally spilled his cherished blood. Less than 32 years old, he brought eight beautiful children into the world and he lived to teach them the best things Jewish life has to offer. He went the extra mile for our people and fought hard to maintain the ancient Jewish traditions of the Yemenite diaspora, including rituals and melodies that survived since the Second Temple.
Long after the Magic Carpet brought most of Yemen's Jews to the Land of Israel and long after the last of the Rabbinical scholars left in the sixties and seventies, the remaining Jews of Yemen were forgotten by the institutions of the Jewish community and the State of Israel. Many people never knew there were any such Jews left in such a savage place.
Moshe Yaish Nahari chose to stay and help insure that Jewish spiritual life would remain alive in Raidah, north of Sanaa where 400 Jews remained. He was given funds by some Jews in New York to begin remodeling and old 5 story building that belonged to his family. Moshe rebuilt these ruins into a House Of Prayer and Yeshiva with a dorm and facilities to accomodate guests from from New York and Israel. He studied in Israel to attain proficiency as a rabbi, shochet, sofer and mohel, so he could provide the needs of the community back home in Yemen. He didn't run off to make a better life for himself.
Moshe was a a man not unlike a captain that was prepared to go down with the ship! He sought the good of his people at his own expense and this past December, just before the Festival of Lights, Moshe's own light was put out when a Muslim extremist shot him five times with an AK47 Assault rifle as he prepared to take his mother shopping for food to make the Sabbath.
Moshe died in his mother's arms. He was the jewel of the Yemenite Jewish community.
In court, the murderer laughed and swore to kill more Jews. The family was threatened as the trial took place almost 10 days after Moshe's remains languished in a Sanaa morg without any consideration of a Kosher Jewish burial by the Arab authorities. Yemenite tribal justice dictates that when a man is murdered in Yemen, the killer, if found guilty, is either hung or forced to pay damages.
Moshe Yaish Nahari's father felt that no money paid to him by the kiler of his beloved only son would satisfy him and to the shock and dismay of all of us he asked the Judge to bring Allah's judgment down upon the killer and asked that he be executed as his rightful punishment. The Jewish community, already in shock was now in greater danger than ever as 500 Salaafi Muslim extremists chanted Allah hu al Aqbar wa itbakh il Yahud, "Allah is great and death to the Jews".
The killers attorney said his client is clinically unstable and unable to mentally follow a trial and asked that he be released. Moshe's father heard the Judge's agreeable tone as he asked the lawyer if he would just be able to produce some doctor's note stating the murderer is mentally unfit to stand trial. The lawyer assured the Judge that he could, and the 500 extremists howled with joy. The Judge offered the killer the change to speak on his own behalf and he said: ''In a matter of days my brethren I will be released and I will kill the rest of that Jew's' family and kill more and more of them until we are rid of them all as they are rats who are born to have the life snuffed out of them...Allah is Geat!!! Allah is Great!!!" AND 500 MUSLIMS CONTINUED TO CHANT ALLAH IS GREAT.
Yemen's leader Ali Abdullah Saleh was approached by a representative of the Sofer family, Moshe's relatives in Israel, who requested that Moshe's remains be removed from Yemen and taken to a foreign burial place.The PM smerked, ''As if I don't know where you wish to bury him...I will give you a day to give me two diplomats from England who will assure me in writing that they will accept this corpse for burial''. The British diplomats were on a weekend holiday and would not discuss the matter until the following Monday. The Yemeni PM agreed to have Moshe removed from the refrigerators to be burried according to Jewish law. The special ruling went against Yemeni custom to bury the victim and his convicted killer on the same day.
Grenades were then thrown at the Nahari home and the family lives in total fear and despair. The Israeli goverment refused to help Moshe to be buriied in Israel although the Sofer family acquired a plot in Rehovoth. They claimed that they could not help and any move they would make could only make things worse. They refused to ask other neutral countries to intervene.
As the threat of the Salaafi Muslims hovers over the Nahari family, every continued moment in Yemen is terrifying. They are in great danger.
My cherished and esteemed friend, the Abir Aluf Mori Yehoshua Sofer shlit'a, is doing everything he can to bring Moshe Yaish Nahari's 8 orphans, their widowed mother (a shocked women of 29 with a bit too much to contend with) and two very old parents to Israel. He is also struggling to bring Moshe's coffin for proper burial in Israel. The Abir Aluf needs to raise about 3000 Dollars per person (times eleven) to bring them all to Israel with airfare, exit visas and bribes as well as visas of entry into England. From there, he intends to arrange their Alliyah papers and fly them to Israel .
This is a rare mitzvah of Pidyon Nefesh, the redemption of eleven endangered Jewish souls.
If you'd like to participate in this magnificent mitzva, please email the Abir Aluf Mori Yehoshua Sofer shlit'a.
Moshe Yaish Nahari, HYD, shortly before his death with his wife and seven of his eight children, may Hashem rescue them from all peril.
