#persian jews

[writtenfoxscreams]

So, I recently learned about the “say their names to save their lives” campaign on social media that has helped Iranians sentenced to die by the regime in the past.

I am now asking you guys for help with that again.

There is an Iranian Jew named Arvin Netanel ben Siona, whose execution date is set for this Saturday. The Iranian Jewish community have tried endlessly to pursue his release, but to no avail.

Please spread his name.

[bobemajses]

Jewish woman from Iran spinning yarn, Jerusalem, 1973.

[leroibobo]

the tomb of esther and mordechai in hamadan, iran. the site is believed by iranian jews and christians to house the bodies of the aformentioned biblical figures, and is an important site of pilgrimage for both. the earliest known account of it was made by the jewish traveller benjamin of tudela in the 11th century.

the interior has been renovated so many times throughout the centuries that the original hebrew inscriptions on the walls have been lost in several paint-overs. what we're left with today is practically gibberish.

[eretzyisrael]

by Dr. Sheila Nazarian

My family immigrated to Los Angeles from Iran when I was a child, fleeing the religious persecution that Jews in Iran are subjected to.I’m thrilled to see the Persian community being recognized for what we bring to the table — for Jews and for America at large. I’ve said for a long time that the American Jewish community has a problem listening to its smaller constituencies, particularly Middle Eastern Jews who don’t vote, act, or look like them. Persian Jews usually hold more conservative positions than the rest of our Jewish counterparts, particularly with regard to foreign affairs and the dangers of radical Islam — but it is because we know these dangers acutely. It did not take the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust for us to see them.

We know these dangers, and have been sounding the alarm about them, precisely because we have lived through and fled them. My family fled Iran, hiding in the back of a pickup truck being shot at by border police, after the Islamic Revolution, when the ayatollahs took the sophisticated, cosmopolitan society I remember from my early childhood and transformed it in a dystopian theocracy that detests women and detests Jews even more. Along with the thousands of other Jewish families who fled, we were among the first victims of the jihadist wave that started then and is still crashing over the world today, with Iran funding the terrorist proxies — from Hamas to Hezbollah — that wreak havoc through the Middle East and hope to do the same to the Western world. 

This is why Persian Jews warn continuously of the evils of radical Islam — we know how it can destroy once-thriving societies until they are unrecognizable, and we know the way this destruction can spread. We understand the pressing, urgent danger that Iran poses to the West, and we understand the need to elect officials and back policies informed by this understanding, even if it means a shift from the traditional American Jewish party line.

[koenji]

Ketubah, Isfahan, Iran, April 9 1886.

Jewish marriage contract, ink and paint on paper. Dated 4th of Nisan 5646.

Bride: Gavahar? bat Ya'akov.

Bridegroom: Me'ir ben Yitshak.

Witnesses: Avraham ben Ya'akov, Nisan ben Eliyahu, and one more."

Red and light blue colored floral illumination surrounds the text. In the center above the text there is a large cypress tree with two lions with a rising sun behind them on either side of the tree, and with two birds above. There is a scalloped arch on the top of the document and two smaller arches framing the text. The frame of the document contains blessings for the bride and the groom. The text concludes with the tosefet (addenda) in which the groom adds to his financial commitments to the bride, written in Judeo-Persian. x

[tributary]

making this it’s own post

[estera-shirin]

Shviti — Persia (Iran), 1900 CE

This beautiful Shviti is from Persia (modern Iran)!

[infiniteglitterfall]

"Well, today's the day. I'm going to steal my older brother's birthright when HE COMES HOME FROM THE FIELDS."

[nonbinary-vents]

I remember that when everything was happening with Noah Schnapp, so many people were saying that ‘he’s a white coloniser!’ ‘he’s clearly European!’ and ‘how are we supposed to think he’s indigenous to the Middle East when he looks like that?!’ They were screaming so much about he couldn’t possibly be from the swana region due to being pale, despite the fact that… wait for it…

Noah Schnapp is a Moroccan Jew.

The exact the same thing happened with Jerry Seinfeld too, despite him being a Syrian Jew.

