Persian Jews or Iranian Jews ( fa, یهودیان ایرانی, ''yahudiān-e-Irāni''; he, יהודים פרסים ''Yəhūdīm Parsīm'') are the descendants of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

who were historically associated with the

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...

, whose

successor state Succession of states is a concept in international relations regarding a successor state that has become a sovereign state over a territory (and populace) that was previously under the sovereignty of another state. The theory has its roots in 19th- ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The biblical books of

Esther Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

Daniel Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...

Ezra Ezra (; he, עֶזְרָא, '; fl. 480–440 BCE), also called Ezra the Scribe (, ') and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen''). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρας ...

, and

Nehemiah Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. He was governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465–424 BC). The name is pronounced ...

contain references to the lives and experiences of Jews who lived in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Dating back to biblical times, Iranian Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities. Jews have had a continuous presence in Iran since the time of

Cyrus the Great Cyrus II of Persia (; peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Under his rule, the empire embraced ...

of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

. Cyrus invaded

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

and freed the Jews from the

Babylonian captivity The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat ...

. Today, the vast majority of Persian Jews live in Israel and the United States, especially in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

, and on the North Shore of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. There are smaller Persian Jewish communities in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

and the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

. According to the latest Iranian census, the remaining Jewish population of Iran was 9,826 in 2016; a population website numbers the Jews In Iran as 8,500 in 2021.Jewish Population by Country 2021 website
/ref>

Terminology

Today, the term ''Iranian Jews'' is mostly used in reference to Jews who are from the country of

. In various scholarly and historical texts, the term is used in reference to Jews who speak various

Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped ...

. Iranian immigrants in Israel (nearly all of whom are Jewish) are referred to as ''Parsim'' ( fa, اسرائل, a term which means "Persians"). In Iran, Persian Jews and Jewish people in general are both described with four common terms: ''Kalīmī'' ( fa, کلیمی), which is considered the most proper term; ''Yahūdī'' (), which is less formal but correct; ''Yīsrael'' () the term by which Jewish people refer to themselves; and ''Johūd'' (), a term having negative connotations and considered by many Jews as offensive.

History

Jews had been residing in Persia since around 727 BCE, having arrived in the region as slaves after being captured by the

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

n and

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

n kings. According to one Jewish legend, the first Jew to enter Persia was Sarah bat Asher, grand daughter of the Patriarch Jacob. The biblical books of

Chronicles Chronicles may refer to: * ''Books of Chronicles'', in the Bible * Chronicle, chronological histories * ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', a novel series by C. S. Lewis * ''Holinshed's Chronicles'', the collected works of Raphael Holinshed * '' The Idh ...

, and

contain references to the life and experiences of Jews in Persia and accounts of their relations with the

Persian kings This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of the ...

. In the book of Ezra, the Persian kings are credited with permitting and enabling the Jews to return to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and rebuild their Temple; its reconstruction was effected "according to the decree of

Cyrus Cyrus ( Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...

, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia" (Ezra 6:14). This great event in Jewish history took place in the late sixth-century BCE, by which time there was a well-established and influential Jewish community in Persia. Jews in ancient Persia mostly lived in their own communities. Persian Jews lived in the ancient (and until the mid-20th century still extant) communities not only of Iran, but also the

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

, Iraqi, Bukharan, and

Mountain Jewish Mountain Jews or Caucasus Jews also known as Juhuro, Juvuro, Juhuri, Juwuri, Juhurim, Kavkazi Jews or Gorsky Jews ( he, יהודי קווקז ''Yehudey Kavkaz'' or ''Yehudey he-Harim''; russian: Горские евреи, translit=Gorskie Yevrei ...

communities. Some of the communities have been isolated from other Jewish communities, to the extent that their classification as "Persian Jews" is a matter of

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

convenience rather than actual historical relationship with one another. Scholars believe that during the peak of the Persian Empire, Jews may have comprised as much as 20% of the population. According to ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

'': "The Jews trace their heritage in Iran to the

Babylonian Exile The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat ...

of the 6th century BC and, like the

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...

, have retained their ethnic, linguistic, and religious identity." But the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

's country study on Iran states that "Over the centuries the Jews of Iran became physically, culturally, and linguistically indistinguishable from the non-Jewish population. The overwhelming majority of Jews speak Persian as their mother language, and a tiny minority, Kurdish."

Under the Achaemenids

Cyrus the Great and Jews

According to the biblical account

was "God's anointed", having freed the Jews from Babylonian rule. After the conquest of

by the Persian

, Cyrus granted all the Jews citizenship. Though he allowed the Jews to return to Israel (around 537 BCE), many chose to remain in Persia. Thus, the events of the

Book of Esther The Book of Esther ( he, מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, Megillat Esther), also known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the wikt:מגילה, Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Judaism, Jewish ''Tanak ...

are set entirely in Iran. Various biblical accounts say that over forty thousand Jews did return (See

Jehoiakim Jehoiakim, also sometimes spelled Jehoikim; la, Joakim was the eighteenth and antepenultimate king of Judah from 609 to 598 BC. He was the second son of king Josiah () and Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. His birth name was Eliakim.; ...

, and

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

s). The historical nature of the "Cyrus decree" has been challenged. Professor Lester L Grabbe argues that there was no decree, but that there was a policy that allowed exiles to return to their homelands and rebuild their temples. He also argues that the archaeology suggests that the return was a "trickle", taking place over perhaps decades, resulting in a maximum population of perhaps 30,000.

Philip R. Davies Philip R. Davies (1945–2018) was a British biblical scholar. He was Professor Emeritus of biblical studies at the University of Sheffield, England. In the late 1990s, he was the Director for the Centre for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He ...

called the authenticity of the decree "dubious", citing Grabbe. Arguing against the authenticity of Ezra 1.1–4 is J. Briend, in a paper given at the Institut Catholique de Paris on 15 December 1993, who denies that it resembles the form of an official document but reflects rather the biblical prophetic idiom." Mary Joan Winn Leith believes that the decree in Ezra might be authentic and, along with the

Cyrus Cylinder The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay cylinder, now broken into several pieces, on which is written a declaration in Akkadian cuneiform script in the name of Persia's Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great. Kuhrt (2007), p. 70, 72 It dates from the 6th c ...

, that Cyrus, like earlier rulers, was through these decrees trying to gain support from those who might be strategically important, particularly those close to Egypt which Cyrus wished to conquer. She also wrote that "appeals to Marduk in the cylinder and to Yahweh in the biblical decree demonstrate the Persian tendency to co-opt local religious and political traditions in the interest of imperial control." By some accounts, the tomb of the prophet

is located in

Susa Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...

. The

Second Temple The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited ...

was eventually (re)built in

, with assistance from the Persians, and the Israelites assumed an important position in the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

trade with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Under Darius

Cyrus ordered rebuilding the

in the same place as the first; however, he died before it was completed.

Darius the Great Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...

came to power in the Persian empire and ordered the completion of the temple. According to the Bible, the prophets

Haggai Haggai (; he, חַגַּי – ''Ḥaggay''; Koine Greek: Ἀγγαῖος; la, Aggaeus) was a Hebrew prophet during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the author of t ...

and Zechariah urged this work. The temple was ready for consecration in the spring of 515 BCE, more than twenty years after the Jews' return to Jerusalem.

Under Ahasuerus

According to the

, in the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

Haman Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite or Haman the evil) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I ...

was an

Agagite The term Agagite is used in the Book of Esther as a description of Haman. The term is understood to be an ethnonym although nothing is known with certainty about the people designated by the name. According to Cheyne and Black, this term is used ...

noble and

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

of the

empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

under Persian King

Ahasuerus Ahasuerus ( ; , commonly ''Achashverosh'';; fa, اخشورش, Axšoreš; fa, label=New Persian, خشایار, Xašāyār; grc, Ξέρξης, Xérxēs. grc, label=Koine Greek, Ἀσουήρος, Asouḗros, in the Septuagint; la, Assuerus ...

, generally identified as

Xerxes the Great Xerxes I ( peo, 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ξέρξης ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of D ...

(son of Darius the Great) in the 6th century BCE. According to the story, Haman and his wife Zeresh instigated a plot to kill all the Jews of ancient

. The plot was foiled by Queen

, the Jewish Queen of

. As a result, Ahasuerus ordered the hanging of Haman and his ten sons. The events of the Book of Esther are celebrated as the holiday of

Purim Purim (; , ; see Name below) is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Haman, an official of the Achaemenid Empire who was planning to have all of Persia's Jewish subjects killed, as recounted in the Boo ...

Parthian period

Jewish sources contain no mention of the

Parthia Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...

n influence; "Parthia" does not appear in the texts. The

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n prince Sanatroces, of the royal house of the Arsacides, is mentioned in the "Small Chronicle" as one of the successors ''(diadochoi)'' of

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

. Among other Asiatic princes, the Roman rescript in favor of the Jews reached

Arsaces Arsaces or Arsakes (, , Graecized form of Old Persian ) is the eponymous Greek form of the dynastic name of the Parthian Empire of Iran adopted by all epigraphically attested rulers of the Arsacid dynasties. The indigenous Parthian and Armenian fo ...

as well (I Macc. xv. 22); it is not, however, specified which Arsaces. Not long after this, the Partho-Babylonian country was trodden by the army of a Jewish prince; the

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

king, Antiochus Sidetes, marched, in company with Hyrcanus I., against the Parthians; and when the allied armies defeated the Parthians (129 BCE) at the

Great Zab The Great Zab or Upper Zab ( (''al-Zāb al-Kabīr''), or , , ''(zāba ʻalya)'') is an approximately long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq. It rises in Turkey near Lake Van and joins the Tigris in Iraq south of Mosul. The drainage basin o ...

(Lycus), the king ordered a halt of two days on account of the

Jewish Sabbath Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

and

Feast of Weeks A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...

. In 40 BCE the Jewish puppet-king,

Hyrcanus II John Hyrcanus II (, ''Yohanan Hurqanos'') (died 30 BCE), a member of the Hasmonean dynasty, was for a long time the Jewish High Priest in the 1st century BCE. He was also briefly King of Judea 67–66 BCE and then the ethnarch (ruler) of J ...

., fell into the hands of the Parthians, who, according to their custom, cut off his ears in order to render him unfit for rulership. The Jews of Babylonia, it seems, had the intention of founding a high-priesthood for the exiled Hyrcanus, which they would have made quite independent of the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...

. But the reverse was to come about: the Judeans received a Babylonian, Ananel by name, as their high priest, which indicates the importance enjoyed by the Jews of Babylonia. The

Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conque ...

was based on a loosely configured system of vassal kings. The lack of rigidly centralized rule over the empire had drawbacks, for instance, allowing the rise of a Jewish robber-state in Nehardea (see

Anilai and Asinai Anilai and Asinai (חנילאי וחסינאי; "Hanilai and Hasinai") were two Babylonian-Jewish robber chieftains of the Parthian Empire whose exploits were reported by Josephus. They were apprenticed by their widowed mother to a weaver. Having ...

). Yet, the tolerance of the

Arsacid The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conquer ...

dynasty was as legendary as that of the first Persian dynasty, the

Achaemenids The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

. One account suggests the conversion of a small number of Parthian

vassal king A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. ...

s of

Adiabene Adiabene was an ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, corresponding to the northwestern part of ancient Assyria. The size of the kingdom varied over time; initially encompassing an area between the Zab Rivers, it eventually gained control of Ni ...

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

. These instances and others show not only the tolerance of Parthian kings, but are also a testament to the extent at which the Parthians saw themselves as the heir to the preceding empire of

. So protective were the Parthians of the minority over whom they ruled, that an old

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

saying tells, "When you see a Parthian charger tied up to a tomb-stone in the Land of Israel, the hour of the Messiah will be near". The

ian

wanted to fight in common cause with their

Judea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous L ...

n brethren against

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...

