Iran has an indigenous Jewish community of about 9,000 persons[1]. This is the largest Jewish diaspora in the Middle East outside of Israel. Ever since the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, a proxy of Iran, Iran’s Jews have actively participated and been very vocal in protest marches, official letters, and interviews, loudly denouncing the actions of the State of Israel in the current war.[2] This is to be expected as they have always publicly hewn to their government’s line since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. But this time, their obedience does not seem enough for the ruling regime. Indications of this are emanating from Iranian officials themselves.
The recent 10 November warning on public television to Iran’s Jews by General Mohammad-Jafar Asadi of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps[3], stated that if Iranian Jews were anti-Zionists they should prove this by “taking more action on the ground”. The TV interview itself took place after the 4 November execution of 20-year-old Iranian Jew Arvin Ghahremani from Kermanshah, on murder charges. This was the first such in the community after 30 years.[4] The community views the timing of Arvin’s execution as a warning to them. Karmel Melamed, an Iranian Jewish journalist in the U.S. who is in contact with his community in Iran, says the Jews still remaining in Iran “know that their situation has got worse, and their safety is in peril because their community leaders were unable to save Ghahremani despite their recent efforts to pause or delay his execution.”[5]
Arvin’s trial had many shortcomings, as his plea of self-defense was given short shrift by the courts. His execution without intimation to his family, a necessary protocol, also highlights the exponential increase in human rights violations against Iran’s minorities since the death of the young Sunni Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on 16 September 2022.[6]
These two factors – being a minority and a Jew – at a time when Israel and Iran are at war and there is civil unrest against the ruling regime, make living in Iran dangerous for its Jews.[7] This is even though Iran’s Jews still enjoy one of three minority-reserved seats in the Majlis (parliament), the other two being for the Armenians and Zoroastrians[8]; unlike the nation’s Baha’is, Arabs, Balochis, and Communists, the Jews are a recognised minority.[9]
Jews have lived in Iran since 2700 B.C.E. According to Lior Sternfeld in his book Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories Of Twentieth-Century Iran (2019), the emancipation of Iran’s Jews began with the slow demise of Persia’s Qajar Dynasty and the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 to 1911, which popularized the notion of a public political sphere. This meant a new notion of citizenship, granting minorities elected representation, and releasing them from a nominal dependency on the ruling Shah to protect their rights. This did not last long as it was also a period of political instability, which paved the way for the iron-fisted but pro-development Reza Khan, the first Shah of the Pahlavi Dynasty, in 1925.
His rule marked the beginnings of a progressive era for all of Persia’s minorities including various denominations of non-Shia Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Baha’is. During this time, the insidious concept of Najasat (ritual impurity) under Shia law, which legitimized discrimination, violence against, and persecution of, minorities in Persia, was removed.[10] [11] (It was first implemented under the Safavid dynasty (1501 to 1736) and continued to be enforced by the Qajars.)
Reza Shah I abdicated in 1941.[12] During his reign about 1,00,000 Jews were living in Persia, and many in villages were urbanizing by seeking work in cities like Isfahan, Hamadan, Sanandaj, Shiraz, and Tehran which were fast developing. His son Mohammed Shah Reza Pahlavi II ascended the throne and this opened the political sphere for everyone including minorities to participate equally. This was a period of modernisation and westernisation of Iranian society and great freedom for its many minorities who now began seeking higher education and excelling in their chosen fields, and a few became big businessmen and philanthropists.
Iran’s Jews then, as now, are indigenous Iranians by virtue of their 2,700-year history in Iran[13] Although they have always been small in numbers, their contribution to 20th-century Iranian society through their institutions – 13 active synagogues, five Jewish schools and two kindergartens, and the 100-bed Sapir Hospital in Tehran alone – has always been outsized.[14] Many were prominent intellectuals, doctors, teachers, journalists, and businessmen like the current Jewish representative in the Majlis and head of the Tehran Jewish Committee Dr. Homayoun Sameyah Najaf-Abadi, a pharmacist known for helping Tehran’s poor.
Like other Iranians in the 20th century, and with the political sphere open to them, they participated actively, many as members of the Tudeh or Communist party, and voiced a range of opinions through community, communist, and mainstream media, as several became journalists.[15] Few ever considered leaving Iran after the founding of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948.
This is particularly notable as the early immigrants who left for Israel in the years 1948 to 1953 were mostly from rural Iran and economically weaker sections. Even then, there were returnees to Iran in these early years as life was tough in Israel. Of a population of about 1,00,000 Jews in 1948, only 27,182 left for Israel.[16] Those who stayed often visited Iran to meet family and friends.
Even if they were not motivated to leave their homeland, Iran’s Jews, particularly its biggest community in Tehran, played a crucial role in helping other Jews undertake Aliyah or immigration to Israel. European Jewish refugees like the Poles released from Russian gulags in 1941, who made Tehran their home during the Second World War, and, Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian Jews, who all stayed in transit camps in Tehran briefly while awaiting El Al flights to Israel, were supported and embraced by his community.
