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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
In 1986 there were an estimated 50,000 Jews in Iran, a decline
from about 85,000 in 1978. The Iranian Jewish community is one of
the oldest in the world, being descended from Jews who remained in
the region following the Babylonian captivity, when the Achaemenid
rulers of the first Iranian empire permitted Jews to return to
Jerusalem. Over the centuries the Jews of Iran became physically,
culturally, and linguistically indistinguishable from the
non-Jewish population. The overwhelming majority of Jews speak
Persian as their mother language, and a tiny minority, Kurdish. The
Jews are predominantly urban and by the 1970s were concentrated in
Tehran, with smaller communities in other cities, such as Shiraz,
Esfahan, Hamadan, and Kashan.
Until the twentieth century the Jews were confined to their own
quarters in the towns. In general the Jews were an impoverished
minority, occupationally restricted to small-scale trading,
moneylending, and working with precious metals. Since the 1920s,
Jews have had greater opportunities for economic and social
mobility. They have received assistance from a number of
international Jewish organizations, including the American Joint
Distribution Committee, which introduced electricity, piped water,
and modern sanitation into Jewish neighborhoods. The Jews have
gradually gained increased importance in the bazaars of Tehran and
other cities, and after World War II some educated Jews entered the
professions, particularly pharmacy, medicine, and dentistry.
The Constitution of 1979 recognized Jews as an official
religious minority and accorded them the right to elect a
representative to the Majlis. Like the Christians, the Jews have
not been persecuted. Unlike the Christians, the Jews have been
viewed with suspicion by the government, probably because of the
government's intense hostility toward Israel. Iranian Jews
generally have many relatives in Israel--some 45,000 Iranian Jews
emigrated from Iran to Israel between 1948 and 1977--with whom they
are in regular contact. Since 1979 the government has cited mail
and telephone communications as evidence of "spying" in the arrest,
detention, and even execution of a few prominent Jews. Although
these individual cases have not affected the status of the
community as a whole, they have contributed to a pervasive feeling
of insecurity among Jews regarding their future in Iran and have
helped to precipitate large- scale emigration. Most Jews who have
left since the Revolution have settled in the United States.
Data as of December 1987
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