The Jewish Community of Tabriz

TABRIZI

This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives. Tabriz is a major city in Iran. This surname is found among the Jews of Iran.

Sarah Aronov Eliazar was born in Tabriz, Iran, in 1932 and immigrated to Israel in 1960.

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This testimony was produced as part of “Seeing the Voices” – the Israeli national project for the documentation of the heritage of Jews of Arab lands and Iran. The project was initiated by the Israeli Ministry for Social Equality, in cooperation with The Heritage Wing of the Israeli Ministry of Education, The Yad Ben Zvi Institute, and The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot.

The Oster Visual Documentation Center, ANU - Museum of the Jewish People.

Cairo

In Arabic: القاهرة‎ 

Capital of Egypt

It is almost certain that Jews settled in Fostat at the time of its establishment in 641 by Arab occupation, and they built their synagogue in the ancient byzantine citadel. In the 10th century Jews arrived from Babylon and founded two communities - the Babylonian and the Palestinian. After the Fatimids established the new city of Cairo (969), north of Fostat, the local Jewish community became the most famous in Egypt. Jews continued to dwell in Fostat (old Cairo) until it was burned by the Egyptians (1169) in an effort to prevent its capture by the crusaders; the famous "genizah" was found in the ancient synagogue of Fostat at the end of the 19th century.

Maimonides, his son Abraham, and his grandson David lived in Fostat. The heads of the Palestinian community in the b. Moses ha-Levi, and his brother Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Persecutions took place during the rule of the Mamluks (1250-1517), who persecuted non-Muslim communities in general and the large Christian Coptic minority in particular. Synagogues and churches were destroyed and closed and fanatical Muslims plotted against Jews for many reasons. It is said that Sultan Baybars gathered the Jews and the Christians under the citadel walls and threatened to burn them alive unless they agreed to pay a large sum of money (13th century). Mamluk rule forbade Jews to trade in spices and other imports from the Far East, and their economic situation worsened. Most of them were tradesmen and manufacturers and a privileged group still continued to deal in money and banking.

Meshullam of Volterra reports 800 Jewish households in Cairo in 1481 as well as 150 Karaite and 50 Samaritan families. According to an Arab historian, there were five synagogues in Cairo. In the beginning of the 16th century, many refugees from Spain came to Cairo. There were two distinct groups of Jews: maghrebim (Jews of North African origin), and Sephardim, each with its own bet din and charitable institutions; and there was occasional conflict between them. The Sephardim surpassed the other communities and were appointed as rabbis for the musta'rabs, who adopted the customs of the Spanish Jews in their prayers. The descendants of the exiles assimilated with the Jewish majority and forgot their Spanish language. Among the great Spanish scholars of the 16th century were R. David b. Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, R. Moses b. Isaac Alashkar, R. Jacob Berab, R. Bezalel Ashkenazi, R. Jacob Castro, and R. Solomon di Trani.

The Turks, who conquered Egypt in 1517, did not interfere in Jewish religious affairs. They badly treated the rich Jews, however, most of whom occupied official appointments, such as the operation of the mint and the collection of taxes; many of them were condemned to death on various pretexts. In 1524 the governor Ahmed Pasha extorted a vast sum of money from the director of the mint - Abraham Castro - by threatening to slaughter all the Jews. However on the day of payment Ahmed Pasha was murdered by a group of his own soldiers and the danger was averted. This day of salvation was commemorated as an annual Purim Mitzrayim (Purim of Egypt). The extortion and tyranny worsened in the 17th and 18th centuries with the decline of Ottoman rule.

Among the sages of the Jewish community of Cairo a special mention should be made of Chayyim Vital from the kabbalists of Safed, Mordecai ha- Levi, Solomon Algazi; and in the 19th century Moses Algazi, Elijah Israel, and Raphael Aaron b. Simeon.

