Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Jews of Iran
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

I have been to Iran twice this decade, and on both trips I visited the Jewish community. That's right. There are Jews in Iran -- the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside of Israel, as many as 35,000. One of my favorite chapters in Where God Was Born (which, as you can see on the left with our handy new icon, goes on sale next week in paperback) describes my travels in the Jewish community with my wife, including a funny moment when she completely upstaged me after giving a short thank you speech at a local synagogue.

In light of the recent rhetoric about destroying Israel coming from the increasingly ostracized Iranian president, the BBC checks in on the Iranian Jewish community in Israel:

Every day the Voice of Israel radio broadcasts to Iran in Farsi. Twice a week Menashe Amir, a Persian Israeli, hosts a rather unexpected talk show. The callers are all from Iran and the vast majority are Muslim.
The show attracts two to six million listeners everyday from a country where the Jewish community is just 20,000 strong. [ed note: I think this number is low.] "I would say if 10 people are calling us from Iran, only one is talking about destroying Israel or death to Israel," said Mr Amir.
The Iranian callers cannot ring Israel directly. They have to phone a number in Germany which is patched through to the Jerusalem studio.

Labels: Judaism, Middle East

Posted by B Feiler at 9:13 AM
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