Anti-Zionism v Anti-Israel - IRAN: Life of Jews Living in Iran

The article is from a Jewish website sited in the US. It is not recent, but is worth reading and giving some consideration in the current environment when the Zionist factions in Israel are pressing the US that Iran is a threat and needs to be attacked.

www.sephardicstudies.org, IRAN: Life of Jews Living in Iran

Before the Revolution in Iran, there were more Jews living in Iran. The more affluent among them left to the US and Israel.

I think this article adds weight to the idea that Iran is anti-zionist, more so than anti-Israel. There are many here on ATS I have seen that also make that distinction and are themselves against zionism.

Here are some snippets from the article (which is not all peaches and roses), to tempt all of you to read the article in full.
As that Toyota advertisement used to say: 'Please Consider'.

It is one of the many paradoxes of the Islamic Republic of Iran that this most virulent anti-Israeli country supports by far the largest Jewish population of any Muslim country.

While Jewish communities in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria have all but vanished, Iran is home to 25,000 - some here say 35,000 - Jews. The Jewish population is less than half the number that lived here before the Islamic revolution of 1979. But the Jews have tried to compensate for their diminishing numbers by adopting a new religious fervor.

But Khomeini met with the Jewish community upon his return from exile in Paris and issued a ''fatwa'' decreeing that the Jews were to be protected. Similar edicts also protect Iran's tiny Christian minority.

Still, Jewish leaders say their community has far stronger roots in Iran than other Middle East Jewish communities, which were virtually eradicated by massive immigration to Israel in the 1940s and 1950s. Esther, the biblical Jewish queen who saved her people from persecution in the fifth century B.C., is reputed to be buried in Hamadan, in western Iran. The grave of the Old Testament prophet Daniel lies in southwestern Iran.

''We are different from the Jews of the diaspora. You see the name 'Persia' in the Old Testament almost as often as the name 'Israel.' The Iranian Jews are very much part of Iran,'' said Gad Naim, 60, who runs the old-age home in Tehran. Iranian Jews trace their history to the reign of Persia's King Cyrus. As the Bible tells it, Cyrus conquered Babylonia in 539 B.C., liberated the Jews from captivity, and raised funds for the rebuilding of their destroyed temple in Jerusalem. The return of the Jews to Jerusalem at that time was accompanied by a large migration to the lands that were then Persia, and now Iran.

Although he is virulently anti-Israel in his public comments, Khatami was considered sympathetic to the Jews during his term as Iran's minister of culture and Islamic guidance. He paid a campaign visit to a social club for Jewish women in Tehran. ''We expect more freedom, an easier life, not just for Jews, for everybody,'' said Farangis Hassidim, an administrator of Tehran's Jewish hospital.

Not everyone in the Jewish community favors liberalization of Iranian society. Arizel Levihim, 20, a prospective Hebrew teacher, said Judaism has fared better within the confines of Iran's strictly religious society. ''I believe it is good for women to keep their head covered. I think it is good to restrict relations between boys and girls,'' Levihim said. ''I agree with the ideals of the Islamic republic. These are Jewish values too."

Thoughts people?
Where's Oozyism when needed

Just shows that the western leaders are feeding their citizens with sweet little lie pills. It also shows that much of Iran's minority is anti-Zionist and not pro-kill-all-jews.

Yet another potentially interesting thread gets consigned to the ATS cutting Room floor.

I have actually read this before, and it is also interesting to note that the Jews in Iran are probably amongst the oldest Jewish communities around and are (if you like) real Jews as opposed to the Ashkenazi Zionists who have little or no claim to Jewish culture at all as far as I can see.

Good article. Something our leaders and the press would very much prefer us not to know. In fact, I have talked before about the large Jewish community in Iran to others, something they did not know about. The assumption then is that, well, they must be soooo persecuted by the crazy Islamist leadership, until you then again explain that it is just not the case.
They are proud Persian people and categorically refuse all the Israeli inducements to move to Israel. Unfortunately, most of the European Jews who have moved to Israel do so for the financial inducements offered, not through any persecution in their countries of birth - something else they like to gloss over!

A great thread full of facts the zionists and warmongers would rather make extinct!
Personally i have been aware of the facts for a long time now, not all, but people still need to hear it.

The thing is most people are so programmed full of lies and hate by the zionist media that when one tries to explain these things to them it seems to go in 1 ear and out the other, immediately followed by a barrage of programmed lies and hate, the exact lies and hate the zionists and warmongers spread on a daily basis.

These people that one tries to explain it to don't even allow themselves to think it through, they deny there brain that function, that is how i see it and it is a sad sight my friends.

I say programmed because that is exactly what is is like, that's how i observe it.

Star and Flag for a great thread.

Peace

No offense to jews, but while there are many who have nordic German blood in them or a slavic heritage, I would imagine the ones in Iran do look semitic and got an healthy tan. So unless they rub it in I am not so sure their fellow Iranians would be able to identify them as jews.

reply to post by Cassius666


Thats about the most outragous statement I've read.

I'm from European decent; my Jewish origins are from Shiraz. Now I look your typical Middle Eastern Jew however all my immediate family's complexion is as white as snow, as are many Iranian Jews...of whom have either black, brown, red or blonde hair and whose eyes are either brown, blue or green.

Fact is, Iranian Jews don't look like a specific racial people...they come with all complexions, hair & eye colour whereas most Iraqi Jews are generally darker in complexion.

May I remind you, King David was a red head.....as was Alexandria the Great.

It's kind of like saying all Arabs, Greeks and Jews are generally dark. They're not. You'll be surprised how many blonde and blue eyed Arabs there are in the Middle East who have no Europeans in their family tree.