A new era for the Jewish community in Cairo started with the rise of Muhammad Ali (1769-1849) to Egyptian rule (1805). Moses Montefiore, Adolphe Cremieux, and Solomon Monk (the secretary of the Jewish consistoire of France) visited Cairo, and founded modern schools; and after the economic development of Egypt Jews from other Mediterranean countries settled in Cairo. In 1882 there were 5,000 Jews in Cairo and after 15 years, 11,500, including 1,000 Karaites. In 1917 the Jewish community numbered 25,000, among them many refugees from eastern Europe. Jews prospered in commerce and banking and even took part in public affairs and government institutions. R. Yom Tov Israel was appointed to the legislative assembly and Jacob Cattaui became the chief revenue officer of Egypt; his son Joseph was minister of finance (1923) and another son Moses was president of the Cairo community for 40 years. In 1925 Chief Rabbi Haim Nahoum joined the Egyptian Academy of Science.

During early 20th century there were a number of Jewish newspapers in Cairo, among them Mitzrayim (Ladino, 1900), Die Zeit (Yiddish, 1907-08), and the weekly magazines l'Aurore (French, 1908), and Israel (French, 1919). In 1934 there was an Arabic weekly magazine, Al-Shams. The Karaites also published a weekly magazine of their own called Al-Kalim.

In 1947, 41,860 Jews (64% of Egyptian Jewry) lived in Cairo, 58.8% of whom were merchants, and 17.9% worked in industry. Although it contained a few wealthy Jews, the Cairo community was poorer than Alexandria. After the arrests of Jews in 1948-49 and the persecutions of 1956-57, only 5,587 Jews were left. After the Six-Day War this number decreased to about 1,500, and by 1970 only a few hundred remained, especially in the new mixed quarter of Heliopolis. Massive arrests began in June-July 1954; about 100 Jews were concentrated in two camps and fifteen of them brought to trial. In the spy case which ended in 1955, Moses Marzouk and Samuel 'Azar were condemned to death by hanging and others received life sentences. (They were released and sent back to Israel after the Six-Day War.) In 1956 the head of the community Salvador Cicurel left Egypt and was succeeded by Albert Romano. In November 1956 the government confiscated the hospital. After the death of R. Haim Nahoum, Chayyim was elected as chief rabbi in 1960; he left Egypt in 1972.

In 1997 there were 100 Jews living in Egypt, most them in Cairo.

Urmia

In Farsi: ارومیه; alternative names: Urmieh, Urmiah, Rezaiyeh

A city and the capital of Urmia County in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran.

There was a Jewish community in Urmia in early Islamic days; it first came to the fore in the 12th century with the appearance of the pseudo-messiah David Alroy, who found many adherents in the town. Nothing more is heard of the community until 1828 when David d’Beth Hillel visited it. In his travels he mentions three synagogues in Urmia and gives a detailed account of the community’s suffering as a result of a blood libel. Further details are provided by Christian missionary sources.

Letters published by Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and an account by Zalman Shazar throw further light on the history of Jews in Urmia in the 19th century. As attested by a letter preserved in Sefer ha Massa’ot by the traveler and ethnographer Joseph Yehuda Chorney (1835-1880), they had contacts with the Jews in the Caucasus. The community was severely affected by a famine in 1871.

It is estimated that the Jewish community of Urmia numbered about 1,000 members during the first two decades of the 20th century. Many of the Jews of Urmia worked as peddlers in the cloth trade, while others were jewelers or goldsmiths. Boys attended primary school and some continued to study a local yeshiva. Some of these students produced talismans and amulets. The community also had a girls’ school attended by a only a handful of students. There were four synagogues in the city. The larger one was known as the synagogue of Sheikh Abdulla or Molla Moshe. The local Jewish cemetery dates from the 16th century. The Jews of Urmia spoke Lishan Didan, a Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect also spoken in neighboring Azerbaijan.  They call themselves Nash Didan, i.e. Anashim Shelanu (in Hebrew) – “Our People”.

During World War I, the city was captured by the Russian Army and in 1918 there were again persecutions and attacks against the Jews of Urmia, following the invasion of Turkish forces to the area. Due to the increased violence and the general worsening of the economic situation, many Jews of Urmia immigrated to Tbilisi in Georgia and Baghdad in Iraq. In 1948 the Jewish population numbered about 2,000 people. With the establishment of the State of Israel, most of the Jews in Urmia emigrated there in 1951 and again during 1957-1960. The others moved to larger cities in Iran.

