Key points
What to understand first
- Operation Magic Carpet brought nearly all of Yemen’s Jews to Israel.
- Operation Ezra and Nehemiah brought most of Iraq’s ancient Jewish community.
- Operations Moses and Solomon brought Ethiopia’s Beta Israel home.
- The airlifts fulfilled the Law of Return’s promise in practice.
Chronology
Key dates
On Wings of Eagles: Yemen
Operation Magic Carpet, known in Israel as On Wings of Eagles, flew Yemenite Jews from Aden to Israel in 1949–1950. Many saw the flights as fulfilment of the prophecy in Isaiah 40:31. 87
Ezra and Nehemiah: Iraq
Moses and Solomon: Ethiopia
Operation Moses (1984–1985) brought thousands of Ethiopian Jews who had trekked to Sudan. On 24–25 May 1991 Operation Solomon flew more than 14,000 people to Israel in about 36 hours. 88
Evidence
Sources for this article
- S87Operation Magic Carpet and Operation Ezra and Nehemiah
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives. Airlifts bringing Yemenite and Iraqi Jews to Israel.
- S88Operation Solomon
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives. Airlift of more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in about 36 hours, May 1991.
- S67The Farhud
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The anti-Jewish pogrom in Baghdad and its Iraqi political context.