The wife of Yahya Ben Youssef—one of the last remaining Jews in Yemen, who died in June 2024—has left the country, Yemeni journalist Ali Ibrahim Al-Moshki reported Thursday
“Doda Badra is leaving Yemen a year after the death of her husband, Yahya Ben Youssef, who died of cholera,” Al-Moshki wrote on Facebook, referring to Badra Youssef by the honorific of doda, or aunt. “They were two wonderful Yemeni Jews who loved their country and lived through its ups and downs.
“Though they had no children, they refused every offer to leave. But her husband’s death, combined with her worsening health, forced her to agree to leave. Her family outside Yemen insisted she receive medical treatment.”
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Al-Moshki also shared a photo of himself with the couple, taken during a visit to their home in the Arhab district of Sanaa several years ago. According to current reports, only four Jews remain in Yemen. One of them has been in detention since late 2015 for allegedly helping smuggle a Torah scroll to Israel.
Yahya Ben Youssef's funeral in Yemen
Due to the absence of other Jews in Yehia’s area, it was his Muslim neighbors who buried him. They carried his body, wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl, to a grave dug on a nearby hilltop.
A Yemeni source at the time said other Jews in the country would visit Yahya. “The Jews in Al Rida loved him and always visited him, offering him to move, but he didn't want to leave," the source said. "They recently offered him to leave Yemen, but he declined, possibly due to his old age. The villagers said his death is a great loss."