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Iranian Jews or Jewish-Iranians? The Jews of Tehran Between Iranism,
Judaism, and Zionism, 1925-1979
Miriam Nissimov
"Why do Iranian Jews view themselves as more Iranian than most other Iranians?"
was the headline of an article published by a Californian magazine in 1998. The
author, an Iranian Jew who immigrated to the US following the Islamic Revolution,
discussed in his article the factors which make Jews of Iranian descent "original
Iranians", but also mourned the unwillingness of the rest of the "non-Jewish
compatriots" to internalize this fact. In another article, a renowned Jewish-Iranian
author and journalist likened Iran to a metaphoric home and asked whether the Jews
were "home-owners" or mere "tenants". These articles and others, written by JewishIranian intellectuals rightfully represent the deliberations of Iranian-Jews regarding
the unsolved problem of their relation with Iran. This question, and other problems
regarding the religious and national identity matrix of the Jews of Iran, is at the focal
center of this work's analysis.
This dissertation examines the affinity of the Jews of Tehran community to the
Jewish Religion, Iranian Nationalism, and Zionism and the interrelations between
these elements of identity during the reign of the two Pahlavi kings (1925-1979). On
the one hand, these areas of identity tie the history of the Jews of Tehran to the
modern history of Iran and Iranian Nationalism, and on the other hand, to modern
Jewish history, particularly the rise of Jewish Nationalism and Zionism. The
chronicles of the Jewish minority in Iran were affected by the same developments
experienced by the Jewish world in general and shaped the fate of Jewish
communities around the world. The connection between those two "histories" renders
the story of the Jews of Tehran a unique test-case.
The period under discussion is the reign of both Pahlavi Shahs, Reza Shah (19251941) and his successor Mohammad Reza Shah (1941-1979). However, in some
cases, other crucial developments and events which affected the Iranian state or the
life of Jewish communities in Iran will be analyzed despite being outside the abovementioned time-frame.
The developments examined in this research generally affected all the Jewish
communities of Iran, but this study will focus exclusively on the Jewish community
of Tehran, for several reasons. First, during the first half of the twentieth century,
accelerated process of urbanization caused a growing immigration of Jews from all
over the country to the capital Tehran. Thus, by the 1950s approximately 50% of all
Jews in Iran lived in Tehran. Moreover, the capital Tehran was the center of the
political, economic and diplomatic activity in the country, and unsurprisingly, it was
where the all-state community institutions operated from and where the major Jewish
newspapers were published in.
The Iranian state and society underwent dramatic changes during the twentieth
century, among them the Constitutional Revolution (1906-1911) which limited the
power of the monarchy and the religious Islamic establishment and entrusted them
under the sovereignty of the Civil Law; and the collapse of the Qajar dynasty (17961925) and the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979) determinately raised the banner
of westernization and progress. These political changes were accompanied by
significant social and economic changes, which affected the entire Iranian society,
including the Jewish community.
Alongside the internal development, Iranian Jews were also influenced by the
dramatic developments that transformed Jewish communities around the world: From
the early formation of Jewish internationalism and the activities of the international
Jewish organizations to the creation of the Zionist movement and the establishment of
the State of Israel. These developments challenged and re-shaped the traditional
perception regarding the Jewish religion and the status of the Jews in the society.
This research first studies the changes which occurred in the interaction of the Tehran
community with the Jewish religion and the attempt to transform the image of the Jew
in the eyes of the community itself and the general society at large. The main findings
of this section reveal that thanks to the educational initiatives of Alliance Israélite
Universelle, the Jews of Tehran were exposed to new perceptions about Judaism
since the early years of the 20th century. They promoted a worldview which viewed
Judaism as a religion of global humanistic values and a religion whose believers are
committed to ideas of progress. Various factors combined paved the way for the
quick adoption of these new perceptions of Judaism: The weakness of the Jewishreligious establishment in Tehran and the absence of prominent rabbinical figures; the
reformist nature of the revolutionary discourse within Iran which focused on the
adoption of ideas of modernization rather than an all-encompassing destruction of the
old world; are just two of the main reasons for this development.
Moreover, under the influence of those ideas, Jews in Tehran began to adopt the
nationalist language and apply it in relation to the Jewish community. Thus,
intellectuals writing in Jewish journals and magazines since the 1910s referred to the
Jews as Mellat-i Yahud – the Jewish Nation – and called for the study of Hebrew no
longer as a holy language with religious connotations, but as “National Language”.
This process was not disconnected from development in the general Iranian society
and it evolved concurrently with changes in the legal status of non-Muslim minorities
in Iran, and, more importantly, the formation and evolution of Iranian Nationalism
which was one of the central factors that shaped the lives of Jews in Tehran
throughout the twentieth century.
