Description
Yemenite silversmiths, a trade held almost exclusively by Jews living in the traditional Yemeni society, were active from at least as far back as the mid-1700s. The largest clientele for jewellery made of gold and silver were women, and the amount of jewellery worn was often an indicator of the woman’s status. Some Yemenite silversmiths migrated to Israel in the late 1800s, a migration that continued in the early 1900s. In the early 20th-century, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design employed many Yemenites in the production of fine silver jewellery.
Between June 1949 and September 1950, almost the entire Jewish community in Yemen, including nearly every silversmith in the country, immigrated to Israel in an airborne mass migration known as Operation Magic Carpet. Muslims appear to have entered silversmithing in Yemen in the mid-1900s as the Jews departed for Israel. Mass-produced gold and silver jewellery began to be imported into Yemen in the 1930s, and dominated the market by the end of the 20th century, causing traditional silversmithing to dwindle
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