The Yemenite community gave us money and told us: “Take this boy with you, keep him safe and bring him into ʿAden.” When Israʾel was a little boy of 5, he went to Sanaʽa’s souk and walked around there. Three Arabs came to him and called him “Jew”. Israʾel replied: “What do you want from me?”. They asked him: “do you know Qesar's children?” he said: “no, I don’t” and started shaking out of fear. They pinched his thigh and said: “run Hebrew”. He was five years old and took his brother and ran away with him to the cemetery to hide. They got into the cave (the cemetery) and stayed there half a night. During that time, we lived at my grandma and grandpa‘s house; a rich family. We returned at night to my grandma’s house. The Jews in Sanaʽa said: “We are not going to leave these children here. If they are left here they will become goyim (gentile). And we as a family don’t want our children to be goyim. We will give them some food and money to go to ʿAden". Israʾel and his brother went to a hangar that was on the way to ʿAden.
They told us to go with the ‘Olim’, those who walk. We were given money, and they were asked to keep an eye on this child. They said: “we will keep him safe, don’t worry.” Israʾel got up and started walking. They went from village to village, from one place to another. They reached a settlement that all Yemenite Jews went through. Israʾel had five rial. They said: “whomever wants to go to ʿAden – give us five rial.” Israʾel said: “I’ll give you the five rial, I want to get to ʿAden; whatever it takes.”
Two of my sisters, together with my brother Yiḥya, told me: “you’ll be their father now.” I took them all the way on a donkey. One was heavier than the other. The girls still remember it. When they come visit me, we all reminisce. They don’t speak Arabic though.
They told Israʾel: “let’s go to the girls in Shaikh Outhman.” We arrived there with the Ḥavshush family. He asked the girls: “where did you put the tools?”, meanwhile, their money was stolen from selling their vineyard in Sanaʽa.