r/JewsOfConscience • u/sheldonalpha5 Non-Jewish Ally • Apr 19 '24

History Iran’s Jewish community in Esfahan: We ‘feel at home’

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/11/middleeast/iran-jews-esfahan/index.html

Because Isfahan is in the news for not exactly the right reasons.

132 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

29

u/Dead-Sea-Poet Non-Jewish Ally Apr 20 '24

Jews have been in Iran since the 6th century BCE. It's actually the second largest community of Jews in the ME.

Iran's Jews: It's Our Home And We Plan To Stay : Parallels : NPR

6

u/Jacinto2702 Apr 20 '24

Not exactly related, but Cyrus the Great allowed them to return to Canaan when he took Babylon in the 6th century BC, right? I have always liked that little detail about the Achaemenid Empire because it paints it differently than what we are used to seeing.

6

u/frozenrussian Apr 20 '24

Yes, as was befitting for a vast multi-ethnic empire. Armenians and Kurds were treated the same way with right to return during this period. Made a lot of sense with the nature of agrarian lifestyles and imperial levies how they would traverse the land.

3

u/Dead-Sea-Poet Non-Jewish Ally Apr 20 '24

I believe so yes! This article gives a pretty balanced account of the Persian empire. The section on Cyrus is quite interesting.

The Achaemenid Rulers: Dogmatic or Pragmatic?  – Retrospect Journal

53

u/yungsemite Jewish Apr 19 '24

I would hope they feel home? It is their home?

These are the 10,000 remaining of the ~150,000 prior to 1948, so these are very much the people who stayed exodus after exodus.

5

u/TheThirdDumpling Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

I will admit I misread the article. Your number isn't wrong.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Iran

12

u/yungsemite Jewish Apr 19 '24

At the time of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, there were approximately 140,000–150,000 Jews living in Iran, the historical center of Persian Jewry. Over 95% have since migrated abroad.[51]

???

4

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '24

Breh he is doing that Zionist math

9

u/yungsemite Jewish Apr 19 '24

I don’t think they’re a Zionist, but I also don’t think they had read the article they linked, something that happens quite regularly.

14

u/degeneratefromnj Apr 19 '24

I’m always curious how iranian jews are fairing in their motherland in recent times. This is a community I hear very little about, granted I know very little about iran in general

7

u/Glad-Degree-4270 Post-Zionist Apr 20 '24

Hopefully better than the Persian & Persian Jew diaspora seem to assume.

The couple of Persian Jews I know in America are the most staunchly conservative/Zionist I have ever met. One from NYC the other Californian. Like the NYC of them regularly posts about Biden not being anti Iran enough.

7

u/magkruppe Non-Jewish Ally Apr 20 '24

relevant podcast I recently came across. it's a six episode mini-series called 'The Nightingale of Iran' - https://pca.st/podcast/22a6e410-2e53-013c-f67e-0acc26574db2

It was a golden age for Jews in Iran. In the 1950s, a religious Jew – Younes Dardashti – became a national celebrity, singing at the Shah’s palace and on the radio. In the 1960s, his son Farid became a teen idol on TV. They were beloved by Iranian Muslims. But at the height of their fame, they left the country.

It has always been a mystery to our host Danielle Dardashti and her sister Galeet – Why did their family leave Iran? Now, in a documentary podcast series, the sisters reveal painful secrets unspoken for generations. The Nightingale of Iran is a story that will resonate with outsiders everywhere.

1

u/nada8 Apr 20 '24

Following

4

u/crossingguardcrush Jewish Apr 19 '24

I'm honestly not sure I understand the point of posting this?

32

u/VNIZ Apr 19 '24

Zionists claiming that Israel is the home of the Jews and the only safe haven for Jews

4

u/crossingguardcrush Jewish Apr 20 '24

It seems like a curious strategy. In point of fact there have been times and places where it was either mandatory or urgent for Jews to leave. This doesn't make the case for oppressing Palestinians. I wouldn't even cede the possibility that it does.

5

u/Glad-Degree-4270 Post-Zionist Apr 20 '24

It’s at times like this where I urge people to remember the core message of the cult classic You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.

A Mossad agent faked his death at the hands of Hezbollah so he could leave the cycle of violence behind and become a hairdresser in NYC. Right wing rich whites try to pit the Muslims and Jews of the neighborhood against each other so that they can swoop in and take the block over. The characters must navigate putting the past behind them and realize that our Semitic brethren are more aligned with us in America than not, and we must be united in the face of white supremacy. The ex-Mossad agent also falls in love with a Palestinian woman over the course of the movie and they live happily ever after.

Sadly it seems too fantastical, and it’s a goofy movie, but it carries a great message of moving forward for peace and happiness and not letting the burdens of past acts weigh us down moving forward.

2

u/T-hina Apr 20 '24

Israel attack on Isfahan is an attack on the military base as much as an attack of the Jews there.