The operation's name Yachin was of Biblical origin - being the name of one of the two central pillars that supported the Holy Temple built in Jerusalem by King Solomon, and since Israel regarded immigration as a major pillar that supported the existence of the Jewish state.
Background
The Jewish community of Morocco spans nearly 2,000 years. During the 1948 Anti-Jewish Riots in Oujda and Jerada 44 Jews were massacred in the northeastern Moroccan towns of Oujda and Jerada. This event contributed to a dramatic upsurge in the departure of Jews from Morocco, most of them to Israel. On May 14, 1948 – the Moroccan sultan, Mohammed V, delivered a speech in which he warned his country’s Jews not to demonstrate "solidarity with the Zionist aggression." If before Oujda and Jereda there had been a stream of Jews departing Morocco, afterward the immigration became even more extensive. During the next year, 18,000 of Morocco’s 250,000 or so Jews left for Israel. Between 1948 and 1956, when emigration was prohibited, the number reached about 110,000. At the time, Morocco was home to the largest Jewish community in North Africa. Fears that Moroccan independence, which appeared increasingly likely through the early 1950s, would lead to persecution of the Jewish community led to an initial wave of migrants. From 1948 to 1951, approximately 28,000 Jews emigrated from Morocco to Israel. Upon Moroccan independence from French colonial rule in 1956, full rights and status were conferred to the Jewish population under the subsequent reign of Mohammed V. Nonetheless, immigration to Israel continued. In 1959, under pressure from the Arab League and facing the specter of the Jewish population's continued decline, emigration to Israel was prohibited, narrowing Jews' options for leaving the country. Despite retention efforts, Moroccan immigration to Israel rose to approximately 95,000 Jews for the period spanning 1952-1960. The formal prohibition on emigration remained in place only through February 1961. While the formal prohibition was ended, Mohammed V maintained a clear public preference that the Jewish community remain within Morocco and barred foreign action to facilitate or encourage emigration. Beginning in 1960, Israeli authorities engaged Moroccan officials in discussions intended to negotiate the facilitation of Jewish immigration to Israel with official blessing. Even with the removal of the prohibition on such movement, these talks continued. Eventually, this evolved into Operation Yakhin. On 10 January 1961 a small boat called Egoz carrying 44 Jewish emigrants sank on the northern coast of Morocco. This created a crisis both for the Moroccan authorities and for the foreign aid groups responsible for assisting the refugees.
Notable people
politician Ya'akov Margi, born in 1960, was brought to Israel during Operation Yachin in 1962.