In early 21st century Lishan Didan was still spoken by a few thousand people, most of them in Israel.

Iran

ایران  - Islamic Republic of Iran

A country in southwestern Asia. Until 1935, Iran was called Persia.

HISTORY

538 BCE  Zarathushtra - Evil and Good

According to most historians, Jewish settlement in Persia began in 538 BCE, following the "Declaration of Cyrus". This declaration, which went out on behalf of Cyrus, King of Persia, allowed the Babylonian exiles to return to the Land of Israel and to build their Temple in Jerusalem. However, many of the Jews of Babylonia (today's Iraq) chose to stay where they were, whereas others wandered to its neighbor, Persia, which had turned into a great empire in the Ancient Middle East. From this nucleus, subsequently arose the Jewish community that was the center of the story of Book of Esther, which took place in Persia back then, apparently between the years 200 - 400 BCE.

In the years between the establishment of the Persian Empire and it's fall at the hand of the Arabs in 642 CE, there were several dynasties that had control. The last one was the Sasanian dynasty. The focus of Sasanian worship was the Zoroastrian religion, according to which the world was in eternal war between contrasts: good and evil, darkness and light, spirit and material. Since the Jews lived in the Persian Empire for many years, many researchers think that the Jewish religion assimilated several of the Persians' principles: the existence of a devil, the presence of angels and evil spirits, the Garden of Eden and Hell, the resurrection of the dead, the coming of Messiah, the war of Gog and Magog, and more. These elements are not found in the Bible, but they penetrated Judaism due to the influence of Zoroastrianism, and they shaped the Jews' religious outlook for generations.

642 The Messiah Hasn't Come

In the year 642 CE, the Islamic faith arrived, spreading around the world, including Persia. In one day, the huge crowds of Persians replaced their prophet Zoroaster with Muhammad, and Ahura Mazda (the god of goodness according to Zoroastrianism) with Allah. Historians disagree whether Islam was forced upon the Persians or whether they freely chose to adopt it. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

The Islamic historian Abu Nu`aym al-Isfahani, who lived in the Persian city of Isfahan, tells the story that when the Islamic conquerors entered the gates of the city, the Jews came singing and dancing, for they hoped the Muslims had news of the Messiah's expected arrival. It quickly became clear to them that the Muslim believers were indeed riding on donkeys, but there was no Messiah riding among them. The Muslims might not have been bringing redemption, but they treated the Jews with surprising decency: In compliance with the "Pact of Umar" that defined Muslim relationships with other religious minorities in the empire, the Jews were defined as a protected group ("dhimi"), and received rights of autonomy, family, and religion, in exchange for payment of a head tax ("jizya").

850  Literally

One of the denominations among the Jews of Iran in the middle of the 9th century were the Karaites. The Karaites believed only in the literal text of the Torah. According to them, the Oral Torah, essentially the Babylonian Talmud, was illegitimate, because it assumed the freedom to explain the word of God, which, to the Karaites, was a crude act of defiance against the absolute sovereignty of the Lord. For example, the command in Deuteronomy that prohibits cooking a kid in its mother's milk is explained by traditional scholars as the prohibition of eating meat and dairy together. The Karaites take it literally, not to cook a kid in its mother's milk. Another example, from Leviticus, is the legal principle of "an eye for an eye", which the Karaites also take literally: someone who removes the eye of a fellow man will have his eye removed. Traditional scholars, as is known, replace the physical punishment with a monetary fine. The central personalities in the Persian Karaites movement were Chivi l-Balkhi, Benjamin Ben Moses Nahawandi, and Daniel Ben Moses al-Qumisi. All of them lived and were active during the second half of the 9th century. These leaders came out against the tyranny and disorder that spread through the rabbinical institutions, and many in the Persian Jewish community were swept up in following them. The Karaite movement did not pass the test of history. The rigidity of communal leaders with regard to anything written in the Torah ended any discussion. From the stream that measured 40% of the Jews in the 9th and 10th centuries, today there is only a handful of less than one percent.