; but it was not until the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

waged war under

Trajan Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...

against

that they made their hatred felt; so, the revolt of the Babylonian Jews helped prevent Rome from becoming master there.

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's deplo ...

speaks of the numerous Jews resident in that country, a population that was likely increased by immigrants after the destruction of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem from early times, Jews had looked to the east for help. With the fall of Jerusalem,

became a kind of bulwark of Judaism. The collapse of the

Bar Kochba revolt The Bar Kokhba revolt ( he, , links=yes, ''Mereḏ Bar Kōḵḇāʾ‎''), or the 'Jewish Expedition' as the Romans named it ( la, Expeditio Judaica), was a rebellion by the Jews of the Roman province of Judea, led by Simon bar Kokhba, aga ...

likely also added to Jewish refugees in Babylon. In the struggles between the

Parthians Parthian may be: Historical * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...

and the Romans, the

had reason to side with the Parthians, their protectors. Parthian kings elevated the princes of the Exile to a kind of nobility, called '' Resh Galuta''. Until then they had used the Jews as collectors of revenue. The Parthians may have given them recognition for services, especially by the Davidic house. Establishment of the Resh Galuta provided a central authority over the numerous

subjects, who proceeded to develop their own internal affairs.

Sassanian period (226–634 CE)

By the early third century,

influences were on the rise again. In the winter of 226 CE,

Ardashir I Ardashir I (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭥𐭲𐭧𐭱𐭲𐭥, Modern Persian: , '), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new emp ...

overthrew the last Parthian king ( Artabanus IV), destroyed the rule of the Arsacids, and founded the dynasty of the

Sassanids The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

. While

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

influence had been felt amongst the religiously tolerant

ns, the Sassanids intensified the Persian side of life, favored the Pahlavi language, and restored the old dualistic religion of

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, du ...

which became the official

state religion A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular state, secular, is not n ...

. This resulted in the suppression of other religions. A priestly Zoroastrian inscription from the time of King Bahram II (276–293 CE) contains a list of religions (including Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism etc.) that Sassanid rule claimed to have "smashed". "The false doctrines of Ahriman and of the idols suffered great blows and lost credibility. The Jews (''Yahud''),

Buddhists Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

(''Shaman''),

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

(''Brahman''), Nazarenes (''Nasara''),

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

(''Kristiyan''), Baptists (''Makdag'') and Manichaeans (''

Zandik Zandik (Middle Persian: 𐭦𐭭𐭣𐭩𐭪) is a Zoroastrian term conventionally interpreted as heretic in a narrow sense, or, in a wider sense, for a person with any belief or practice that ran contrary to Sassanid-mediated Zoroastrian orthodo ...

'') were smashed in the empire, their idols destroyed, and the habitations of the idols annihilated and turned into abodes and seats of the gods"."

Shapur I Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, Šābuhr ) was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardas ...

(or ''Shvor Malka'', which is the

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

form of the name) was friendly to the Jews. His friendship with Shmuel gained many advantages for the

community.

Shapur II Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history, he reigned fo ...

's mother

Ifra Hormizd Ifra Hormizd (Modern fa, ایفرا هرمز) or Faraya Ohrmazd (Modern fa, فرایه هرمز) was a Sassanid noblewoman, spouse of Hormizd II and mother of Shapur II. She was the regent during the minority of her son between 309 and 325. F ...

was

Judaizing Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the M ...

believer (i.e. believer in Judaism), and this gave the Jewish community relative freedom of religion and many advantages. He was also friend of a

ian

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

named Raba, Raba's friendship with Shapur II enabled him to secure a relaxation of the oppressive laws enacted against the

in the

. In addition, Raba sometimes referred to his top student Abaye with the term Shvur Malka meaning "Shapur heKing" because of his bright and quick intellect.

Early Islamic period (634–1255)

With the

Islamic conquest of Persia The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 654 AD and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrian ...

, the government assigned Jews, along with Christians and Zoroastrians, to the status of ''

dhimmi ' ( ar, ذمي ', , collectively ''/'' "the people of the covenant") or () is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligatio ...

s'', non-Muslim subjects of the Islamic empire. Dhimmis were allowed to practice their religion, but were required to pay jizya to cover the cost of financial welfare, security and other benefits that Muslims were entitled to (''

jizya Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent Kafir, non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Sharia, Islamic law. The jizya tax has been unde ...

'', a

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...

, and initially also '' kharaj'', a land tax) in place of the ''

zakat Zakat ( ar, زكاة; , "that which purifies", also Zakat al-mal , "zakat on wealth", or Zakah) is a form of almsgiving, often collected by the Muslim Ummah. It is considered in Islam as a religious obligation, and by Quranic ranking, is ne ...

'', which the Muslim population was required to pay. Like other Dhimmis, Jews were exempt from military draft. Viewed as "People of the Book", they had some status as fellow monotheists, though they were treated differently depending on the ruler at the time. On the one hand, Jews were granted significant economic and religious freedom when compared to their co-religionists in European nations during these centuries. Many served as doctors, scholars, and craftsman, and gained positions of influence in society. On the other hand, like other non-Muslims, they were treated as somewhat inferior.

Mongol rule (1256–1318)

In 1255, Mongols led by

Hulagu Khan Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü or Hulegu ( mn, Хүлэгү/ , lit=Surplus, translit=Hu’legu’/Qülegü; chg, ; Arabic: fa, هولاکو خان, ''Holâku Khân;'' ; 8 February 1265), was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of West ...

invaded parts of Persia, and in 1258 they captured Baghdad putting an end to the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

caliphate. In Persia and surrounding areas, the Mongols established a division of the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...

known as the

Ilkhanate The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm, ...

, building a capital city in

Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...

. The Ilkhanate Mongol rulers abolished the inequality of dhimmis, and all religions were deemed equal. It was shortly after this time when one of the Ilkhanate rulers,

Arghun Arghun Khan (Mongolian Cyrillic: ''Аргун хан''; Traditional Mongolian: ; c. 1258 – 10 March 1291) was the fourth ruler of the Mongol empire's Ilkhanate, from 1284 to 1291. He was the son of Abaqa Khan, and like his father, was a dev ...

Khan, preferred Jews for the administrative positions and appointed Sa'd al-Daula, a Jew, as his

. The appointment, however, provoked resentment from the Muslim clergy, and after Arghun's death in 1291, al-Daula was murdered and Persian Jews in Tabriz suffered a period of violent persecutions from the Muslim populace instigated by the clergy. The

Orthodox Christian Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churche ...

historian

Bar Hebraeus Gregory Bar Hebraeus ( syc, ܓܪܝܓܘܪܝܘܣ ܒܪ ܥܒܪܝܐ, b. 1226 - d. 30 July 1286), known by his Syriac ancestral surname as Bar Ebraya or Bar Ebroyo, and also by a Latinized name Abulpharagius, was an Aramean Maphrian (regional primat ...

wrote that the violence committed against the Jews during that period "neither tongue can utter, nor the pen write down".Littman (1979), p. 3

Ghazan Khan Mahmud Ghazan (5 November 1271 – 11 May 1304) (, Ghazan Khan, sometimes archaically spelled as Casanus by the Westerners) was the seventh ruler of the Mongol Empire's Ilkhanate division in modern-day Iran from 1295 to 1304. He was the son of A ...

's conversion to Islam in 1295 heralded for Persian Jews in Tabriz a pronounced turn for the worse, as they were once again relegated to the status of dhimmis (Covenant of Omar). Öljeitü, Ghazan Khan's successor, destroyed many synagogues and decreed that Jews had to wear a distinctive mark on their heads; Christians endured similar persecutions. Under pressure, many Jews converted to Islam. The most famous such convert was

Rashid-al-Din Hamadani Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb ( fa, رشیدالدین طبیب;‎ 1247–1318; also known as Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī, fa, links=no, رشیدالدین فضل‌الله همدانی) was a statesman, historian and physician in Ilk ...

, a physician of Hamadani origin who was also a historian and statesman; and who adopted Islam in order to advance his career in Öljeitü's court in Tabriz. However, in 1318 he was executed on charges of poisoning Öljeitü and his severed head was carried around the streets of

, chanting, "This is the head of the Jew who abused the name of God; may God's curse be upon him!" About 100 years later,

Miranshah Mīrānshāh (Pashto and ur, ) or Mīrāmshāh () is a small town that is the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Miranshah lies on the banks of the Tochi River in a wide valley surr ...

destroyed Rashid al-Din's tomb, and his remains were reburied at the Jewish cemetery. In 1383,

Timur Lenk Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...

started the military conquest of Persia. He captured

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...

, Khorasan and all eastern Persia to 1385 and

massacred A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

almost all inhabitants of Neishapur and other Iranian cities. When revolts broke out in Persia, he ruthlessly suppressed them, massacring the populations of whole cities. When Timur plundered Persia its artists and artisans were deported to embellish Timur's capital

Samarkand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...

. Skilled Persian Jews were imported to develop the empire's textile industry.Joanna Sloam
Bukharan Jews
Jewish Virtual Library

Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar dynasties (1502–1925)

During the reign of the

Safavids Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

(1502–1794), they proclaimed

Shi'a Islam Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...

the state religion. This led to a deterioration in their treatment of Persian Jews. Safavids Shi'ism assigns importance to the issues of ritual purity – '' tahara''. Non-Muslims, including Jews, are deemed to be ritually unclean – ''

najis In Islamic law, najis ( ar, نجس) means ritually unclean. According to Islam, there are two kinds of najis: the essential najis which cannot be cleaned and the unessential najis which become najis while in contact with another najis. Contac ...

''. Any physical contact would require Shi'as to undertake ritual purification before doing regular prayers. Thus, Persian rulers, and the general populace, sought to limit physical contact between Muslims and Jews. Jews were excluded from public baths used by Muslims. They were forbidden to go outside during rain or snow, as an "impurity" could be washed from them upon a Muslim. The reign of Shah Abbas I (1588–1629) was initially benign; Jews prospered throughout Persia and were encouraged to settle in Isfahan, which was made a new capital. Toward the end of his rule, treatment of Jews became more harsh. Shi'a clergy (including a Jewish convert) persuaded the shah to require Jews to wear a distinctive badge on clothing and headgear. In 1656, the shah ordered the expulsion from Isfahan of all Jews because of the common belief of their "impurity". They were forced to convert to Islam. The treasury suffered from the loss of ''jizya'' collected from the Jews. People rumored that the converts continued to practice

in secret. For whatever reason, the government in 1661 allowed Jews to take up their old religion, but still required them to wear a distinctive patch upon their clothing.

Nadir Shah Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian h ...

(1736–1747) allowed Jews to settle in the Shi'ite holy city of

Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...

. However, following his murder many Jews were massacred in Mashhad, and survivors were forcibly converted, in an event known as

Allahdad incident The Allahdad ( fa, الله داد, ) was an 1839 pogrom perpetrated by Muslims against the Mashhadi Jewish community in the city of Mashhad, Qajar Iran. It was characterized by the mass-killing and forced conversion of the Jews in the area to ...

. they become known as "Jadid al-Islams" (new converts) and appeared to superficially accept the new religion, but in fact lived their lives as

Crypto-Jews Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek ''kryptos'' – , 'hidden'). The term is especially applied historically to Sp ...