But what this tells me is that so many American and European leftists fundamentally do not understand what North Africans and Southwest Asians look like. They do not understand that many Middle Eastern groups are pale, many Middle Eastern groups share features with Europeans— I mean, the Middle East literally borders Europe, did you not expect us to have similarities? This stretches back to the ancient world too. We know that in Yehuda there were gingers, as shown by King David*. Iirc, studies on Rameses the second’s remains show that he most likely had an olive tanned complexion and reddish-blondish hair, similar to a European Mediterranean look— which makes total sense seeing as Egypt is literally a Mediterranean country as well

It’s not just Jews. Persians, Kurds, Assyrians, Copts, Amazigh, Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula**, all of these ethnic groups are incredibly diverse in their features, even without any significant genetic influence from other areas. You cannot just project American and European black and white concepts of race onto the Middle East and act as if that is reality. The world is not split into pale people in the north, brown people in the middle, and black people in the south, and if you genuinely believe that then you really need to look at some pictures of the groups that you’re claiming to be the defender of. Please. I’m so tired of this bullshit lol

*I know that the historical evidence for David is shaky at best and we’re not sure if he was real or not (I personally believe it’s a King Arthur sort of situation where there was a real person here that got turned into legend), what I’m trying to say is that if the Ivrim could have a figure like this who was ginger, then the Ivrim clearly had gingers. Nobody come for me please

**not adding other Arabs because there tends to be genetic mixes with other groups, and my point is about how even without distinct genetic markers from each other, middle easterners groups can turn out with a super intense variation in appearance, especially skin tone

[secular-jew]

More @ Persia before the cancer infestation aka ☪️

[bobemajses]

Esther, wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus, and her cousin Mordechai saved the lives of thousands of Jews in Susa from the intrigues of the king’s chief commander, Haman, as described in the biblical book of Esther, and is enacted every Purim in all the Jewish communities of the world. Ecbatana, the former capital of the Medes, and in our times Hamadan, was the summer residence of the Persian kings, to which Esther and Mordechai are said to have retired from the court after the death of Ahasuerus. Here they were buried in a common tomb, which is still the most important Jewish pilgrimage site in Iran.

We do not know how the original tomb looked. The modern building was constructed in 1602, in the time of Shah Abbas the Great. It follows with its double inner space, burial chamber, community room, and the dome crowning the tomb, the type of the Shiite pilgrimage sites erected for the emamzâdehs, the descendants of the holy Imams. As the first picture above shows, in the early 19th century it still stood outside of the city, but by the end of the century the local bazaar flowed around it. Thousands of Jews from Iran and other countries visited this place every year, covering a grueling trip to the desert surrounding Hamadan on foot or with caravan. According to contemporary travelogues, one could approach the tomb only with a local, through a maze of doorways and inner courtyards, with the way to the sarcophagi leading through a small rose garden and an ornate gate.

[leroibobo]

inside the former yu aw synagogue in herat, afghanistan. herat was once home to 6 synagogues - yu aw, at about 350 years old, is the last remaining as most of herat's jews (along with many other afghans) began to flee the country following the 1979 soviet invasion. it was restored in 2007, and is undergoing further restoration as of 2022. it currently houses a preschool.

[artandthebible]

King Ahasuerus Sentences Haman to Death

Artist: Anton Petter (Austrian, 1781-1858)

Genre: Religious Art

Date: 1835

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Viena, Austria

As described in the Book of Esther, Haman was the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. After Haman was appointed the principal minister of the king Ahasuerus, all of the king's servants were required to bow down to Haman, but Mordecai refused to. Angered by this, and knowing of Mordecai's Jewish nationality, Haman convinced Ahasuerus to allow him to have all of the Jews in the Persian empire killed.

The plot was foiled by Queen Esther, the king's recent wife, who was herself a Jew. Esther invited Haman and the king to two banquets. In the second banquet, she informed the king that Haman was plotting to kill her (and the other Jews). This enraged the king, who was further angered when (after leaving the room briefly and returning) he discovered Haman had fallen on Esther's couch, intending to beg mercy from Esther, but which the king interpreted as a sexual advance.

On the king's orders, Haman was hanged from the 50-cubit-high gallows that had originally been built by Haman himself, on the advice of his wife Zeresh, in order to hang Mordecai. The bodies of Haman's ten sons were also hanged, after they died in battle against the Jews. The Jews also killed about 75,000 of their enemies in self-defense.

[koenji]

Ketubah (Jewish marriage contract), Hamadan, Iran 1943. Ink and block print on paper, 14 1/8 × 11 3/4 in. (35.9 × 29.8 cm).

[anartificialsatellite]

It's crazy to me people still believe that shit about how the Jewish population of Iran is so well treated there and will repost the same crappy articles about it from five years ago to support that assertion. Truly asinine.

[estera-shirin]

Ketubbah — Yazd, Persian Empire (Iran) ca. 1890

According to the curator: "The Yazd form of the Ketubah is quite recognizable among Persian marriage contracts. The tree with birds or some other animal on the two sides is the normal decoration. This wedding took place on December 18, 1890 (7 Tevet 5651).

Bride:                                Rachel bat Yitzhak Halevi

Groom:                             Chaim ben Yochanan"