The Jews of Iran

By BJ

A very good article in the New York Times regarding the Jewish community in Iran. The following are a couple of choice excerpts, but I recommend reading the entire thing:

At Palestine Square, opposite a mosque called Al-Aqsa, is a synagogue where Jews of this ancient city gather at dawn. Over the entrance is a banner saying: “Congratulations on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution from the Jewish community of Esfahan.”

. . .

I’d visited the bright-eyed Sedighpoor, 61, the previous day at his dusty little shop. He’d sold me, with some reluctance, a bracelet of mother-of-pearl adorned with Persian miniatures. “The father buys, the son sells,” he muttered, before inviting me to the service.

Accepting, I inquired how he felt about the chants of “Death to Israel” — “Marg bar Esraeel” — that punctuate life in Iran.

“Let them say ‘Death to Israel,’ ” he said. “I’ve been in this store 43 years and never had a problem. I’ve visited my relatives in Israel, but when I see something like the attack on Gaza, I demonstrate, too, as an Iranian.”

. . .

Perhaps I have a bias toward facts over words, but I say the reality of Iranian civility toward Jews tells us more about Iran — its sophistication and culture — than all the inflammatory rhetoric.

Having a bias towards facts over words can get you into a lot of trouble in some circles, particularly when it comes to Iran. As the recent reporting over Iran's nuclear program shows, facts just get in the way of the rhetoric. But who knows? If you get enough facts out there, and push back against the lies, people may just get a balanced picture of the place after all.

Comments

[geoff]

Hi BJ I read the piece this afternoon scanning through the NY Times. I had known there was still a fairly large population of Jews in Iran and also that they didn't feel threatened. Moshe Katsav, the former President (remember he was caught up in sex assault charges before Peres) was born in Iran and still has family there, I think. Anyway, everyone, or maybe only some, always need an enemy, too bad Iran and Israel can be friends and maybe use the USA as a proxy enemy. Just kidding, eh. It would after all only be a proxy.

As aside - re: ordinaries maybe not knowing too much about those they are about to kill -, I'd thought, or I know, that Iraq prior to it's being saved from perdition by the USA was known through the ME as having the population that was most well read and most literate amongst modern Arabs. I've wondered now for sometime where that may now stand.

[tp]

Actually, even the Jews that "fled" to Israel would prefer to go back to Iran:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131043721479&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

"So 10 months ago gray-haired Ishak gave up on the Zionist dream and began to move his family and belongings back to Iran. He filled some of his numerous suitcases and trunks with the Persian carpets, silverware, and home decorations he came here with, and flew to Turkey with his two sons. There they sent their new Israeli passports by express mail back to his daughter in Israel. Then they took out their Islamic Republic of Iran passports and boarded a flight to Teheran. "