. The community permanently left Iran in 1946 and still lives as a tightly knit community in Israel today. Bābāʾī ben Nūrīʾel, a ḥāḵām (rabbi) from Isfahan who, at the behest of Nāder Shah Afšār (r. 1148–60/1736–47), translated the Pentateuch and the Psalms of David from Hebrew into Persian. Three other rabbis helped him in the translation, which was begun in Rabīʿ II, 1153/May, 1740, and completed in Jomādā I, 1154/June, 1741. At the same time, eight Muslim mollas and three European and five Armenian priests translated the Koran and the Gospels. The commission was supervised by Mīrzā Moḥammad Mahdī Khan Monšī, the court historiographer and author of the Tārīḵ-ejahāngošā-ye nāderī. Finished translations were presented to Nāder Shah in Qazvīn in June, 1741, who, however, was not impressed. There had been previous translations of the Jewish holy books into Persian, but Bābāʾī's translation is notable for the accuracy of the Persian equivalents of Hebrew words, which has made it the subject of study by linguists. Bābāʾī's introduction to the translation of the Psalms of David is unique, and sheds a certain amount of light on the teaching methods of Iranian Jewish schools in eighteenth-century Iran. He is not known to have written anything else. The advent of a Shi'a

Qajar dynasty The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic peoples ...

in 1794 brought back the earlier persecutions. Kalimi mashrutiat

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...

described 19th-century regional differences in the situation of the Persian Jews: "In Isfahan, where they are said to be 3,700 and where they occupy a relatively better status than elsewhere in Persia, they are not permitted to wear ''kolah'' or Persian headdress, to have shops in the bazaar, to build the walls of their houses as high as a Moslem neighbour's, or to ride in the street. In Teheran and

Kashan Kashan ( fa, ; Qashan; Cassan; also romanized as Kāshān) is a city in the northern part of Isfahan province, Iran. At the 2017 census, its population was 396,987 in 90,828 families. Some etymologists argue that the city name comes from ...

they are also to be found in large numbers and enjoying a fair position. In Shiraz they are very badly off. In Bushire they are prosperous and free from persecution." In the 19th century, the colonial powers from Europe began noting numerous forced conversions and massacres, usually generated by Shi'a clergy. Two major blood-libel conspiracies had taken place during this period, one in Shiraz and the other in Tabriz. In 1830, a blood-libel had wiped out the Jewish population of Tabriz; a power struggle over influence between Jewish and Christian minorities led the Armenians to kidnap and murder a Muslim child from a prominent family, delivering the body to the chief secretary claiming that the Jews had murdered and drank the blood of the child for Passover. A document recorded after the incident states that the Jews faced two options, conversion to Islam or death. Amidst the chaos, Jews had converted, but most refused to convert to Islam – described within the document was a boy of age 16 named Yahyia who refused to convert to Islam, he was subsequently killed. The same year saw a forcible conversion of the Jews of

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...

over a similar incident. In addition to the

mentioned above in 1839. European travellers reported that the Jews of

and

continued to practice Judaism in secret despite a fear of further persecutions. Famous Iranian-Jewish teachers such as Mullah Daoud Chadi continued to teach and preach Judaism, inspiring Jews throughout the nation. Jews of

Barforush Babol ( fa, بابل, , known as "Orange Blossom City" , also Romanized as Bābol; formerly known as Barfrouch) is the capital of Babol County, Mazandaran Province, Iran. Babol is divided into two metropolitan areas (under Iranian law). At the 201 ...

, Mazandaran were forcibly converted in 1866. When the French and British ambassadors intervened to allow them to practice their traditional religion, a mob killed 18 Jews of Barforush. Perhaps these things happened earlier too, but went unnoticed by the historians. In the middle of the 19th century,

J. J. Benjamin Israe͏̈l Joseph Benjamin (Fălticeni, Moldavia, 1818 – London, May 3, 1864) was a Romanian-Jewish historian and traveler. His pen name was "Benjamin II", in allusion to Benjamin of Tudela. Life and travels Married young, he engaged in the l ...

wrote about the life of Persian Jews, describing conditions and beliefs that went back to the 16th century: In 1894, a representative of the ''

Alliance Israélite Universelle The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU; he, כל ישראל חברים; ) is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the purpose of safeguarding human rights for Jews around the world. It promotes the ideals of Jew ...

'', a Jewish humanitarian and educational organization, wrote from

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

: "…every time that a priest wishes to emerge from obscurity and win a reputation for piety, he preaches war against the Jews". In 1901, The Riot of Shaykh Ibrahim was sparked against the Jews of Tehran. An Imam began speaking on the importance of ridding alcohol for the sake of Islamic purity, he soon gained followers and this soon manifested itself into an assault against Jews for refusing to give up the wine they drank for sabbath. In 1910, Muslims rumored that the Jews of Shiraz had ritually murdered a Muslim girl. Muslims plundered the whole Jewish quarter. The first to start looting were soldiers sent by the local governor to defend the Jews against the enraged mob. Twelve Jews who tried to defend their property were killed, and many others were injured. Representatives of the ''Alliance Israélite Universelle'' recorded numerous instances of persecution and debasement of Persian Jews. In the late 19th to early 20th century, thousands of Persian Jews immigrated to the territory of present-day Israel within the Ottoman Empire to escape such persecution.Littman (1979), p. 5.

Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979)

The

Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...

implemented modernizing reforms, which greatly improved the life of Jews. The influence of the Shi'a clergy was weakened, and the restrictions on Jews and other religious minorities were abolished.Sanasarian (2000), p. 46 According to Charles Recknagel and Azam Gorgin of

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

, during the reign of Reza Shah "the political and social conditions of the Jews changed fundamentally.

Reza Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi ( fa, رضا شاه پهلوی; ; originally Reza Khan (); 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was an Iranian Officer (armed forces), military officer, politician (who served as Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran), ...

prohibited mass conversion of Jews and eliminated the concept of uncleanness of non-Muslims. He allowed incorporation of modern Hebrew into the curriculum of Jewish schools and publication of Jewish newspapers. Jews were also allowed to hold government jobs. Reza Shah's ascent brought temporary relief to Jews. In the 1920s, Jewish schools were closed again. In the 1930s, "Reza Shah's pro-Nazi sympathies seriously threatened Iranian Jewry. There were no persecutions of the Jews, but, as with other minorities, anti-Jewish articles were published in the media. Unlike religiously motivated prejudice, anti-Jewish sentiments acquired an ethnonational character, a direct import from Germany." At the time of the establishment of the state of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1948, there were approximately 140,000–150,000 Jews living in

, the historical center of Persian Jewry. Over 95% have since migrated abroad.Immigration and absorption
, The Council of Immigrant Associations in Israel (Pop-up info when clicking on Iran) The violence and disruption in Arab life associated with the founding of Israel and its victory in the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

drove increased anti-Jewish sentiment in Iran. This continued until 1953, in part because of the weakening of the central government and strengthening of clergy in the political struggles between the shah and prime minister

Mohammad Mossadegh Mohammad Mosaddegh ( fa, محمد مصدق, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, after appointment by the 16th Majlis. He was a member of ...

. From 1948 to 1953, about one-third of Iranian Jews, most of them poor, immigrated to Israel.Sanasarian (2000), p. 47 David Littman puts the total figure of Iranian Jews who immigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1978 at 70,000. After the deposition of Mossadegh in 1953, the reign of shah

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , title = Shahanshah Aryamehr Bozorg Arteshtaran , image = File:Shah_fullsize.jpg , caption = Shah in 1973 , succession = Shah of Iran , reign = 16 September 1941 – 11 February 1979 , coronation = 26 October ...

was the most prosperous era for the Jews of Iran. By the 1970s, only 1% of Iranian Jews were classified as lower class; 80% were middle class and 10% wealthy. Although Jews accounted for only a small percentage of Iran's population, in 1979 two of the 18 members of the Iranian Academy of Sciences, 80 of the 4,000 university lecturers, and 600 of the 10,000 physicians in Iran were Jews. Prior to the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

or Islamic Revolution in 1979, there were 100,000 Jews in Iran, mostly concentrated in

(60,000),

(18,000),

Kermanshah Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...

(4,000), and

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

(3,000). Jews were also located in other various cities throughout Iran, including

Urmia Urmia or Orumiyeh ( fa, ارومیه, Variously transliterated as ''Oroumieh'', ''Oroumiyeh'', ''Orūmīyeh'' and ''Urūmiyeh''.) is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran and the capital of Urmia County. It is situated at an alt ...

(800),

Salmas Salmas ( fa, سلماس; ; ; ; syr, ܣܵܠܵܡܵܣ, Salamas) is the capital of Salmas County, West Azerbaijan Province in Iran. It is located northwest of Lake Urmia, near Turkey. According to the 2019 census, the city's population is 127,864. ...

(400),

Miandoab Miandoab ( fa, مياندوآب) is a city and capital of Miandoab County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2012 census, its population was 135,880, in 38,704 families. Demographics Miandoab is largely populated by Azerbaijanis. Geography ...

(60),

Baneh Baneh ( fa, بانه, Bāneh, ku, بانە, translit=Bane) is a city and capital of Baneh County, Kurdistan Province, in Iran's western border. Baneh is bordered by Saqqez to the east, Marivan to the south, Sardasht to the west, and is approxim ...

Sanandaj Sanandaj (Persian: سنندج, ; ku, سنە, Sine, often romanized as Senneh, is the capital of Kurdistan Province in Iran. With a population of 414,069, Sanandaj is the twenty third largest city in Iran and the second largest Kurdish city. San ...

Saqqez Saqqez ( ; fa, سقز ; ), also known as Saghez, Saqez, Saqqiz, Saqiz, and Sakīz, is the capital city of Saqqez County in Kurdistan Province, in northwestern Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population was 165,258. Etymology The nam ...

, Tazeh Qaleh, Chichakluy-e Bash Qaleh, Garrus, Qaslan,

Hamadan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') ( Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ha ...

Tuyserkan Tuyserkan ( fa, تويسركان, also Romanized as Tūyserkān, Tooyserkan, Tūīsarkān, and Tūysarkān) is a city and capital of Tuyserkan County, Hamadan Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 50,455, in 16,291 families. T ...

Nahavand Nahavand ( fa, نهاوند, translit=Nahāvand / Nehāvend) is a city in Hamadan Province, Iran. It is the capital of Nahavand County. At the time of the 2006 census, its population was 72,218, in 19,419 families. It is located south of the ci ...

Hashtrud Hashtrud ( fa, هشترود; also Romanized as Hashtrūd; also known as Āz̄arān, Sarāskand, Sar Eskand, Sar Eskandar, and Sar Eskand Khān) is a city and capital of Hashtrud County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Hashtrud is located 140&nbs ...

, Zehab,

Babol Babol ( fa, بابل, , known as "Orange Blossom City" , also Romanized as Bābol; formerly known as Barfrouch) is the capital of Babol County, Mazandaran Province, Iran. Babol is divided into two metropolitan areas (under Iranian law). At the ...

Siahkal Siahkal ( fa, سياهكل, also Romanized as Sīāhkal, Seyāh Kal, Sīāh Kal, and Sīyāh Kal; also known as Sīāhkal Maḩalleh) is a city and capital of Siahkal County, Gilan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republ ...

Damavand Mount Damavand ( fa, دماوند ) is a dormant stratovolcano, the highest peak in Iran and Western Asia and the highest volcano in Asia and the 2nd highest volcano in the Eastern Hemisphere (after Mount Kilimanjaro), at an elevation of . ...

Bushehr Bushehr, Booshehr or Bushire ( fa, بوشهر ; also romanised as ''Būshehr'', ''Bouchehr'', ''Buschir'' and ''Busehr''), also known as Bandar Bushehr ( fa, ; also romanised as ''Bandar Būshehr'' and ''Bandar-e Būshehr''), previously Antioc ...

Kazerun Kazeroon ( fa, کازرون, also Romanized as Kāzerūn, Kāzeroūn, and Kazeroon; also known as Kasrun) is a city and capital of Kazeroon County, Fars Province, Iran. In 2016, as the fifth big city in the province, its population was 96,683. ...

Torbat-e Heydarieh Torbat-e Heydarieh ( fa, تربت حيدريه, also Romanized as Torbat-e Ḩeydarīyeh; also known as Torbat-e Heydari, Turbat-i-Haidari, Torbate Heydari, and Turbet-i-Haidari, and for short Torbat) is a city and capital of Torbat-e Heydarieh C ...

