Jews in Iran keep the faith

Opinion: May 22, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Parvaneh Vahidmanesh

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

WASHINGTON

“Ten years might pass before a wedding takes place in the Jewish community here,” said Haroun, who is one of the nearly 40 members of the Jewish community in Yazd, Iran.

“Even though the Jewish population in Yazd has decreased considerably over the past few years, we try to keep the synagogues open and teach our children Hebrew and educate them in the religion,” he said.

The Jews of Iran trace their history back 2,600 years. While Iran has had a history of religious tolerance for most of that period, conditions for Jews in the country became markedly more difficult after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

While Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini assured members of the country’s Jewish community that they would not be affected by the country’s open hostility to Israel, prominent Iranian Jews almost immediately became targets after the revolution.

Execution

Habibollah Elghanian, a leader of Tehran’s Jewish community, was executed in 1979 after being accused of corruption and having contacts with Israel.

Since then, Iran’s Jewish population has steadily dwindled. While Iran still has the second-largest Jewish population of any Islamic nation in the Middle East after Turkey, the overall numbers have fallen from 150,000 in 1979 to 30,000 today.

Tehran has the largest Jewish population in Iran with nearly 15,000 people and 30 synagogues. The Dr. Sapir Hospital and Charity Center is a highly regarded Jewish charity with a predominantly Muslim staff. Jewish schools, butcher shops and even a kosher restaurant can be found in the capital.

Outside Tehran, smaller Jewish communities can be found in the cities of Shiraz, Isfahan and Sanandaj.

Still, many keep their religious and ethnic identities a secret. Some go so far as to publicly convert to Islam.

“Every newborn was told from his first years of life that we are living in times of crisis and that they must lead a double life,” said Moshe Hakimi. They told us that we must not talk about our personal lives in front of non-Jewish people. This absolute secrecy became second nature after reaching puberty.

“Therefore, all Jewish converts to Islam had two names: for example, my grandfather’s Muslim name was Sheikh Aboulghasem and his Hebrew name was Benjamin. My father’s Muslim name was Ebrahim and his Hebrew name was Abraham. Outside they call me Mousa and at home, I’m called Moshe. In my father’s lifetime, many of the Jews had very Muslim names. They even went to Mecca on pilgrimage.”

Ultimately, the fate of Jews in Iran may be determined by people such as Sepideh, a university student in Tehran who says she may have to leave the country to find a husband.

“There are almost no educated Jewish boys left in Iran to consider for marriage,” she said. “Emigration is the last resort that we must consider so that maybe we can experience a future free of restrictions.”

Parvaneh Vahidmanesh is an Iranian journalist in Washington who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services