1219 Not Bears, Not Crusaders

During the 13th century, Mongolian forces came out of the heart of Asia and established the largest empire that ever existed since the dawn of human history. This empire stretched from south eastern Asia until Europe, about 22% of the world. The news of Muslim countries falling, one after another, before the feet of the Mongolian leader Genghis Khan also reached Christian Europe. The news planted hope in the hearts of bishops and priests that now would come the redeemer of Christianity and the conqueror of Islam. But it quickly became clear that to Genghis Khan it made no difference if you were holding a copy of the Koran or believed in the New Testament. As someone who saw himself as the holder of God's rod of anger against the sinners of mankind, the Mongolian leader left behind rivers of blood, orphans and widows, and turned blossoming cities into ashen ruins.

The huge and destructive dimensions of the Mongolian invasion in Persia (1219 - 1223) turned it into a genuine holocaust. Historical sources report that the Mongols did not overlook the Jews: complete communities were destroyed, and a population that numbered in the hundreds of thousands before the invasion, according to traveler Benjamin of Tudela, was left with only a few tens of thousands.

The terrible blow of the Mongolian invasion against the Jews was slightly softened following the relative blossoming of Persia during the Mongolian-Ilkhanate period (1227-1335) and the religious tolerance shown to the Jews. Evidence of this is the appointment of a Jewish doctor from the city of Abhar, Sa'ad al-Daula, to the head of the viziers during the time of the rule of Arghun Khan, at the end of the 13th century.

1359 - Wisdom Among The Nations, Believe!

Shāhin-i Shirāzi, who lived in Persia in the 14th century, is considered one of the great Jewish poets of Persia. Shirazi was influenced by a longstanding tradition of Persian epic poetry that delivered fruits such as the well-known Persian epic Shahnameh, which he assimilated into his creation. In doing so, Shirazi joined a long line of Jewish artists who were influenced by the culture of their time and surroundings, among them Maimonides, whose work The Guide for the Perplexed draws from Aristotelian metaphysics, and the author of the Zohar, who assimilates in his writing agnostic and neo-Platonic teachings, and the poets of the Golden Age in Spain, who "converted" Muslim poetic elements. And there are many examples. 

In the epic work of Shirazi, stories of the creation of the world from the Bible are blended with descriptions of the return to Zion during the time of Cyrus the Great (who, according to Shirazi, converted), and, understandably, the story of Esther. All of this is done in rhyming works that extend over 9,000 verses. Among researchers, general agreement prevails that Shirazi's epic is unique in its type and scope in Jewish-Persian literature (which was written in the Persian language using Hebrew characters), and perhaps in all of Jewish literature. Shirazi was a pioneer of the Jewish-Persian tradition of epic poetry. The poet Amrani, born in 1454, continued the path of Shirazi, writing impressive epics based on biblical stories.

1730   Crypto-Muslims

More than 800 years passed since the death of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad, on the outskirts of Karbala, an event that symbolized the beginning of the conflict between the Shia and the Sunni, that rages until today, and until a redheaded boy named Ismael subdued, in 1499, the Mongolian- Ilkhanate dynasty and turned Shiite Islam into the official religion of Persia. The Safavid-Shiite dynasty that rose to power with the victory of Ismael ruled almost 300 years, and led a fanatical religious climate that had no tolerance for Jews. Two historical documents from the period shed light on the situation of the Jews in Persia. The first document, Ketāb-e anūsī (“The Book of a Forced Convert”) written in verses by Baba'i ben Lotf, describes the difficult persecutions the Jews of Iran suffered from 1613 to 1662. The poet tells of many Jews martyred after being forced to convert to Islam, and others forced to live as crypto-Jews for generations. The second document, also written in verse, written by Babai ben Farhad, describes the persecution of Jews during the years 1729-1730. From the document it emerges that even if Jews were not forced to convert to Islam, they were subject to discriminatory laws. They had to wear identification badges on their lapels, or were prohibited from gathering in public wearing finer clothing. They could not raise their voices when talking to a Muslim. They had to surrender any inheritance, giving it to a family that had converted to Islam. This last law encouraged Jews to convert to Islam and bankrupted the community.