Sarakhs Sarakhs ( fa, سرخس, Saraxs, also Romanized as Serakhs) is a city in Sarakhs County, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. Sarakhs was once a stopping point along the Silk Road, and in its 11th century heyday had many libraries. Much of the original ...

Yazd Yazd ( fa, یزد ), formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran. The city is located southeast of Isfahan. At the 2016 census, the population was 1,138,533. Since 2017, the historical city of Yazd is recognized as a Worl ...

, Arak, and

Khorramabad Khorramabad ( fa, خرم‌آباد, Khorramâbâd ), alternatively romanized as Khorramābād, Khoramabad, Khurramabad, Khorram Abad, or Khur Ramābād, is a city and the capital of Lorestan Province, Iran. At the time of the 2016 census, its po ...

. The Iranian Jewish emigration to Israel is not a recent phenomenon. Of the Iranian Jews living in Israel in the early 1900s, 41% immigrated to British Mandatory Palestine before the establishment of Israel there in 1948; only 15% were admitted between 1975 and 1991. They immigrated chiefly because of

religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within soc ...

Islamic Republic (1979–present)

At the time of the 1979

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

, 80,000–100,000 Jews were living in Iran. From then on, Jewish emigration from Iran dramatically increased, as about 20,000 Jews left within several months of the revolution alone. The majority of Iran's Jewish population, some 60,000 Jews, emigrated in the aftermath of the revolution, of whom 35,000 went to the United States, 20,000 to Israel, and 5,000 to Europe (mainly to the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland). Some sources put the Iranian Jewish population in the mid and late 1980s as between 50,000 and 60,000. An estimate based on the 1986 census put the figure considerably higher for the same time, around 55,000. From the mid-1990s to the present there has been more uniformity in the figures, with most government sources since then estimating roughly 25,000 Jews remaining in Iran. These less recent official figures are considered bloated, and the Jewish community may not amount to more than 10,000. A 2012 census put the figure at about 8,756.

Ayatollah Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیت‌الله, āyatollāh) is an Title of honor, honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century. Etymology The title is originally derived from ...

Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

met with the Jewish community upon his return from exile in Paris, when heads of the community, disturbed by the execution of one of their most distinguished representatives, the industrialist

Habib Elghanian Habib (Habibollah) Elghanian ( fa, حبیب (حبیب‌الله) القانیان, 5 April 1912 – 9 May 1979) was a prominent Iranian Jewish businessman and philanthropist who served as the president of the Tehran Jewish Society and acte ...

, arranged to meet him in Qom. At one point he said:

In the holy Quran, Moses, salutations upon him and all his kin, has been mentioned more than any other prophet. Prophet Moses was a mere shepherd when he stood up to the might of pharaoh and destroyed him. Moses, the Speaker-to-Allah, represented pharaoh's slaves, the downtrodden, the mostazafeen of his time.

At the end of the discussion Khomeini declared, "We recognize our Jews as separate from those godless, bloodsucking Zionists"Roya Hakakian
'How Iran Kept Its Jews,'
'' Tablet'', 30 December 2014. and issued a ''

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

'' decreeing that the Jews were to be protected. Habib Elghanian was arrested and sentenced to death by an Islamic revolutionary tribunal shortly after the Islamic revolution for charges including corruption, contacts with Israel and Zionism, and "friendship with the enemies of God", and was executed by a firing squad. He was the first Jew and businessman to be executed by the Islamic government. His execution caused fear among the Jewish community and caused many to flee Iran. Soli Shahvar, professor of Iranian Studies at the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming Is ...

describes the process of dispossession : "There were two waves of confiscation of homes, farmlands and factories of Jews in Iran. In the first wave, the authorities seized the properties of a small group of Jews who were accused of helping Zionism financially. In the second wave, authorities confiscated the properties of Jews who had to leave the country after the Revolution. They left everything in fear for their lives and the Islamic Republic confiscated their properties using their absence as an excuse". During the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

, which lasted from 1980 to 1988, Iranian Jews were conscripted into the

Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces The Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, are the combined military forces of Iran, comprising the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (''Arteš''), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (''Sepâh'') and the Law Enforcement Force (Police). Iran ...

, and 13 were killed in the war. In the Islamic republic, Jews have become more religious. Families who had been secular in the 1970s started adhering to ''

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

'' dietary laws and more strictly observed rules against driving on the ''

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

''. They stopped going to restaurants, cafes and cinemas and the

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

became the focal point of their social lives.Life of Jews Living in Iran
Sephardicstudies.org. Retrieved 2011-05-29. Haroun Yashyaei, a film producer and former chairman of the Central Jewish Community in Iran said, "

didn't mix up our community with

and

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...

– he saw us as Iranians." In June 2007, though there were reports that wealthy expatriate Jews established a fund to offer incentives to Iranian Jews to immigrate to Israel, few took them up on the offer. The Society of Iranian Jews dismissed this act as "immature political enticements" and said that their national identity was not for sale. Jews in the Islamic Republic of Iran are formally to be treated equally and free to practice their religion. There is even a seat in the Iranian parliament reserved for the representative of the Iranian Jews. However, de facto, discrimination is common.

Current status in Iran

Iran's Jewish community is officially recognized as a religious minority group by the government, and, like the Zoroastrians and Christians, they are allocated one seat in the

Iranian Parliament The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The P ...

Siamak Moreh Sedgh Siyamak More Sedgh ( fa, سیامک مره‌صدق, Siyāmak More-Sedq; born 1965) are a Iranian Jews, Jewish Iranian politician and doctor who was the holder of the Iranian Parliament's Iranian Parliament religious minority reserved seats, res ...

is the current Jewish member of the parliament, replacing

Maurice Motamed Maurice Motamed or Morris Motamed ( fa, موریس معتمد; born 1945) is an Iranian politician who was elected in 2000 and again in 2004 as a Jewish member of the Iranian Parliament (preceded by Manuchehr Eliasi and succeeded by Siamak Moreh S ...

in the 2008 election. In 2000, former Jewish MP Manuchehr Eliasi estimated that at that time there were still 60,000–85,000 Jews in Iran; most other sources put the figure at 25,000. In 2011 the Jewish population numbered 8,756 In 2016 Jewish population numbered 9,826. In 2019 the Jewish Population numbered 8,300Jewish Population by Country 2021 website
/ref> and they constitute 0.01% of Iranian population, a number confirmed by

Sergio DellaPergola Sergio Della Pergola ( he, סרג'ו דלה-פרגולה; born September 7, 1942, in Trieste, Italy) is an Italian-Israeli demographer and statistician. He is a professor and demographic expert, specifically in demography and statistics related to ...

, a leading Jewish demographer. Iranian Jews have their own newspaper (called "Ofogh-e-Bina") with Jewish scholars performing Judaic research at

's "Central Library of Jewish Association".Persian Rabbi
. Persian Rabbi. Retrieved 2011-05-29. The Dr. Sapir Jewish Hospital is

's largest charity hospital of any religious minority community in the country; however, most of its patients and staff are Muslim.Harrison, Francis (September 22, 2006).
Iran's proud but discreet Jews
'.

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

. Retrieved October 28, 2006.

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a ...

Yousef Hamadani Cohen Yusef Hamadani Cohen ( ;1916 – 29 March 2014) was the Chief Rabbi of Iran and spiritual leader for the Jewish community of Iran (Iranian Jews) between January 1994 and 2007. In August 2000, Chief Rabbi Hamadani Cohen met with Iranian Pres ...

was the spiritual leader for the Jewish community of Iran from 1994 to 2007, when he was succeeded by Mashallah Golestani-Nejad. In August 2000, Chief Rabbi Cohen met with Iranian President

Mohammad Khatami Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...

for the first time. In 2003, Chief Rabbi Cohen and Maurice Motamed met with President Khatami at

Yusef Abad Synagogue The Yusef Abad Synagogue ( fa, کنیسه یوسف آباد ''Kanise-ye Yusef Ābād'', he, בית הכנסת יוסף-אבד) is the main synagogue of Tehran, Iran. It is also one of the largest synagogues of the city. The official name of the Y ...

, which was the first time a President of Iran had visited a synagogue since the

.Report of Iranian President’s visit from Yousef-Abad Synagogue, Tehran
Iran Jewish

Haroun Yashayaei Haroun Yashayaei ( fa, هارون یشایایی) is former chairman of the board of the Tehran Jewish Committee and former leader of Iran's Jewish community. On January 26, 2006, Yashayaei's letter to the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, c ...

is the chairman of the Jewish Committee of Tehran and leader of Iran's Jewish community. On January 26, 2007, Yashayaei's letter to President

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),

concerning his Holocaust denial comments brought about worldwide media attention. The Jews of Iran have been best known for certain occupations like making gold jewelry and dealing in antiques, textiles and carpets.

Conditions

Jews are

conscripted Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

into the

Iranian Armed Forces The Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, are the combined military forces of Iran, comprising the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (''Arteš''), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (''Sepâh'') and the Law Enforcement Force (Police). Iran ...

like all Iranian citizens. Many Iranian Jews fought during the

(1980–1988) as drafted soldiers, and about 15 were killed. Most Iranian Jews say that they view Iran as their home and are allowed to practice Judaism freely, but there is suspicion and fear too. They generally hold pro-Iranian stances and refuse to go up to Israel.

Contacts with Jews outside Iran

Rabbis from the Haredi sect

Neturei Karta Neturei Karta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: , , ) is a religious group of Haredi Jews, formally created in Jerusalem, then in Mandatory Palestine, in 1938, splitting off from Agudas Yisrael. Neturei Karta opposes Zionism and calls for a "pea ...

, which has historically been opposed to the existence of Israel have visited Iran on several occasions. The Jewish Defense Organization, protested against one such visit by members of a Neturei Karta faction after they attended

International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust was a two-day conference in Tehran, Iran that opened on December 11, 2006. Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the conference sought "neither to deny nor prove t ...

in Tehran.

, a former Jewish Iranian parliamentarian states that in recent years, the Iranian government has allowed Jewish Iranians to visit their family members in Israel and it has also allowed those Iranians who are living in Israel to return to Iran for a visit. Limited cultural contacts are also allowed, such as the March 2006 Jewish folk dance festival in Russia, in which a female team from Iran participated. Thirteen Jews have been executed in Iran since the Islamic revolution, most of them were executed for their alleged connections to Israel. Among them, one of the most prominent Jews of Iran in the 1970s,

who was the head of the Iranian Jewish community was executed by a firing squad by the Islamic government shortly after the

Islamic Revolution of 1979 The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

on the charge of having been in contact with Israel, among others. In May 1998, Jewish businessman Ruhollah Kadkhodah-Zadeh was hanged in prison without a public charge or legal proceeding, apparently for assisting Jews to emigrate. Iranian Jews are generally allowed to travel to Israel and emigrate abroad, though they must submit passport and visa requests to a special section of the passport office, face restrictions on families leaving en masse, and travels to Israel must be done via a third country. However, the rate of emigration has been low. Between October 2005 and September 2006, 152 Jews left Iran, down from 297 during the same period the previous year, and 183 the year before that. Most of those who left allegedly cited economic and family reasons as their main incentives for leaving. In July 2007, Iran's Jewish community rejected financial emigration incentives to leave Iran. Offers ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 British pounds, financed by a wealthy expatriate Jew with the support of the Israeli government, were turned down by Iran's Jewish leaders. To place the incentives in perspective, the sums offered were up to 3 times or more than the average annual income for an Iranian. However, in late 2007 at least forty Iranian Jews accepted financial incentives offered by Jewish charities for immigrating to Israel. It has been asserted that the majority of Iranian Jews prefer to stay in Iran because they are allowed to live a comfortable Jewish life there, but Sam Kermanian, who served as Secretary-General of the Iranian American Jewish Federation for fifteen years, disputed this claim, stating that the majority of Iranian Jews are elderly and only speak

