A few worried families are all that remain of Yemen's ancient Jewish community, and they too may soon flee after a Shiite Muslim militia seized power in the strife-torn country this month.

Harassment by the Houthi movement — whose motto is "Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam" — caused Jews in recent years to largely quit the northern highlands they shared with Yemen's Shiites for millennia.

But political feuds in which the Jews played no part escalated last September into an armed Houthi plunge into the capital Sanaa, the community's main refuge from which some now contemplate a final exodus.