In the two documents, we find that many crypto-Jews later returned to their origins, but the physical and spiritual harm to the community caused damage to the Jews of Persia that was difficult to recover from for many generations.

1860  Our Child

One of the important projects of the Alliance Israelite Universelle was the establishment of a network of modern elementary schools in Jewish communities in Islamic countries, including Persia. This network of Alliance schools, which advocated for combining the values of the enlightenment with Jewish learning, supported more than anything the introduction of modern values into Persia, especially in the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, Hamedan, and Shiraz.

1917 "If You Want"

The Balfour Declaration, which was issued in 1917, awakened strong nationalistic emotions among the Jews of Persia, exactly as it did to other Jewish communities around the world. These emotions spurred many members of the community to make aliyah to the Land of Israel, specifically to Safed. Two years after the declaration, the Zionist Agency of Persia was founded, which was composed of the religious leaders of Tehran. The Agency published a weekly bulletin called Hageulah ("The Redemption"), which was written in the Persian-Hebrew language, and served to strengthen the study of the Hebrew language as well as closer ties to the large Zionist centers in Eastern Europe. These activities led to a relatively large increase in the number of Persian Jews making aliyah to Israel. Prior to 1925, about 7,000 of the 80,000 Jews in Persia made aliyah to Israel.

One of the important achievements of the Agency was the closer ties between Jewish communities in Persia itself. Before the establishment of the Agency, the Jews in Persia lived primarily in the cities of the frontier, far away and cut off from each other. The Agency's center in Tehran joined together these isolated communities, whose members were mostly poor and impoverished, putting them under a common roof  and harnessing them to Zionist activities with broad scope.

1925 Don't Look at the Container

A model nation-state merited much success during the period between the two World Wars. Young nations rose up routinely, and united around a strong army, a modern economy, and a secular way of life. Even land with a dominant religious character, like Turkey and Iran, shed their ethical finery and adopted a clearly secular way of life.

The person who stood in the center of this national  revolution in Persia was an officer who rose to the throne in December, 1925, thanks to his abilities, his political maneuvering, and to the situation at that time, including support from the British. His name was Razah Shah (1878-1944), and he was the first secular leader of Persia, during whose reign the name of the country was changed to Iran. Razah Shah conducted all-out wars against the religious establishment in Iran, and implemented far-reaching reforms that hastened the processes of secularization and modernization in Iranian society.

The Jews reacted positively to the reforms of Razah Shah. They demonstrated a desire to join the current of Iranian nationalism. They loved Persian poetry and literature. They celebrated the national Iranian holidays and changed their names to Persian names, and boasted about the pre-Islamic days of Iran. Following the cancellation of regulations, they were allowed to serve in the army and to study in government elementary schools. The most significant change was the permission they received to leave the ghetto. This permission made it possible for many Jews to establish stores in central business areas and improve their economic situation.

However, there are those who will say that the improvement in the situation of the Jews was only superficial. In contrast to the other minorities in Iran, like the Armenians or members of the Zoroastrian religion, who were closer to the Iranians based on language, culture, ethnicity and history, the Jews preserved their relationship to their foreign origins. This fact awakened tensions between them and the general Iranian community. These tensions came to be expressed most clearly during World War II, when Razah Shah refused to join the Allies.

1941  Children of Tehran

The invasion of the Nazi army into the Soviet Union, and it's advance toward the northern border of Iran, ignited the excitement of Fascist groups and mobs in Iran, who were thirsty to get their hands on Jewish property. Further reinforcement of the pro-Nazi atmosphere came from the political domain: the shaky relationship between Iran and Russia and Britain brought Razah Shah to choose the Nazis as the masters of the political treaty. Business relationships between Iran and Germany were continuing to get closer, and many technicians and engineers were flowing to Iran from Germany. These changes in Iranian society, besides the belief in the common Aryan origins of both the Persian and German people, accompanied by an anti-Semitic campaign in newspapers and on the radio, burned the ground under the feet of Jews in Iran.

