A small Jewish community has been living in Iran for over 2500 years, and they have never been persecuted. Today they number about 25,000. The Iranian Jews have synagogues, observe their religious rituals, and have complete freedom of religion . . . .According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the Jewish population of Iran went from 80,000 down to about 11,000. Wikipedia mentions up to 30,000 remaining. And what about that "complete freedom of religion"? It is worth quoting the Jewish Virtual Library article at length:
However, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, many Iranian Jews feared that the anti-Zionist stance adopted by the new government would lead to persecution. Due to this apprehension, about 25,000 Jews left the country in a few years. At the time, seeing that half of Iran’s Jewish community had immigrated to other countries, some biased Western commentators said that the Iranian Muslims were hoping that all the Jews would leave. Yet, quite the contrary, many Iranians wanted the Jews to stay because they believed that a mass exodus of all the country’s Jews would have given the rest of the world the impression that Iran had become a prejudiced country. In the end, the Jews who stayed saw that they would not be persecuted.
Despite the official distinction between "Jews," "Zionists," and "Israel," the most common accusation the Jews encounter is that of maintaining contacts with Zionists. The Jewish community does enjoy a measure of religious free dom but is faced with constant suspicion of cooperating with the Zionist state and with "imperialistic America" — both such activities are punishable by death. Jews who apply for a passport to travel abroad must do so in a special bureau and are immediately put under surveillance. The government does not generally allow all members of a family to travel abroad at the same time to prevent Jewish emigration. Again, the Jews live under the status of dhimmi, with the restrictions imposed on religious minorities. Jewish leaders fear government reprisals if they draw attention to official mistreatment of their community.The Mehr article ends as follows:
Iran's official government-controlled media often issues anti-Semitic propaganda. A prime example is the government's publishing of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious Czarist forgery, in 1994 and 1999. Jews also suffer varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, particularly in the areas of employment, education, and public accommodations.
The Islamization of the country has brought about strict control over Jewish educational institutions. Before the revolution, there were some 20 Jewish schools functioning throughout the country. In recent years, most of these have been closed down. In the remaining schools, Jewish principals have been replaced by Muslims. In Teheran there are still three schools in which Jewish pupils constitute a majority. The curriculum is Islamic, and Persian is forbidden as the language of instruction for Jewish studies. Special Hebrew lessons are conducted on Fridays by the Orthodox Otzar ha-Torah organization, which is responsible for Jewish religious education. Saturday is no longer officially recognized as the Jewish sabbath, and Jewish pupils are compelled to attend school on that day. There are three synagogues in Teheran, but since 1994, there has been no rabbi in Iran, and the bet din does not function.
Iran is not a racist country. In fact, Iran has been recognized as one of the pioneers of the anti-racist struggle. Iran is not an anti-Semitic country. History does not lie.Interesting last sentence.
Tags: Iran, anti-Semitism, Dhimmis
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