Although the Jewish population in Yemen has long been in decline, those Jews that remained in the Arabian Peninsula's southernmost nation remain the target of attacks. Members of the Jewish community in the central Yemeni town of Rada'a, south of the capital Sanaa, claimed on Wednesday that town resident Joseph Re'ati was beaten in an anti-Semitic attack. He was hospitalized in serious condition. Jews in Yemen are ostensibly protected by the government, but in reality their situation has not improved. After becoming targets for attacks by Islamist elements, many Yemeni Jews have chosen to leave their homeland in recent years. Largely impoverished, Yemen has maintained a tenuous stability for some time, though the country has seen violence soar since protesters inspired by the Arab Spring took to the streets in Jan. 2011. The uprising led to the ousting of dogged Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Foreign media recently reported Israeli efforts to help the remainder of Yemen's small Jewish community to immigrate to Israel. Yemen's Jewish population exceeded 60,000 before Israel's establishment in 1948. Though a steady stream of Yemeni Jews moved to mandate-era Palestine about 10% of the community some 50,000 more Yemeni Jews immigrated to Israel just after founding of the state. Last year, a Jewish community leader named Aaron Joseph Zindani was stabbed to death by a Muslim resident who claimed Zindani practiced sorcery, which is prohibited in Islam but many Muslims associate it with pre-Islamic Middle Eastern traditions, like Judaism.