With great luck, in the fall of 1941, Allied forces entered Iran and turned history on a more optimistic path. The period of occupation by the Allied (1941-1946) is considered one of the most dynamic in the history of Iran. More than 20 political parties were founded, from all ends of the political rainbow. Tens of free newspapers and weeklies were published in Tehran and in the provinces. Zionist activity was revived in full strength, and even the Jewish Agency opened an office in Tehran. The activity of the agency focused on saving "the children of Tehran", Jewish orphans who had been smuggled from occupied Poland toward the end of World War II and wandered the streets of the Soviet Union, together with the army of the Polish General Andreas, until they reached Tehran. From there, they were brought, with the help of the Agency, directly to Israel. Among the children of Tehran is the known television personality and member of the World Olympic Committee, Alex Gilady, the General Avigdor Ben-Gal, and the learned scholar from Biala, Rabbi Ben Zion Rabinowitz.

1961 By Their Lives and By Their Deaths

In 1941, the control of Iran passed from Razah Shah to his son, Mohammed Razah Shah Pahlavi (1919-1980), who ruled the country until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and who, in 1961, compared the relations between Israel and Iran to "the relations between lovers except for marriage". Today, with the difficult relationships between the two countries, the statement seems quite imaginary.

But in reality, until the "Ayatollah revolution", Israel and Iran maintained close and warm relationships. The young State of Israel had an embassy in Tehran and maintained a variety of business, political and cultural relationships with secular Iran.

From 1951 to 1954, approximately 70,000 Jews made aliyah from Iran to Israel, most of them urban dwellers of lower status. They established tens of settlements throughout Israel. Not only that, but the Jews who remained in Iran after the establishment of the State of Israel enjoyed the politics of the Shah. The "White Revolution" that he led in 1963, with the purpose of turning Iran into a strong, regional economic power, benefited the Jews in all areas. In the course of one generation, they attained impressive achievements. Despite their small proportion of the population (until 1979 there were about 80,000 Jews in Iran, less than a quarter of a percent of the general population), their economic, professional, and cultural influence was powerful. Approximately 10% of the Jews in Iran were extremely wealthy, and the rest were based in the middle class. The proportion of academics or physicians was much higher than the proportion among the general population. Despite the incitement of Muslim extremists that essentially increased after the Six Day War, the Iranian police treated them with great sympathy.

2000   Left, Right, Left

In 1979, the Iranian Revolution erupted. The background for the eruption was an absurd agreement between Muslim religious figures, who opposed the secular government's secular and social reforms, and an extreme left-wing group with communist tendencies, who called for a rebellion against "wicked American imperialism", and who saw Razah Shah as a representative.

The religious extremists, with their exiled leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini (1902 - 1989), came out on top: Iran turned into a country run according to Muslim-Shiite law, and the religious institution ruled with coercion. In a complete contrast to Shah, the Ayatollah Khomeini and his government defined the State of Israel as an enemy of humanity, and Zionism as an abomination. Nevertheless, despite occasional expressions of anti-Semitism, the Iranian government was careful to separate their relationships with the State of Israel from their relationships with the Jews living in Iran. The efforts of the latter group to declare their loyalty to the government and to express criticism of the Zionist project also contributed to this separation. Even so, beginning in 1979 and until 1987, fifty thousand Jews left Iran. Approximately 25 thousand of them went to the west coast of the United States, and 20 thousand of them went to Israel.

As of early 21st century, the relationship between Iran and the State of Israel is a largely hostile one. Iran's leaders constantly use violent rhetoric with regard to Israel. The relationship between the countries has been aggravated following Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons, efforts that have caused the Israeli governments to engage in a broad diplomatic war against them.

At the beginning of the new millennium, there were 8,750 Jews living in Iran.