Iran was the only Middle East nation to have diplomatic relations with Israel and a consulate (est. 1949) and then a consulate-general in 1950 in Jerusalem till its Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq closed the consulate in 1951.[17] Iran never rescinded its ties with Israel and trade and economic relations between the two nations continued unabated, as did the transit camps in Tehran. During this time, Iran’s Jews unlike Jews in Arab countries like Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Morocco, did not feel pressured to uproot themselves and begin a new life in Israel. This was despite the encouragement of Zionist emissaries who worked amongst the community in Tehran, the largest, and many smaller regional communities like Yazd.
It was with the Revolution of 1979 that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty and established the Islamic Republic of Iran, that problems began. Soon after on 9 May 1979, the wealthy Jewish philanthropist and leader of the Tehran Jews, Habib Elqanian, was accused of spying for Israel and executed. It was this that triggered Iranian Jews to leave their beloved homeland. A transactional geopolitical and economic relationship between Iran and Israel continued post-1979 till Iran’s ruling regime pursued a new “transboundary project” creating the Lebanese Hezbollah in response to Israel’s 1982 occupation of Lebanon.[18] According to Rachel Freedman, a Mashadi Jew and journalist and author, more than half of Iran’s Jews left for the U.S., settling in Greater Los Angeles (also referred to as Tehrangeles), Baltimore, and Maryland, making up an Iranian Jewish community of about 80,000 today. Others left for Israel and Europe. Israel has a population of 1,00,000 Jews of Iranian origin.
Referring to this period, Freedman states in her lecture to the Birmingham Representative Council for Jews on 3 December 2023, that “in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Jews became more religious to distinguish them from Israel and Zionism.” This is borne out by the fact that soon after Habib Elqanian’s 1979 execution, representatives from the community met Ayatollah Khomeini in Qom, who then publicly made a distinction between Judaism and Zionism, allegedly ending, according to Sternfeld, the widespread speculation that all the Jews were undercover Zionist agents.[19] [20] This gave the community some respite but resulted in them distancing themselves from family and friends residing in Israel[21] although contacts with family settled in Europe and the U.S. continued even after the current War began.
Today, the portends for Iran’s Jews are not so good as tensions between Iran and Israel show no signs of abating. Where once the Islamic Republic of Iran prided itself on being home to the largest Jewish diaspora in the Middle East, this may soon no longer be true. According to U.S.-based Iranian Jewish journalist Karmel Melamed, the daily duress[22] his community lives under has resulted in many quietly immigrating overseas.
Sifra Lentin is Fellow, Bombay History, Gateway House.
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References
[1] See Section 1 Religious Demography in the U.S. Department of State’s “2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iran” https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-report-on-international-religious-freedom/iran/
According to American Iranian Jewish journalist Karmel Melamed’s written answers to this author’s questions (email of 25 November 2024), the number ranges between 6000 to 8000.
[2]See the following:
“Iran’s chief rabbi observes Tisha B’Av in Tehran – watch,” The Jerusalem Post, Aug 15, 2024, https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-814475
“Iranian Jews attend Quds Day rallies, condemn Zionist regime’s crimes,” Islamic Republic News Agency, April 5, 2024, https://en.irna.ir/news/85435768/Iranian-Jews-attend-Quds-Day-rallies-condemn-Zionist-regime-s
More from the Rabbi: “Zionism is the ISIS of Judaism: Iranian Rabbi Younes Hamami Lalehzar,” The New Arab, Dec 5, 2023, https://www.newarab.com/news/zionism-isis-judaism-iranian-rabbi-lalehzar
“Iran’s Jewish community joins global voices against Israel’s war on Gaza,” The New Arab, Nov 6, 2023, https://www.newarab.com/news/irans-jewish-community-joins-global-solidarity-gaza
“Iranian Jews slam Zionist regime’s brutality in Gaza,” Islamic Republic News Agency, Oct 30, 2023, https://en.irna.ir/news/85275529/Iranian-Jews-slam-Zionist-regime-s-brutality-in-Gaza
[3] See “Why Do Iranian Jews Not Speak Out Against The ‘Huge Massacre’ Perpetrated By The ‘Evil Jews’? They Should Come Forward and Take Action On The Ground” https://www.memri.org/tv/irgc-general-mohammad-jafar-asadi-iranian-evil-jews-massacre-action
[4] Twenty-year-old Iranian Jew Arvin Ghahremani from Kermanshah was arrested and tried for murder in 2022. He was executed under a sentence of qisas (retribution in kind) after Iran’s Supreme Court rejected his appeal, and, after the victim’s family refused to accept “blood money” from Ghahramani’s family in exchange for Arvin’s life. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) article of 24 May 2024 details that there were shortcomings in the trial, the foremost being oversight by the courts in recording Arvin’s plea that he acted in self-defense, and, the fact that he had rushed the victim to hospital.