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, and as a result they are less naturally inclined to emigrate. According to Ran Amrani, an Iranian-born Israeli director of a Persian language radio station with close ties inside Iran, wealthy Iranian Jews won't leave because the international sanctions on Iran have so downgraded Iran's currency in value that they would see a massive drop in their standard of living in Israel, with those who own multiple homes in Iran unable to afford a single apartment in Israel, while poor Iranian Jews would find it difficult to restart their lives in Israel in middle age. Amrani claimed that while Jews are allowed to practice their religion, they live in fear of being accused of spying for Israel and that they publicly distance themselves from Israel and Zionism to ensure their own security. Opinion over the condition of Jews in Iran is divided. One Jewish voice presenting a benevolent view of the Iranian Islamic government and society toward Jews is film producer

, who says " Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini didn't mix up our community with Israel and Zionism—he saw us as Iranians."Jews in Iran Describe a Life of Freedom Despite Anti-Israel Actions by Tehran

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

, February 3, 1998 Privately, many Jews complain of "discrimination, much of it of a social or bureaucratic nature." The Islamic government appoints the officials who run Jewish schools, most of these being Muslims and requires that those schools must open on Saturdays, the

. (This has apparently been changed as of February 4, 2015.) Criticism of this policy was the downfall of the last remaining newspaper of the Iranian Jewish community which was closed in 1991 after it criticized government control of Jewish schools. Instead of expelling Jews en masse like in Libya, Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen, the Iranians have adopted a policy of keeping Jews in Iran. The desire for survival may prompt Iranian Jews to overstate their anti-Israel positions. Their response to the questions regarding Israel have been outright denial of Israel or staying quiet. An example of the dilemma of Iranian Jews can be observed in this example :"We hear the ayatollah say that Israel was cooperating with the Shah and SAVAK, and we would be fools to say we support Israel. So we just keep quiet about it... Maybe it will work out. Anyway, what can we do? This is our home." On September 23, 2021, the wife of the Rabbi of the Jews of Iran gave an interview to a Jewish newspaper

Jewish centers of Iran

Most Jews live in

, the capital.یافته های طرح آمارگیری جامع فرهنگی کشور، فضاهای فرهنگی ایران، آمارنامه اماکن مذهبی، 2003، وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی، ص 344 (Findings of a comprehensive survey of the country's cultural spaces, Iran, religious statistical report, 2003, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, p. 344) Today

has 11 functioning

s, many of them with

Hebrew schools Hebrew school is Jewish education focusing on topics of Jewish history, learning the Hebrew language, and finally learning their Torah Portion, in preparation for the ceremony in Judaism of entering adulthood, known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Heb ...

. It has two

restaurants, an old-age home and a cemetery. There is a Jewish library with 20,000 titles. Traditionally however,

Hamedan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...

, Isfahan,

Nahawand Nahavand ( fa, نهاوند, translit=Nahāvand / Nehāvend) is a city in Hamadan Province, Iran. It is the capital of Nahavand County. At the time of the 2006 census, its population was 72,218, in 19,419 families. It is located south of the ci ...

and some other cities of Iran were home to large populations of Jews. At present there are 25 synagogues in Iran.

has a Jewish population of about 1,500, consisting mostly of businesspeople. As of 2015 there were 13 synagogues, including the primary synagogue on Palestine Square. In Esfahan, many Jewish businesses are concentrated in an area called "Jewish Passage".

Legal restrictions

Iranian Jews remain under various discriminatory legal restrictions regarding their position in society. Jews are prohibited from holding significant governmental and decision-making positions. A Jew may not serve on the

Guardian Council The Guardian Council, (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, fa, شورای نگهبان, Shourā-ye Negahbān) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence i ...

, as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

, or as a military commander. Jews may not serve as judges, and aside from the seat reserved for a Jew in the

Majlis ( ar, المجلس, pl. ') is an Arabic term meaning "sitting room", used to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups of administrative, social or religious nature in countries with linguistic or cultural conne ...

, Jews may not become a member of the Majlis through general elections. A Jew may not inherit property from a Muslim. By law, if one member of a Jewish family converts to Islam, that person inherits all family property. Jews also do not have equal rights to ''

Qisas ''Qisas'' or ''Qiṣāṣ'' ( ar, قِصَاص, Qiṣāṣ, lit=accountability, following up after, pursuing or prosecuting) is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind",Mohamed S. El-Awa (1993), Punishment In Islamic Law, Amer ...

'', or retribution, in the Iranian judicial system. For example, if a Jew were to kill a Muslim, the family of the victim would have the right to ask that the death penalty be imposed, but if a Muslim kills a Jew, the penalty would be left to the discretion of the judges with the wishes of the victim's family carrying no legal weight.

Jewish education in Iran

In 1996, there were still three schools in Tehran in which Jews were in a majority, but Jewish principals had been replaced. The school curriculum is Islamic and the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

, rather than Hebrew. The

Ozar Hatorah Ozar Hatorah ( he, אוצר התורה, lit=treasure of Torah) is an organization created in 1945 to provide Orthodox Jewish education. It began by setting up schools in Mandate Palestine, and after the foundation of the modern Israeli state, it wen ...

organization conducts Hebrew lessons on Fridays. The government monitors activities in Jewish schools to ensure that the main language of education is Persian and not Hebrew. In principle, but with some exceptions, there is little restriction of or interference with the Jewish religious practice; however, education of Jewish children has become more difficult in recent years. The government reportedly allows Hebrew instruction, recognizing that it is necessary for Jewish religious practice. However, it strongly discourages the distribution of Hebrew texts, in practice making it difficult to teach the language. Moreover, the government has required that several Jewish schools remain open on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, in conformity with the schedule of other schools in the school system. Since certain kinds of work (such as writing or using electrical appliances) on the Sabbath violates Jewish law, this requirement to operate the schools has made it difficult for observant Jews both to attend school and adhere to a fundamental tenet of their religion.

Jewish sites of Iran

Many cities in Iran have Jewish or sites related to Judaism in some way. Prominent among these are

Tomb of Esther and Mordechai The Tomb of Esther and Mordechai ( fa, ''Buqʿah Ester w Murduxay'', he, קבר אסתר ומרדכי ''Qever Estēr v'Mórdǝḵay'') is a tomb located in Hamadan, Iran. Iranian Jews believe it houses the remains of the biblical Queen Esther a ...

Tomb of Daniel The Tomb of Daniel (Persian: آرامگاه دانیال نبی) is the traditional burial place of the biblical figure Daniel. Various locations have been named for the site, but the tomb in Susa, in Iran, is the most widely accepted site, it be ...

, Tomb of Habakkuk in

and the ''

Peyghambarieh Peyghambarieh (Persian: پیغمبریه) is a mosque and shrine in Qazvin, Iran. Located to the west of Chehelsotun, it was built during Safavid times and was repaired and had parts added to it in later times. There is an inscription on it howe ...

'' mausoleum in

Qazvin Qazvin (; fa, قزوین, , also Romanized as ''Qazvīn'', ''Qazwin'', ''Kazvin'', ''Kasvin'', ''Caspin'', ''Casbin'', ''Casbeen'', or ''Ghazvin'') is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. Qazvin was a capital of the ...

. There is a pilgrimage site near Isfahan (

Pir Bakran Pir Bakran ( fa, پیربکران, also Romanized as Pīr Bakrān; also known as Pīr Bāqerān; formerly known as Linjan لنجان) is a city and capital of Pir Bakran District, in Falavarjan County, Isfahan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, ...

) dedicated to

Serah {{about, , the Jewish wife of the Khazar ruler Sabriel, Serach (Khazar), the South Indian actress, Serah (actress), the type of Ancient Egyptian cartouche, Serekh, other meanings, Serach (disambiguation) Serach bat Asher was, in the Tanakh, a daugh ...

. There are also tombs of several outstanding Jewish scholars in Iran such as Harav Ohr Shraga in

and Hakham Mullah Moshe Halevi (Moshe-Ha-Lavi) in

, which are also visited by Muslim pilgrims. File:Habakuk mausoleum Tuyserkan Iran.jpg, The shrine of

Habakkuk Habakkuk, who was active around 612 BC, was a prophet whose oracles and prayer are recorded in the Book of Habakkuk, the eighth of the collected twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Almost al ...

Toyserkan Tuyserkan ( fa, تويسركان, also Romanized as Tūyserkān, Tooyserkan, Tūīsarkān, and Tūysarkān) is a city and capital of Tuyserkan County, Hamadan Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 50,455, in 16,291 families. T ...

File:Tomb of Esther and Mordechai exterior.jpg, The

File:Tomb of Daniel 1.jpg, The Shrine of

File:Peighambariyeh Qazvin.jpg, ''Peyghambarieh'' ("the place of the prophets"),

: Here, four Jewish prophets are said to be buried. Their Arabic names are ''Salam'', ''Solum'', ''al-Qiya'', and ''Sohuli''. On December 16, 2014, authorities in Tehran unveiled a monument to slain Iranian Jewish soldiers who died during the country's long and bitter war with Iraq between 1980 and 1988. Banners showed the images of fallen soldiers, hailed as "

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

s" in Farsi and Hebrew inscriptions. "We are not tenants in this country. We are Iranians, and we have been for 30 centuries," said Ciamak Moresadegh, the Iranian Jewish parliamentarian. "There is a distinction between us as Jews and Israel," added a shopkeeper in the historic city of Isfahan. "We consider ourselves Iranian Jews, and it has nothing to do with Israel whatsoever. This is the country we love."

Demographics

The

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

estimated that in 1900 there were 35,000 Persian Jews in Iran (almost all of whom lived in present-day Iran), although other sources estimate somewhat higher numbers for the same time. On the eve of Israel's

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

in 1948, there were, by varying estimates, 100,000–150,000 Jews in Iran with relatively few Persian Jews residing outside the country. Today, there are an estimated 300,000–350,000 Jews of full or partial Persian ancestry living predominantly in Israel, with significant communities in the United States and Iran. Iranian Jews also emigrated to form smaller communities in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

(in particular Paris and London), and in Australia, Canada, and South America. A number of groups of Jews of Persia have split off since ancient times. They have been identified as separate communities, such as the

Mountain Jews Mountain Jews or Caucasus Jews also known as Juhuro, Juvuro, Juhuri, Juwuri, Juhurim, Kavkazi Jews or Gorsky Jews ( he, יהודי קווקז ''Yehudey Kavkaz'' or ''Yehudey he-Harim''; russian: Горские евреи, translit=Gorskie Yevrei ...

. In addition, there are a large number of people in Iran who are, or who are the direct descendants of, Jews who converted to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

or the

Baháʼí faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

Iran

Iran's Jewish population was reduced from 150,000 to 100,000 in 1948 to about 80,000 immediately before the

, due mostly to

immigration to Israel Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally describe ...