Teheran

In Farsi: تهران‎‎  - Alternate spelling: Tehran

Capital of Iran

Situated near the ancient Biblical site of Rages (mentioned in the Book of Tobit, a book that is part of the Catholic and Orthodox Christian canon), Teheran did not rise to prominence until the Kajar dynasty established its capital there around 1788. It soon attracted Jews from a variety provincial villages and towns. According to the Jewish traveler David D'Beth Hillel, the Jewish population in Teheran amounted to about 100 families in 1828.

Travelers, shelichim (emissaries), and other European visitors who came to Teheran throughout the 19th century (including the Christian missionary Joseph Wolff, the explorer Benjamin II (originally Israel Joseph Benjamin), the traveler and writer Ephraim Neumark, and G.K Curzon) pointed to the growth of the Jewish community in Teheran. At first, the Jews lived in a poor quarter ("Mahallah"), where they established synagogues and other religious and social institutions. Nonetheless, they were economically hampered by the fact that they were non-Muslims, with the status of ritually-unclean non-believers (a status shared by Jews and Christians) held by Shi'ite Islam, the religion of the dynasty.

The Jews of Teheran engaged in handicrafts and small businesses, and also worked as itinerant peddlers dealing in carpets, textiles, antiquities, and luxury articles. Very few, however, were able to reach positions of economic importance. Some native Jewish physicians in Teheran in the time of Shah Naser al-Din achieved a measure of prominence, and the Shah eventually appointed an Austrian Jew, Jacob Eduard Polak, as a court physician (Polak was also invited by the government to work as a professor of anatomy and surgery at the military college).

The political and legal status of the Jews improved during the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the intervention of European Jewry on their behalf. During the Shah's visits to Europe in 1873 and 1889, Sir Moses Montefiore and the French lawyer and statesman Isaac Adolphe Cremieux presented him with petitions and demands for better conditions for the Jews of Iran. This intervention led to the establishment of Jewish schools by the Alliance Israelite Universelle; the first Alliance school in Teheran was opened in 1898 with Joseph Cazes as director.

As a result of the constitutional reforms under Shah Muzaffar al-Din in the early decades of the 20th century, the Jews were granted citizenship in 1906, though it would be another few decades until they were permitted to elect their own representative to the Iranian Parliament. Under the Pahlavi Dynasty, especially during the reign of Muhammad Reza Shah (1941-1979), the condition of the Jews throughout Iran improved considerably and the Jews of Teheran enjoyed a level of freedom and equality that they had yet to experience. During this "Golden Age," many Jews rose to influential social and economic positions.

In Teheran the community was served not only by the Alliance, but also by ORT and Otzar HaTorah. Above all, however, the Jewish community in Teheran was supported by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which in 1947 laid the foundation for all of the social, medical, and educational activities of the Jews of Teheran and Iran as a whole.

A Zionist organization was established in Teheran even before the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and a cultural and spiritual revival also resulted in a considerable degree of Aliyah to Palestine in the early decades of the 20th century. Among Teheran's prominent leaders were Solomon Kohen Tzedek, author of the first Hebrew grammar book for Iranian Jews, Mullah Elijah Haim More, author of three Judeo-Persian books on Jewish tradition and history, Soliman Haim, editor of a Persian Jewish newspaper and an ardent Zionist, Aziz Naim, author of the first history of the Zionist movement in Persian, and Kermanyan, Persian translator of Alex Bein's biography of Theodor Herzl. One of the earliest immigrants to Palestine was Mullah Haim Elijah Elazar whose son, Chanina Mizrachi, wrote several books on Iranian Jews in Palestine and other essays.

There were 35,000 Jews in Teheran in 1948, constituting 37% of the total Jewish population of Iran. Although there was considerable immigration to Israel, Jews from the provinces also migrated to the capital, stabilizing the population numbers. As the country's economic situation improved, so did that of the Jews living there.

