My Memoir As An Activist For Israel And Yemenite Jews

About the Book

As a Yemenite Jew born in the United States in 1931, author Sampson Giat had no physical contact with his grandparents, cousins, or other relatives, all of whom were living in Israel. In fact, he first met his maternal grandparents in 1960, when he was twenty-nine years of age. Despite the distance, Giat felt such a strong connection to his heritage that he spent his life in the pursuit of its betterment.

Follow him as he shares his experiences with Volunteers for Israel, the Yemenite aliyah to Israel in 1992, and the issue of Yalde Teman—the kidnapping of Yemenite babies in Israel during the years 1948 to 1954 in My Memoir As An Activist For Israel And Yemenite Jews.

About the Author

Although Sampson Giat is a first-generation Yemenite born in the United States, his ties to his Yemenite heritage and to Israel are very strong. As the chairman of the public affairs committee of the Yemenite Jewish Federation, he travelled to Yemen under the auspices of the Joint Distribution Committee. He had meetings with government ministers and visited Jews in remote mountain villages, which helped pave the way for their immigration to Israel. To that end, he, along with others, has concentrated on obtaining exit visas from a reluctant Yemeni government. Senator Alfonse D'amato has been a champion to the Yemenite cause through sponsorship of a senate resolution for the humanitarian rights of Yemeni Jews. His private letters to certain Yemeni officials have achieved extraordinary results. Sampson Giat served on the board of the American Sephardi Federation and is the past president of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. He retired from his professional career in order to give his full time to this position. He was also elected as the national president of Volunteers for Israel, an organization that has, up to now, sent more than one hundred thousand people to the Israeli Army as civilian volunteers. Mr. Giat, his wife, and their two children have volunteered numerous times overhauling Merkavah tanks, jeeps, and trucks. As a lifelong professional musician, Mr. Giat was elected to the executive board of the musicians union in New York, Local 802. He has performed with many symphony orchestras including the Israel Philharmonic at the invitation of Zubin Mehta. During the summer and fall of 1994, Mr. Giat concentrated on collecting evidence about the kidnapped Yemenite children of the On Wings of Eagles Aliyah of 1949. In that capacity, he discovered and brought together through DNA, a mother who had not seen her kidnapped child in forty-nine years.