. While immigration to Israel had slowed in the 1970s and the Jewish population of Iran had stabilized, the majority of Iran's remaining Jews left the country in the aftermath of the overthrow of the

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

. In the 2000s, the Jewish population of Iran was estimated by most sources to be 25,000, (sources date from 2006, 2007, and 2008, respectively) though estimates varied, with some as high as 40,000 in 1998. and some as low as 17,000 by 2010 However, the official census in August 2012 indicated that there were only 8,756 Jews still living in Iran.Iran young, urbanized and educated population: census
Al Arabiya In the 2016 Iranian census, the remaining Jewish population of Iran was 9,826 As of 2021, only 8,500 Jews still live in Iran.Jewish Population by Country 2021 website
/ref> After Israel, it is home to the second-largest Jewish population in the Middle East. Notable population centers include Tehran, Isfahan (1,200), and

. Historically, Jews maintained a presence in many more Iranian cities. Jews are protected in the Iranian constitution and allowed one seat in the

Israel

The largest group of Persian Jews is found in

. As of 2007, Israel is home to just over 47,000 Iranian-born Jews and roughly 87,000 Israeli-born Jews with fathers born in Iran. While these numbers add up to about 135,000, when Israelis with more distant or solely maternal Iranian roots are included the total number of Persian Jews in Israel is estimated to be between 200,000-250,000.Why are people going to Iran?
Jpost.com. Retrieved 2011-05-29. A June 2009 ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' blog article about Iranian-Israeli Jews showing solidarity with the Iranian protestors said, "The Israeli community of Iranian Jews numbers about 170,000 – including the first generation of Israeli-born – and is deeply proud of its roots."ISRAEL: Iranian Jews show solidarity with Iranian protesters, Babylon & Beyond, Los Angeles Times
Latimesblogs.latimes.com (2009-06-23). Retrieved 2011-05-09. The largest concentration of Persian Jews in Israel is found in the city

Holon Holon ( he, חוֹלוֹן ) is a city on the central coastal strip of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the metropolitan Gush Dan area. In it had a population of . Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa. ...

. In

, Persian Jews are classified as

Mizrahim Mizrahi Jews ( he, יהודי המִזְרָח), also known as ''Mizrahim'' () or ''Mizrachi'' () and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or ''Edot HaMizrach'' (, ), are a grouping of Jewish communities comprising those who remained i ...

. Both former

Moshe Katsav Moshe Katsav ( he, מֹשֶׁה קַצָּב; born 5 December 1945) is an Israeli former politician who was the eighth President of Israel from 2000 to 2007. He was also a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset and a minister in its cabine ...

and former

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

and former head of the opposition in the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

Shaul Mofaz Shaul Mofaz ( he, שאול מופז; 4 November 1948) is a retired Israeli military officer and politician. He joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1966 and served in the Paratroopers Brigade. He fought in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, 1982 Le ...

are of Persian Jewish origin. Katsav was born in

and Mofaz was born in

. Since at least the 1980s, Persian Jews in Israel have traditionally tended to vote

Likud Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon ...

The United States

The United States is home to 60,000–80,000 Iranian Jews, most of whom have settled in the

Greater Los Angeles area Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Coun ...

, in

Great Neck, New York Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck (village), New York, Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, New York, Great Neck Es ...

and

. Those in metropolitan Los Angeles have settled mostly in the affluent Westside cities of

and

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

and the Los Angeles Westside neighborhoods of Brentwood, Westwood, and West L.A., as well as the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

communities of Tarzana and Encino.

Beverly Hills

In particular, Persian Jews make up a sizeable proportion of the population of

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

.Iranian Jews Find a Beverly Hills Refuge : Immigrants: Khomeini's revolution drove 40,000 of them into exile. At least 30,000 may live in or near the city that symbolizes weal
Articles.latimes.com (1990-02-13). Retrieved 2021-10-05. Persian Jews constitute a great percentage of the 26% of the total population of Beverly Hills that identifies as

Iranian-American Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...

.Universe: Total population more information 2006–2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
Factfinder2.census.gov Following the 1979

, tens of thousands of Persian Jews migrated from Iran, forming one of the wealthiest waves of immigrants to ever come to the United States. The community is credited with revitalizing Beverly Hills and re-developing its architecture, and for the development of ornate mansions across the city. According to the US Census Bureau's 2010

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is a demographics survey program conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census, such as ancestry, citizenship, educati ...

, 26% of Beverly Hills' 34,000 residents are of Iranian origin. On March 21, 2007, Jimmy Delshad, a Persian Jew who immigrated to the United States in 1958, became the Mayor of Beverly Hills. This election made Delshad one of the highest ranking elected Iranian-American officials in the United States. He once again took the post of mayor of Beverly Hills on March 16, 2010. Prominent Persian Jewish congregations in the Los Angeles area include

Nessah Synagogue The Nessah Synagogue is a Sephardic synagogue in Beverly Hills, California. History The synagogue was established in 1980 for the immigration of Persian Jews to Los Angeles County, shortly after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.Karmel MelamedIran ...

and the Eretz-Siamak Cultural Center. Persian Jews also constitute a large part of the membership at Sinai Temple in Westwood, one of the largest

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

congregations in the United States. The Iranian American Jewish Federation (IAJF) of Los Angeles is a prominent non-profit organization that has been serving the Iranian Jewish community of Greater Los Angeles for the last forty-one years. IAJF is a leading organization in their efforts to fight local and global Antisemitism, protect Iranian Jews domestically and abroad, promote a unified community, participating in social and public affairs, provide financial and psychosocial assistance to those in need through philanthropic activities, and more.

New York

Kings Point, a village constituting part of Great Neck, has the greatest percentage of Iranians in the United States (approximately 40%). Unlike the Iranian community in Los Angeles, which contains a large number of non-Jewish Iranians, the Iranian population in and around Great Neck is almost entirely Jewish. Several thousand of the Great Neck area's 10,000 Persian Jews trace their origins to the Iranian city of

Mashad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province and has a po ...

, constituting the largest Mashadi community in the United States. Many Mashadi

crypto-Jews Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek ''kryptos'' – , 'hidden'). The term is especially applied historically to Sp ...

made their Jewish observances more public again following the rise of the secular

upon performing them privately for almost a century. The Mashadi community in Great Neck operates its own synagogues and community centers, and members typically marry within the community. The Iranian American Jewish Federation (IAJF) of New York has been serving the Iranian Jewish community for the last sixteen years. The organisation's goal is to be a unifier amongst Iranian Jews in the Greater New York metropolitan area and engagement in philanthropic activities.

Related Jewish communities

Mountain Jews

The

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

and the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

(primarily

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...

) are direct descendants of Persian Jews. They took shape as a community after

Qajar Iran Qajar Iran (), also referred to as Qajar Persia, the Qajar Empire, '. Sublime State of Persia, officially the Sublime State of Iran ( fa, دولت علیّه ایران ') and also known then as the Guarded Domains of Iran ( fa, ممالک م ...

ceded the areas in which they lived to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

as part of the

Treaty of Gulistan The Treaty of Gulistan (russian: Гюлистанский договор; fa, عهدنامه گلستان) was a peace treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and Iran on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gulistan (now in the Goranboy Distri ...

of 1813. However, they maintained a Judeo-Persian language that shares a great deal of vocabulary and structure with

modern Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thre ...

. Most Azerbaijani Jews have immigrated to Israel since Azerbaijan gained independence.

Bukharan Jews

Bukharan Jews Bukharan Jews ( Bukharian: יהודיאני בוכארא/яҳудиёни Бухоро, ''Yahudiyoni Bukhoro''; he, יהודי בוכרה, ''Yehudey Bukhara''), in modern times also called Bukharian Jews ( Bukharian: יהודיאני בוכאר ...

traditionally speak a dialect of Judeo-Persian and lived mainly in the former emirate of

Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...

(present day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). Most Bukharan Jews have immigrated to Israel or the United States since the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Lakhloukh Jews

There are estimated to be approximately four dozen Persian Jewish families living in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, which call themselves Lakhloukh and speak

. They still hold identity papers from Iran, the country their ancestors left almost 80 years ago. These Persian Jews lived near the border of Iran and commonly practiced trade to sustain their communities. The most popular Lakhloukh Jewish family being the Malihi family, whom are all descendants of Jaha Malihi (A noble in the Persian Empire)

Languages

Most Persian Jews speak standard

as their primary tongue, but various

Jewish languages Jewish languages are the various Language, languages and Dialect, dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the Jewish diaspora, diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following th ...

have been associated with the community over time. They include: *

Dzhidi Judeo-Persian refers to both a group of Jewish dialects spoken by the Jews living in Iran and Judeo-Persian texts (written in Hebrew alphabet). As a collective term, Judeo-Persian refers to a number of Judeo-Iranian languages spoken by Jewish com ...

(Judæo-Persian) *

Bukhori Bukharian (autonym: Bukhori, Hebrew script: בוכארי, Cyrillic: бухорӣ, Latin: ''Buxorī'') is a Judeo-Persian dialect historically spoken by Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. It is a Jewish dialect derived from —and largely mutually in ...

(Judæo-Bukharic) * Judæo-Golpaygani * Judæo-Shirazi * Judæo-Hamedani *

Juhuri language Judeo-Tat or Juhuri (''cuhuri'', , ) is the traditional language of the Mountain Jews of the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan and Dagestan, now mainly spoken in Israel. The language is a dialect of Persian which belongs to the ...

(Judæo-Tat) In addition, Persian Jews in Israel generally speak

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, and Persian Jews elsewhere will tend to speak the local language (e.g. English in the United States) with sprinkles of

and Hebrew. Many Jews from the Northwest area of Iran speak

Lishán Didán The Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmia is a dialect of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic was originally spoken by Jews in Urmia and surrounding areas of Iranian Azerbaijan from Salmas to Solduz and into what is now eastern Turkey, Yüksekova and Başka ...

or other various dialects of Jewish Neo-Aramaic. Jews from

, and some other cities all speak various dialects that may or may not be intelligible to each other. There are less than 5,000 known speakers today and the language faces extinction in the next few decades.

Genetics

Genetic studies Genetic analysis is the overall process of studying and researching in fields of science that involve genetics and molecular biology. There are a number of applications that are developed from this research, and these are also considered parts of ...

show that Persian and Iraqi Jews form a distinct cluster amongst the Jewish People and that the

MtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...

of Persian Jews and

descend from a small number of female ancestors. Another study of L. Hao et al. studied seven groups of Jewish populations with different geographic origin (Ashkenazi, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi, and Syrian) and showed that the individuals all shared a common Middle Eastern background, although they were also genetically distinguishable from each other. In public comments,

Harry Ostrer Harry Ostrer is a medical geneticist who investigates the genetic basis of common and rare disorders. In the diagnostic laboratory, he translates the findings of genetic discoveries into tests that can be used to identify people's risks for dise ...

, the director of the Human Genetics Program at NYU

Langone Medical Center NYU Langone Health is an academic medical center located in New York City, New York, United States. The health system consists of NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Long Island School of Medicine, both part of New York University (NYU), and m ...

, and one of the authors of this study, concluded, "We have shown that Jewishness can be identified through genetic analysis, so the notion of a Jewish people is plausible." An autosomal DNA study carried out in 2010 by Atzmon et al. examined the origin of Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Turkish, Greek, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi Jewish communities. The study compared these Jewish groups with 1043 unrelated individuals from 52 worldwide populations. To further examine the relationship between Jewish communities and European populations, 2407 European subjects were assigned and divided into 10 groups based on geographic region of their origin. This study confirmed previous findings of shared Middle Eastern origin of the above Jewish groups and found that "the genetic connections between the Jewish populations became evident from the frequent IBD across these Jewish groups (63% of all shared segments). Jewish populations shared more and longer segments with one another than with non-Jewish populations, highlighting the commonality of Jewish origin. Among pairs of populations ordered by total sharing, 12 out of the top 20 were pairs of Jewish populations, and "none of the top 30 paired a Jewish population with a non-Jewish one". Atzmon concludes that "Each Jewish group demonstrated Middle Eastern ancestry and variable admixture from host population, while the split between Middle Eastern and European/Syrian Jews, calculated by simulation and comparison of length distributions of IBD segments, occurred 100–150 generations ago, which was described as "compatible with a historical divide that is reported to have occurred more than 2500 years ago" as the Jewish community in Iraq and Iran were formed by Jews in the Babylonian and Persian empires during and after Babylonian exile. The main difference between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi/Sephardic Jews was the absence of Southern European components in the former. According to these results, European/Syrian Jewish populations, including the Ashkenazi Jewish community, were formed latter, as a result of the expulsion and migration of Jews from the

, during Roman rule. Concerning Ashkenazi Jews, this study found that genetic dates "are incompatible with theories that Ashkenazi Jews are for the most part the direct lineal descendants of converted

Khazars The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

". Citing Behar, Atzmon states that "Evidence for founder females of Middle Eastern origin has been observed in all Jewish populations based on non overlapping mitochondrial haplotypes with coalescence times >2000 years". The closest people related to Jewish groups were the

Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

Bedouins The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arabs, Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert ...