Teheran had a network of schools run by the Alliance Israelite Universelle; 15 elementary schools and two high schools, as well as schools run by Otzar HaTorah and ORT. In 1957 it was estimated that about 3,000 Jewish children in Teheran received no education, although this number probably dropped during the 1960s. In 1961 7,100 pupils attended the Alliance Israelite Universelle and Otzar HaTorah. Hundreds of Jews (700-800 in 1949) also studied in Protestant mission schools, and approximately another 2,000 were enrolled in government schools. In 1961 the number of Jewish students at Teheran University was estimated at 300

The community ran the Kanun Kheir Khah Hospital for the Needy (founded in 1958), and a Jewish soup kitchen financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The headquarters of both the youth organization, Kanun Javanan, which extended aid and sponsored lectures to poor children, and of the Jewish women's organization were located in Teheran.

Community affairs were handled by a council led by Ayatollah Montakhab in 1951, and by Arieh Murad in 1959. The head of the rabbinical court in 1959 was Rabbi Yedidiah Shofet. His judge's salary was paid by the government, and his judgments were carried out by government law courts. In 1957 the first Iranian-Jewish Congress was organized in Teheran, and branches of the World Jewish Congress were established.

In 1970 40,000 Jews (55% of the total Jewish population of Iran) lived in Teheran, and the community was composed of Jews from various Iranian provinces, including Meshed, and from Bukhara, Baghdad, and other Middle Eastern communities, as well as of Ashkenazim from Russia, Poland, and Germany.

On the eve of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, there were 80,000 Jews in Iran, concentrated in Teheran (which had the largest Jewish population of approximately 60,000), Shiraz, Kermanshah, and the cities of Kuzistahn. Things shifted rapidly for the Jews of Iran with the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Private wealth was confiscated, and the Muslim population began expressing strong anti-Israel feelings. Zionist activity was made a crime, though the regime officially distinguished between the Jews of Iran, who were considered loyal citizens, and Zionists, Israelis, and world Jewry to whom the regime was hostile.

Nonetheless, the Jews who remained in Iran were living in a sensitive and unpredictable situation that requires constant vigilance. On February 1, 1979 5,000 Jews, led by the chief rabbi, Yedidia Shofet, welcomed the future Supreme Leader of the country, Ayatollah Khomeini with signs proclaiming that "Jews and Muslims are brothers." Three months later, on May 9, 1979, the regime executed Habib Elghanian, a prominent member of the Jewish community in Teheran who served as the president of the Teheran Jewish Society, who was charged with "corruption," "contacts with Israel and Zionism," and "friendship with the enemies of God." Elghanian's execution sent shock waves through the Jewish community, and nearly two-thirds of Iranian Jewry left the country. The gabbai of a Teheran synagogue, 77 year old Faisallah Mechubad, was executed in February, 1994 for supposedly spying for Israel.

In 1996 there were an estimated 25,000 Jews in Teheran (out of 35,000 Jews in Iran as a whole). There were 50 active synagogues, 23 of which were in Teheran, and about 4,000 students enrolled in Jewish schools. Classes in Jewish schools were held in Persian, since teaching Hebrew could lead to problems with the authorities.

Saqez

سقز

Also known as Saghez, Saqqez, Saqqiz, Saqiz, Sakīz

A city and the capital of Saqez County, Kurdistan Province, Iran.

The Vilna-born traveler and scholar Rabbi David D'Beth Hillel mentions in his Travels from Jerusalem through Arabia, Kurdistan, Part of Persia and India to Madras 1824–32 that in 1827 there were fifteen Jewish families in Saqez and that they had a synagogue. The Jews of Saqqez spoke neo-Aramaic. During the first half of the 20th century Rabbi Shmuel Bruchim (1889-1979) served as the undisputed Jewish spiritual leader of Saqez. In 1945, David Ben-Gurion sent a delegation to Saqez, urging Bruchim and the local Jews to leave Iran and immigrate to the Land of Israel. Bruchim immediately began to teach the entire Jewish community modern spoken Hebrew. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jews of Saqez left within a short period of time.

A section of the 18th century Bazaar of Saqez known as the Jewish market now shelters tailors and clothing manufacturers.