See also Human Rights Activists News Agency, an Iran-based human rights organisation’s article on Avril Ghahremani. https://www.hra-news.org/2024/hranews/a-48592/
[5] Written answers by Karmel Melamed to this author’s questions (email of 25 November 2024)
[6] Kurdish Mahsa Amini’s death at the hands of Iran’s morality police two years ago (16 September 2022) resulted in the ongoing “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran. A spike in registered violence against minorities also followed. See U.S. Department of State, “2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iran,” https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-report-on-international-religious-freedom/iran/
[7] The Iranian Jewish diaspora in the United States has come together on various forums to highlight the harassment and crimes perpetrated against Iran’s Jews and often the lack of a fair investigation. Some of these are the Jewbareh Committee that informally coalesced when a 57-year-old Jewish woman was murdered in the Jewish mahallah Jewbareh in Isfahan, and, the Los Angeles-based Iranian organisations: American Federation, 30 Years After, and Committee for Minority Rights in Iran.
[8]It is Iran’s largest minority the Baha’is that are not recognised and persecuted See Bombay’s Early Baha’is
[9] Iran had a strong Communist Movement in the early 20th century that went underground after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Although Communism is a political ideology not a religion, Iranians who are Communists are also deprived of rights like government jobs and live under duress.
[10] See Legacy of Jews in the MENA – World Jewish Congress and https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jews-of-iran
[11] The forced conversion of Mashad’s Jews to Shia Islam in 1839 and the death of 50 of them during this onslaught on the community, is a nadir in Iranian Jewish history. Many Mashadi Jews fled to neighbouring regions like Afghanistan and undivided India, and those who stayed behind either practiced Judaism as crypto Jews (i.e. secretly whilst publicly professing another religion).
See Rachel Freedman, “The secret Jewish lives of my family in Iran,” Jewish Chronicle, 14 November 2024, https://www.thejc.com/life-and-culture/the-secret-jewish-lives-of-my-family-in-iran-sh0v5ct7
[12] Reza Shah’s abdication was during the Second World War. The Allied Powers perceived that he was under German influence, and Iran was geostrategically important because of its location and its rich reserves of oil.
[13] Iran’s Jews are indigenous to Persia as underscored by two historical milestones. The release of exiled Jews in Babylonian captivity by Persian Emperor Cyrus II, founder of the Achaemenian dynasty, who conquered Babylonia in 538 BCE and permitted these captives to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Jewish Temple known as the Second Temple, points to the early presence of Jews as not all of them returned to Judea. The Biblical Book of Esther which is read during the Jewish festival. of Purim, recalls the 5th BCE story of the Jewish Queen Esther, wife of Persian King Ahasuerus, in foiling the machinations of the evil vizier Haman to save her community from certain death. See Purim | Definition, Story, History, Traditions, & Facts | Britannica
[14] Loeb, Lawrence, “Travels Through Iran: A Photo Journal” in Houman Sarshar (ed.). Esther’s Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America) pp 337–365.
This book lists 32 synagogues in Tehran of which 13 are active today because of reduced numbers.
[15] Sternfeld, Lior B., Between Israel And Zion: Jewish Histories Of Twentieth-Century Iran (California, Stanford University Press, 2019), pp. 47-57.
[16] Ibid, pp. 65, 69, note 11 (chapter 3)
[17] Diplomatic relations improved after the fall of Iranian PM Mossadeq in 1953, but Iran did not re-establish a diplomatic or consular presence in Israel. Its recognition of the state of Israel remains de facto till a complete breakdown in the 1980s.
See Uri Bialer, “The Iranian Connection in Israel’s Foreign Policy: 1948-1951,” The Middle East Journal, 1985, 292-315.
[18] See Dr. Husam Kassai Hussein and Dr. Wedad Abdolrahman al-Karni, The Iranian Revolution And The Reality of Jews In Iran After 1979 (Cambridge, Journal For Iranian Studies, Year 7, Issue 17, June 2023) p. 23. https://rasanah-iiis.org/english/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/THE-IRANIAN-REVOLUTION-AND-THE-REALITY-OF-JEWS-IN-IRAN-AFTER-1979.pdf
[19] Sternfeld, Lior B., Between Israel And Zion: Jewish Histories Of Twentieth-Century Iran (California, Stanford University Press, 2019), pp. 112-13.
[20] In 2012, thirteen Jews from Shiraz were accused and imprisoned for being Zionist spies. All thirteen were released after the community protested this false accusation. Iranian Jews in the United States formed a special grouping Shiraz 13 to work towards securing their release.
[21]Iranians are not permitted to travel to and have any form of communication with anyone in Israel.
[22] See:
https://jewishjournal.com/news/worldwide/111088/a-jew-murdered-in-iran/
https://jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/229112/229112/
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/blogs/295405/three-antique-torahs-stolen-fromsynagogue-in-tehrans-jewish-ghetto/
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/holy-jewish-site-of-esther-and-mordechai-set-ablazein-iran-reports-628165
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-769585
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/palestinian-flag-on-mordechais-tomb-purim-in-iranfinds-local-jews-in-a-tight-spot-793378