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

, and

Italians , flag = , flag_caption = The national flag of Italy , population = , regions = Italy 55,551,000 , region1 = Brazil , pop1 = 25–33 million , ref1 = , region2 ...

. Regarding this relationship, the authors conclude that "These observations are supported by the significant overlap of Y chromosomal haplogroups between Israeli and Palestinian Arabs with Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jewish populations". In 2011, Moorjani et al. detected 3%–5% sub-Saharan African ancestry in all eight of the diverse Jewish populations (Ashkenazi Jews, Syrian Jews, Iranian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Greek Jews, Turkish Jews, Italian Jews) that they analyzed. The timing of this African admixture among all Jewish populations was identical The exact date was not determined, but it was estimated to have taken place between 1,600 (

4th Century AD The 4th century (per the Julian calendar and Anno Domini/Common era) was the time period which lasted from 301 ( CCCI) through 400 ( CD). In the West, the early part of the century was shaped by Constantine the Great, who became the first Roman ...

) and 3,400 (

14th Century BC The 14th century BC was the century that lasted from the year 1400 BC until 1301 BC. Events * 1350 – 1250 BC: The Bajío phase of the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, San Lorenzo site in Mexico; large public buildings are constructed. * Pastoral nom ...

) years ago. Although African admixture was determined among South Europeans and Near Eastern population too, this admixture was found to be younger compared to the Jewish populations. This findings the authors explained as evidence regarding common origin of these 8 main Jewish groups. "It is intriguing that the Mizrahi Irani and Iraqi Jews—who are thought to descend at least in part from Jews who were exiled to Babylon about 2,600 years ago share the signal of African admixture. A parsimonious explanation for these observations is that they reflect a history in which many of the Jewish groups descend from a common ancestral population which was itself admixed with Africans (most likely Ancient Egyptians), prior to the beginning of the Jewish diaspora that occurred in 8th to 6th century BC" the authors concludes.

Medical conditions

Patients with prolonged paralysis following administration of the anaesthetic succinylcholine are often diagnosed with Pseudocholinesterase which is a clinically silent condition in individuals who are not exposed to exogenous sources of choline esters. One possible outcome beyond prolonged general paralysis is paralysis of the muscles control respiratory function. This condition is found in the general population at a rate of 1 in 3000, while the condition is found in Persian Jews at a rate of 1 in 10.

List of Persian Jews

TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015 - Day 2 (16757057914)

Biblical

Mordechai Mordecai (; also Mordechai; , IPA: ) is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He is described as being the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin. He was promoted to Vizier after Haman was killed. Biblical acco ...

Zerubbabel According to the biblical narrative, Zerubbabel, ; la, Zorobabel; Akkadian: 𒆰𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 ''Zērubābili'' was a governor of the Achaemenid Empire's province Yehud Medinata and the grandson of Jeconiah, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbab ...

Pre-modern era

Mashallah ibn Athari ''Mashallah'' ( ar, مَا شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ, '), also written Masha'Allah, Maşallah (Turkey and Azerbaijan), Masya Allah (Malaysia and Indonesia), Maschallah (Germany), and Mašallah (Bosnia), is an Arabic phrase that is used to expres ...

– Persian astrologer and astronomer * Sa'ad al-Dawla – physician and statesman * Rashid al-Din – doctor, writer, and historian *

Benjamin Nahawandi Benjamin Nahawandi or Benjamin ben Moses Nahawendi ( fa, بنیامین نهاوندی ''Nahāwandī''; he, בנימין אלנהאונדי) was a prominent Persian Jewish scholar of Karaite Judaism. He was claimed to be one of the greatest of th ...

– Karaite scholar of the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Meulana Shahin Shirazi Shāhin-i Shirāzi ( fa, شاهین شیرازی, born in Shiraz in the Ilkhanate, now in Iran) was a Persian Jewish poet in the 14th century. Biography The details surrounding his biography are not clear. It is known that he worked during the r ...

– early Persian poet * Muhammad ibn Muhammad Tabrizi – philosopher and translator, converted to Islam *

Munabbih ibn Kamil Munabbih ibn Kamil ibn Sirajud-Din Dhee Kibaar Abu-Abdullah al-Yamani al-San'ani was a companion ( ar, Sahaba, script=Latn) of Muhammad. He been converted to Islam in the lifetime of Muhammad.Jewish Encyclopediabr> using the following as Bibliogra ...

- a companion of

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

, converted to Islam *

Abu Ubaidah ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Jarrāḥ ( ar, عامر بن عبدالله بن الجراح; 583–639 CE), better known as Abū ʿUbayda ( ar, أبو عبيدة ) was a Muslim commander and one of the Sahabah, Companions of the Prophets ...

- religious scholar *

Ibn al-Rawandi Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Ishaq al-Rawandi ( ar, أبو الحسن أحمد بن يحيى بن إسحاق الراوندي), commonly known as Ibn al-Rawandi ( ar, ابن الراوندي;‎ 827–911 CEAl-Zandaqa Wal Zanadiqa, by Moham ...

- prominent philosopher, religious scholar *

Shushandukht Shushandukht ( pal, 𐭱𐭩𐭱𐭩𐭭𐭲𐭥𐭤𐭲 ''Šīšīntūḥt''; New Persian: ''Šušanduxt'') was the wife of Yazdegerd I and mother of Bahram V. She was the daughter of a Jewish exilarch, Huna bar Nathan. She created the Jewish nei ...

- Sassanian queen consort, mother of

Bahram V Bahram V (also spelled Wahram V or Warahran V; pal, 𐭥𐭫𐭧𐭫𐭠𐭭), also known as Bahram Gor (New Persian: , "Bahram the onager") was the Sasanian King of Kings (''shahanshah'') from 420 to 438. The son of the incumbent Sasanian shah ...

- Sassanid noblewoman, mother of

Maryam Khanom Maryam Khanom Bani Isra'il () was the royal consort of shah Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (r. 1789–1797) and then the thirty-ninth royal consort of shah Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797–1834). She was from Māzandarān and of Jewish origin, and so is ...

- Qajar royal consort *

Masarjawaih Māsarjawaih ( ar, ماسرجويه) was one of the earliest Jewish physicians of Persian origin, and the earliest translator from the Syriac; he lived in Basra about 683 ( Anno Hegirae 64). His name, distorted, has been transmitted in European so ...

- Persian physician *

Abu Isa Abu Isa (also known as ''Ovadiah'', Ishaq ibn Ya'qub al-Isfahani, Isaac ibn Jacob al-Isfahani) was a self-proclaimed Jewish prophet sometime in the 8th century CE in Persia and the leader of a short-lived revolt. Proclaimed by some of his followers ...

- self-proclaimed Jewish prophet *

Mar-Zutra II Mar-Zutra II was a Jewish Exilarch who led a revolt against the Sasanian rulers in 495 CE and achieved seven years of political independence in Mahoza. Mar-Zutra II became Exilarch of the Jewish community in Babylon at the age of fifteen in 483 CE ...

- Jewish exilarch *

Qavam family The Ghavam (Qavam) family ( fa, خاندان قوام شیرازی) was one of the most influential Iranian families in the Qajar dynasty, Qajar era (1785–1925). They were descendants of Haj Ebrahim Khan Kalantar. Many sources such as British secr ...

- one of the most influential families during the

* Imrani - Persian poet * Yudghan - religious leader from Hamadan *

Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi Mirza Abolhassan Khan Shirazi Ilchi Kabir ( fa, میرزا ابوالحسن خان شیرازی ایلچی کبیر) was an Iranian statesman who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1824 to 1834, and then again from 1838 until his death ...

- Iranian statesman, served as ambassador and the Minister of Foreign Affairs *

Baba'i ben Lotf Baba'i ben Lotf ( fa, بابائی بن لطف; died after 1662) was a Iranian Jews, Jewish poet and historian in 17th-century Safavid dynasty, Safavid Iran. He lived in Kashan, where he probably originally hailed from, and was the author of the f ...

- Persian poet, author of the first

Judeo-Persian Judeo-Persian refers to both a group of Jewish dialects spoken by the Jews living in Iran and Judeo-Persian texts (written in Hebrew alphabet). As a collective term, Judeo-Persian refers to a number of Judeo-Iranian languages spoken by Jewish com ...

chronicle * Anan ben David - founder of the Karaite Movement * Daniel al-Kumisi - prominent scholar of

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Aphrahat Aphrahat (c. 280–c. 345; syr, ܐܦܪܗܛ ''Ap̄rahaṭ'', ar, أفراهاط الحكيم, , grc, Ἀφραάτης, and Latin ''Aphraates'') was a Syriac Christian author of the third century from the Persian / Sasanian Empire who composed a ...

- Persian saint, converted to Christianity

Politics and military

David Alliance, Baron Alliance David Alliance, Baron Alliance, ( fa, داوود آلیانس, he, דייוויד אליאנס; born 15 June 1932) is an Iranian-British businessman and Liberal Democrat politician of Iranian origin. Personal David Alliance (originally Davo ...

– Iranian-born British businessman;

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

politician *

Michael Ben-Ari Michael Ben-Ari ( he, מיכאל בן ארי, born 12 October 1963) is an Israeli politician, and former member of the Knesset. During the 2009 Israeli legislative election, 18th Knesset, Ben Ari was a member of the National Union (Israel), Nati ...

– Israeli politician and current member of the

* Makan Delrahim –

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for the

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under the Trump Administration * Jimmy Delshad – former two-term mayor of

* Manuchehr Eliasi – former Jewish member of the Majlis *

Eitan Ben Eliyahu Aluf Eitan Ben Eliyahu (born 1944)Melman, Yossi and Javedanfar, Meir. ''The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran.'' Basic Books, 2008. pp. 187–188. is a retired major general in the Israel Defense Forces and was the Commander of the Israeli Air Force ...

– former Major General in the Israeli Defence Forces *

Saeed Emami Saeed Emami ( fa, سعید امامی; né Saeed Eslami; (1958–1999) was the Iranian deputy minister of intelligence under Ali Fallahian, and adviser to the Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi. He was appointed as deputy minister in security affairs an ...

– former conservative Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Intelligence (convert to Islam) *

Naser Makarem Shirazi Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi (, born 25 February 1927 in Shiraz, Iran) is an Iranian Shia ''marja and religious leader. Biography He was born in the city of Shiraz, Iran. According to his website, his father was Ali Mohammad, his gr ...

- Iranian Shia religious leader (convert to Islam) *

Reza Hekmat Reza Hekmat ( fa, رضا حکمت; 1891 – 15 March 1978) was a Prime Minister of Iran. He became Prime Minister of Iran on 18 December 1947 and was in office until 29 December 1947 for only 11 days. He was a speaker of Parliament of Iran fro ...

- Prime Minister of Iran (convert to Islam) * Aziz Daneshrad - political activist *

Dan Halutz Dan Halutz ( he, דן חלוץ, ; born August 7, 1948) is an Israeli Air Force lieutenant general and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and commander of the Israeli Air Force. Halutz served as chief of staff in 2005–2007. Biog ...

– former

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of the

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– American politician and current member of the

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– former President of Israel *

– former Israeli

; current chairman of the

Kadima Kadima ( he, קדימה, lit=''Forward'') was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely following the implementation of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan ...

Party in the Knesset *

– former Jewish member of the Majlis of Iran *

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– former head of the

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Abie Nathan Avraham "Abie" Nathan ( he, אברהם "אייבי" נתן, 29 April 1927 – 27 August 2008) was an Israeli humanitarian and peace activist. He founded the Voice of Peace radio station. When he died the president of Israel Shimon Peres said about ...

