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

Tehrangeles: Or Why Eddie Murphy Is Studying Farsi
Monday, March 5, 2007

A few years ago, before taking my wife on a second honeymoon in Iran, I learned that a large number of Iranian Jews had moved to Beverly Hills after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. I made a number of telephone friends in this community who later introduced me around the Jewish community in Iran. Thirty-five thousand Jews still live in Iran, the largest number in the Middle East outside of Israel(All of this is described in comic detail in WHERE GOD WAS BORN, including what happened when I created something of a scandal by introducing my wife in synagogue in Tehran in front of 800 people. No one had ever seen a man introduce his wife in public.)

The Jewish Community in Beverly Hills was so prominent, I was told, that one nickname for L.A. was Tehrangeles. Well, now we know how prominent -- and how large! And how some of their neighbors think about it. A friend tipped me off to the fact that a firestorm erupted recently when the City of Beverly Hills sent out its local election ballot and it was translated into Farsi, the official language of Iran. Farsi! In Beverly Hills. What would Eddie do now!? (The headline in the LAT: "For some, Beverly Hills ballot went to Farsi.")

For the first time, Beverly Hills had translated its entire absentee and sample ballots into Persian. The ballots for the March 6 municipal election, in which two City Council seats are up for grabs, went out this month, and the response was swift.

More than 300 residents phoned the city to complain. City Clerk Byron Pope fielded about 100 of them personally.

"I believe the cover is what shocked the community," said Pope, who had instructed the city's election materials supplier to print the entire ballot, cover to cover, in English and Persian, also known as Farsi. "I believe it was the Farsi script, with the war going on and all," he said.

The translation is the latest measure of the growing Persian influence in Beverly Hills, where Persians now make up about a fifth of the city's 35,000 residents.

The influx, which began in the late 1970s as wealthy Iranians clustered in Beverly Hills after the fall of the shah, has made a mark on many facets of the city, from architecture to the schools.

But it has — as in the case of the ballots — caused friction. Some long-time residents have complained about newcomers tearing down historic homes in favor of what they consider monolithic white "Persian palaces."

At the same time, Persians have flexed their political muscle by holding voter registration drives, electing the first Persian to the City Council in 2003 and making the Persian new year a holiday for students.

Three of the six candidates running for City Council next month were born in Iran, and Councilman Jimmy Delshad will serve as Beverly Hills' first Persian mayor if he wins reelection.

Labels: Islam, Religion in America

Posted by B Feiler at 7:03 AM
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