The centrality of the Achaemenid Empire and its founder, Cyrus the Great, in the
national Iranian narrative as is was shaped under the Pahlavi rule of Reza Shah and
Mohammad Reza Shah, drew the Jews of Iran closer to the ideas of Iranian
Nationalism. The important place of Cyrus the Great in the Jewish tradition and the
evidence about Jewish presence within the ancient Iranian realm, were perceived by
the Jews of Tehran as their entry ticket to the Iranian Nation. The consolidation of
Mohammad Reza Shah’s regime and the imposition of a national narrative where his
personality and his regime take up a central position, resulted in that the Jews of
Tehran tied their identification with the Iranian Nationalism to the monarchist
narrative in general and the figure of the Mohammad Reza Shah specifically. The
Jews of Tehran equated what they called the benevolence of Cyrus towards the Jews
in the ancient times and the kindness of Mohammad Reza Shah towards the Jewish
minority in Iran and the loyalty towards him required from them. Thus, the Jews
became the most loyal adopters of the Iranian National narrative as it was shaped by
the Pahlavi regime. However, the complexity of the Iranian society, the hostility
towards non-Muslim minorities – and the Jews among them – and the fact that the
national narrative dictated by the Pahlavi regime had many dissidents, made clear for
Tehran Jews the difficult challenges standing in their way for assimilation into the
“Iranian Nation”. Close reading in the writing of later Jewish intellectuals reveal the
ways in which these challenges to the monarchy forced them to differentiate between
loyalty to the king and the monarchy and affinity to the Iranian society.
This unique aspect of the Jewish affinity to the Iranian nationalism makes it a
complex story that teaches an important lesson not only about the encounter of a nonMuslim minority with the phenomenon of Iranian Nationalism, but about the
narrative of Iranian Nationalism itself and the way it incorporated other non-Muslim
narratives. This kind of outlook makes the case of the Jews of Tehran important not
only for Iranian historiography but also to the history of Jewish Diasporas around the
world.
Another development which had a crucial impact on the life of Jews in Tehran during
the twentieth century is the encounter with the Zionism. Analyzing the reaction of the
Tehran community to Zionism raises interesting conclusions about the power
relations within the community and processes of politicization and community
organization. When the Zionist message arrived in Tehran in 1917, the community
was in the midst of accelerated socio-economic changes and educational reform. The
central government’s power dwindled during this period of foreign occupation and
chaos and the country was rife with revolutionary ideas and organizations. Zionism
supplied the Jewish intellectuals, most of them graduates of the Alliance schools, an
ideological framework to strengthen their Jewish identity and the unity among the
various communities of the country at large. The new organizational frameworks
created by Tehrani Jews right after they made contact with the Zionist ideas and
organizations were not only an expression for hidden religious and messianic
aspiration, as argued in studies written about Zionism in Iran, but the result of the rise
of new power centers within the local Jewish community. Moreover, the
establishment of the new Zionist and Zionist-inspired organizations was enabled by
the changes and modernization of the State’s bureaucracy. The bitter struggles that
followed the activity of these organizations were partly an expression of the tension
created by these changes.
In addition, an analysis of the affinity of the Tehran community to Zionism during the
1940s and after the establishment of the State of Israel brings out some interesting
conclusions about the community and its leadership. In the re-engagement with
Zionism at the background of the efforts conducted by the Zionist organizations in
Tehran to assist the Jewish refugees from the war-torn Europe, the leaders of the
community viewed the Zionist movement and the Yishuv as entities that could help
solve the financial and educational problems of the local community as well. In
addition, with the lack of organizational tradition and a structured leadership, the
notables of the Jewish community of Tehran turned to Zionist emissaries and the
Yishuv establishments for organizing the community life and building its institutions,
and from time to time asked their mediation in the power struggle and disputes
between themselves.
The relation of the Jewish youth to Zionism, a group the Zionist emissaries viewed as
“amenable dough” was also influenced by a series of factors of which ideological
Zionism was only one part. For many young members of the community, Zionism
was an intellectual framework which strengthened their affinity to Jewish
Nationalism and the Hebrew language as a national language. These highly-motivated
youth were determined to work for the benefit of their community and struggle
against its miseries, goals for which they established organizations and conducted
educational and cultural activities. They welcomed the assistance of the Zionist
emissaries as Hebrew teachers but rejected their attempt to dictate the content of the
cultural activity and refused to submit their organizations to their authority. The
Jewish youth in Tehran, aspiring for integration into the Iranian society were
unwilling to accept the leadership of the Zionist emissaries or the kind of Zionism
they preached.
Those who were willing to accept the authority of the Zionist emissaries and join the
organization they established were the youth from the Jewish Quarter. The newlyestablished branch of the “Halutz” movement in Tehran offered the youth of the
Jewish Quarter – mostly children to families of internal immigrants who lived in
economic distress – and alternative to the unequal economic reality and an escape
from the social and religious restrictions. Yet, during most of the period of its activity
in Tehran, the Halutz movement was a framework of socialization with other Jewish
youth where they could study Hebrew and attended lectures about the Zionist
initiatives, projects and achievements. The Halutz movement in Iran did not train
local groups for re-settlement in Israel, and pioneer groups sent by the movement to
establish agricultural settlements in Israel, quickly disbanded. Analyzing the affinity
of the Jewish community of Tehran to Zionism, one is struck by the prominence of
the local context in this relation.
The encounter of the Jewish community of Tehran with Zionism took place within
the context of the development of Iranian Nationalism. On the path of their
integration into the Iranian society, Zionism served for the Jews as an ideological
framework to strengthen their own religious identity and their affinity to the rest of
the Jewish people. The unique character of Iranian Zionism is also expressed by the
characteristics of the activity of the Zionist organizations in Iran. The establishment
of these organizations, their conduct and their status among the community, were all
influenced by the traits of this community. The lack of organizational tradition in the
Tehran community made the establishment of Zionist organizations and coordinating
their activities a difficult task. Moreover, as a minority in a country where the
freedom of speech and the freedom of organization were severely limited and
regulated, the Jews of Iran found it difficult to establish democratic organizations that
could serve as a podium for a free an open discourse.