– humanitarian and peace activist *

– Jewish member of the Majlis of Iran *

– chairman of the board of the Tehran Jewish Committee and leader of Iran's Jewish community *

Mordechai Zar Mordechai Zar ( he, מרדכי זר; fa, مُردِخای زر, born 14 January 1914, died 15 November 1982) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapai and its successors between 1959 and 1974. Biography Born in M ...

– Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset *

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– Deputy

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at the

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* Dalya Attar - American politician * Moshfegh Hamadani - political journalist *

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- attorney and politician * Esther Shkalim - Israeli poet, researcher * Shmuel Hayyim - journalist, politician *

Shula Keshet Shula Kehset (in Hebrew: שולה קשת; born on August 2, 1959) is an Israeli social and political activist and entrepreneur, Mizrahi feminist, artist, curator, writer, educator, and publisher; one of the founders and the executive director ...

- political activist and writer *

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner Nitsana Darshan-Leitner () is an Israeli attorney, human rights activist, and the founder of Shurat HaDin Israeli Law Center. As the president of the Shurat HaDin–Israel Law Center, she has represented hundreds of terror victims in legal acti ...

- attorney, activist * Meirav Ben-Ari - Israeli politician, member of the

Sharon Nazarian Dr. Sharon Nazarian is an Iranian-born American social activist, academic and philanthropist. She is currently the Senior Vice President, International Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League. Early life Dr. Sharon Nazarian was born in Tehran, Ir ...

- Iranian-born Senior Vice President of International Affairs for the ADL *

David Rokni David Rokni ( he, דוד רוקני, (born January 6, 1932) is an Israeli colonel. He became an Israeli icon as the commander of the annual Israel Independence Day torch lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem for nearly four decades. Bio ...

- Israeli colonel *

Galit Distel-Atbaryan Galit Distel-Atbaryan ( he, גַּלִּית דִּיסְטֶל־אַטְבַּרְיָאן, born 10 January 1971) is an Israeli writer and politician. She is currently a member of the Knesset for Likud. Biography Distel-Atbaryan was born in Je ...

- Israeli politician, member of the Knesset *

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- former Israeli politician *

Sharon Roffe Ofir Sharon Roffe Ofir (born 16 December 1970) is an Israeli journalist and politician. She served as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu in 2022, a position she previously held from 2021 to 2022. Roffe Ofir was also a deputy mayor of Kiryat ...

- Israeli journalist and politician * Payam Akhavan - international lawyer (convert to the Bahá’í faith) * David Peyman - attorney, worked for the

Science and academia

* Abbas Amanat – professor of history at Yale University (born to a family of Jewish descent that converted to the Baháʼí Faith) * Shaul Bakhash – professor of Iranian studies at George Mason University * Aaron Cohen-Gadol – neurosurgeon specializing in surgical treatment of brain tumors and aneurysms * Pejman Salimpour - professor, physician * Pedram Salimpour - physician, entrepreneur * Farshid Delshad – historical-comparative linguistics in German language, German * Avshalom Elitzur – physicist and philosopher * Soleiman Haim – compiled an early and influential Persian language dictionary * Hakim Yazghel Haqnazar – court physician * Habib Levy – historian best known for his extensive research on the history of Jews in Iran; author of ''Comprehensive History of the Jews of Iran: The Outset of the Diaspora''. * Amnon Netzer – professor of the history and culture of Iranian Jews * Samuel Rahbar – discoverer of HbA1C * David B. Samadi – expert in Robotic surgery, robotic oncology * Saba Soomekh – professor of religious studies and Middle Eastern History at UCLA, and author of books on Iranian Jewish culture * Ehsan Yarshater – historian & founder of the Encyclopedia Iranica (born to Jewish parents who converted to the Baháʼí Faith) * Moussa B. H. Youdim - Israeli neurologist, neuropharmacologist * Babak Azizzadeh - prominent cosmetic surgeon * Armin Tehrany - orthopedic surgeon * Simon Ourian - World-renowned plastic surgeon

Business and economics

* David Alliance – British businessman * Asadollah Asgaroladi – Iranian billionaire (convert to Islam) * Habibollah Asgaroladi – leading Iranian conservative politician (convert to Islam) * J. Darius Bikoff – founder and CEO of Energy Brands * Kiana Danial – personal investing and wealth management expert, CEO of Invest Diva * Mandana Dayani - attorney, entrepreneur * Henry Elghanayan - real estaste developer New York City *

– prominent businessman executed by the Islamic Republic * Ghermezian family – billionaire shopping mall developers * Kamran Hakim – real estate developer in New York City * Neil Kadisha – businessman * Nasser David Khalili – billionaire property developer and art collector * Khwaja Israel Sarhad and Khwaja Fanous Kalantar, landowners, diplomats, and tycoons hailing from Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran (New Julfa) (see Khwaja). * Isaac Larian – American billionaire, chief executive officer of MGA Entertainment * Saul Maslavi – president and CEO of Jovani Fashion * Justin Mateen – co-founder and former chief marketing officer of Tinder (app), Tinder dating app * David Merage – co-founder of Hot Pockets snack food company * Paul Merage – co-founder of Hot Pockets snack food company * Joseph Moinian, New York City real estate developer * Fred Ohebshalom – founder of Empire Management Real Estate * Joseph Parnes – investment advisor * Sean Rad – co-founder and former CEO of Tinder (app), Tinder dating app * Nouriel Roubini – economist * Ben Shaoul – co-founder of Magnum Real Estate Group * Joel Simkhai – founder of Grindr dating app * Eli Zelkha – entrepreneur, venture capitalist, professor, and inventor of ambient intelligence * Mahbod Moghadam - co-founder of Everipedia, co-founder of Genius (website), Genius * Sam Mizrahi - Canadian real estate developer * Victor Haghani - American financier * Ezri Namvar - Iranian-born businessman and convicted criminal * Fraydun Manocherian - Manhattan real estate developer * Erwin David Rabhan - businessman, longtime friend of Jimmy Carter * Richard Saghian - Founder of Fashion Nova * Daniel Negari - founder of .xyz, .xyz domain * Hootan Yaghoobzadeh - co-founder of Staple Street Capital * Jon Bakhshi - American restauranter * Kohan Retail Investment Group, Mike Kohan - founder of Kohan Retail Investment Group * Habib Sabet - prominent Iranian industrialist (convert to the Bahá’í Faith) * Essie Sakhai - art dealer, businessman * Ely Sakhai - art dealer, owner of several Lower Manhattan art galleries * Sasson Khakshouri - businessman, founder of the international Kremlin Cup * Jack Mahfar - Iranian-born businessman * Assadollah Rashidian - businessman, played a critical role in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, 1953 Overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh * Albert Hakim - businessman, figure in the Iran-Contra affair * Manucher Ghorbanifar - former SAVAK agent, central figure in the Iran-Contra affair * Mike Amiri - American fashion designer * Sam Eshaghoff - American real estate developer

Art and entertainment

* Isaac Larian - creator of Bratz dolls * Dan Ahdoot – stand-up comedian * Jonathan Ahdout – actor * Hossein Amanat – architect, designer of the Azadi Tower in Tehran (born to a family of Jewish descent that converted to the Baháʼí Faith) *Jojo Anavim - artist *Yossi Banai – Israeli performer, singer, and actor *Richard Danielpour – composer * Yuval Delshad- film director * David Diaan – actor, producer, screenwriter *Irán Eory - Iranian-born Mexican actress and model *Chohreh Feyzdjou - French-Iranian painter *Hamid Gabbay - Iranian-born architect *Roya Hakakian – writer and poet *Mor Karbasi – singer *Kamran Khavarani - architect, painter *Harmony Korine - director, screenwriter *Ben Maddahi - prominent American music executive *Faranak Margolese – writer, best known as author of ''Off the Derech'' *Jamie Masada – comedian and businessman. Founder of the Laugh Factory * Heshmat Moayyad - writer, translator (convert to Bahá’í Faith) * Dora Levy Mossanen – author of historical fiction * Moze Mossanen - Canadian film director and producer * Ottessa Moshfegh - American author * Gina Nahai – writer *Morteza Neidavoud - musician * Adi Nes – photographer *Dorit Rabinyan - Israeli writer, screenwriter * Rita (Israeli singer), Rita – Israeli pop star *Maer Roshan - writer, entrepreneur *Hooshang Seyhoun - prominent Iranian architect (convert to the Bahá’í Faith) *Lior Shamriz - filmmaker * Shahram Shiva – performance poet * Dalia Sofer – writer *Sarah Solemani - English actress * Bahar Soomekh – Iranian-born American actress * Tami Stronach – choreographer * Subliminal (rapper), Subliminal – Israeli hip-hop singer * The Shadow (rapper), The Shadow – Israeli hip-hop singer and right-wing activist * Elie Tahari – high-end fashion designer * Shaun Toub – Iranian-born American actor, recipient of the Sephard award at the Los Angeles Sephardic Film Festival * Elham Yaghoubian- writer * Bob Yari – film producer

Religion

* Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron – previous Sephardi Jews, Sephardic Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Chief Rabbi of Israel * Shmuley Boteach – American rabbi *

– former chief rabbi of Iran * Uriel Davidi – former chief rabbi of Iran * Mashallah Golestani-Nejad – current chief rabbi of Iran * Lutfu'lláh Hakím – Baháʼí leader (born to a family of Jewish descent that converted to the Baháʼí Faith) * Menahem Shemuel Halevy – Iranian rabbi * Yedidia Shofet – former chief rabbi of Iran * Younes Hamami Lalehzar - prominent religious leader * Eliyahu Ben Haim - Sephardic rabbi * Ben Zion Abba Shaul - rabbi, religious scholar * Ezra Zion Melamed - biblical scholar

Miscellaneous

* Menashe Amir – Persian-language broadcaster in Israel * Soleyman Binafard – wrestler * Hanina Mizrahi - educator, public figure * Ezra Frech - American Paralympic athlete * Janet Kohan-Sedq – track and field athlete * Shamsi Hekmat – women's rights activist who pioneered reforms on Women in Iran, women's status in Iran. Founded the first Iranian Jewish women's organization (''Sazman Banovan Yahud i Iran'') in 1947. * Leandra Medine, author, blogger, and humor writer best known for Man Repeller, an independent fashion and lifestyle website * Homa Sarshar – journalist, author, and feminist activist. Columnist for ''Zan-e-Ruz'' magazine Kayhan daily newspaper (1964–1973). * Albert Elay Shaltiel – philanthropist, founder and director of ILAI Fund * Houshang Mashian - Iranian-Israeli chess master * Eliezer Kashani - member of Irgun * Akhzivland, Eli Avivi - founder of the micronation Akhzivland

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * "Iran. 1997" (1997). ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed. Cecil Roth. Keter Publishing House. * * * * * * * * Karmel Melamed
Persian Jews politicking on Rodeo Drive
''JTA International Wire News Service'', February 20, 2007. * Houman M. Sarshar: ''The Jews of Iran. The History, Religion, and Culture of a Community in the Islamic World''. I.B. Tauris, London/New York 2014,

External links

Sephardic Studies, Iran

History of the Iranian Jews
* *
Former Jewish Ghetto in Tehran
; Media *

Iranian Jewish Chronicle Magazine

Iran Chamber Society ''The Cyrus Prism: The Decree of return for the Jews, 539 BCE''
edited by Charles F. Horne,

*[https://haifa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/collectionDiscovery?vid=HAU&inst=972HAI_MAIN&collectionId=81198552700002791&lang=en_US Cenrer for Iranian Jewish Oral History Archive] on the Digital collections of Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa ; Miscellaneous
Tehran Jewish Committee

persian Jewish TV Committee
{{authority control Iranian Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Sephardi Jews topics Jewish ethnic groups Jews and Judaism in Persia and Iran, Ethnic groups in the Middle East