Posted on 01/14/2019 11:14:29 AM PST by OddLane
Among the world’s endangered minorities, Iranian Jews are an anomaly. Like their counterparts, their conditions categorically refute all the efforts their nation makes at seeming civilized and egalitarian—and so they embody, often without wanting to, all that is ugly and unjust about their native land.
But Iran’s Jewish community does something more. It also embodies the nation’s hope, the narrative of its resistance and struggle for a better future—one that has been on the brink of arriving ever since the revolution in 1979. To understand why Jews continue to remain in Iran is to understand the tortured tale of Iran. Nowhere else can the stubborn continuity of a minority stand as a metaphor in the elegy of a nation’s downfall...
(Excerpt) Read more at tabletmag.com ...
Best guess is 9000 Jews left in Iran. Probably mostly elderly or intermarried, or don’t really like being Jewish. American Jews will be like that in a couple generations.
It’s a mix of a couple of things:
1. Some Haredi Jewish people are opposed to the existence of Israel as a secular state. Some of them are in Iran (not most).
2. Some are old/infirm
3. Many have businesses/things they have decided they can’t live without and can’t take with them or sell at a reasonable price. (Iranians, like Nazis, are big on taking the possessions of fleeing Jews.) And they’ve made it this long, so they think they can eke it out. They have a good life in Iran and don’t want to be a cab driver in Tel Aviv. Time will tell if they made a mistake.
4. Some are crooks and make a lot of money in Iran, specifically helping Iranian regime. The George Soros type crew.
5. Not that many are intermarried (although this happens, it is not like in the USA).
6. Some are secular and think they are immune.
7. Some are not allowed to leave because they provide critical services (e.g., doctors, engineers, lawyers).
Very interesting. Thanks.
Very informative. At least there are approx. ten thousand Jews left in Iran. I recall an article about the Jews in Iraq, stating they were down to a handful.
Through the quirk of a college roommate I came to know a few Persian families who left after the revolution. I knew their businesses too and met a few Persian jews through them but I never seen seen them at any of their celebrations. I’m black and most of their friends were Hispanic and we all went. And all secular. My friend never stepped foot in a mosque his entire life.
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