The Social Structure of Jewish Education in Yemen

Abstract

More than any other Middle Eastern community, Yemenite Jewry has captured the imagination of scholars and observers. One reason for this is the combination of traits that Yemenites have exhibited until recently: passionate attachment to the Jewish literary tradition and the background of an exotic country, untouched by Westernization. In this pioneer treatment, the late S.D. Goitein of the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton, discusses one aspect of this combination. The chapter is an abbreviated version of a longer article, published in the early 1950s, on the basis of Goitein’s fieldwork among Yemenite immigrants freshly arrived in Israel The author’s theoretical orientation is informed by a background in Talmudic scholarship. In the fuller version of this paper Goitein explored the question as to the extent to which Yemenite Jewry exemplified socio-cultural traits, that figure in classical rabbinic sources of late antiquity. Implicitly, that romantic concern colors also the present selection. Also, the reader should bear in mind that when the author purports to depict contemporary Israeli conditions those pertain to the early 1950s. Nevertheless the paper retains its vitality to date.