Life for Jews in Iran is now even more precarious

Iran’s Jewish community has survived by distancing itself from Israel. Yet with the country now at war, their situation is even more precarious.

On Sunday Iran hanged a man accused of spying for Israel, and several others have been arrested since Israel begin attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.

The US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is urging Jewish leaders world-wide to begin planning safe and strategic exit routes for Iranian Jews who wish to leave, warning that time may be running out.

”Given the regime’s history of arresting Jews falsely accused of espionage for Israel and threatening to use the community as human shields in past confrontations with the Jewish state, the community is feeling especially vulnerable at this moment,” said Sharon Nazarian, ADL Senior Vice President for International Affairs.

“Now that the regime has been cornered and weakened, we need to consider this ancient community and the threats it faces.”

Persia, as it was once known, has been a place of both refuge and repression for Jews for more than 2,500 years.

Most of the community left after the 1979 Islamic revolution, but there remain an estimated 15,000 Jews living in Iran, spread between Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan. 

They are an insular community whose lives are marked by secrecy and political censorship.  

“They can’t share anything because it’s so censored,” said Dahlia Shirazi*, the daughter of Iranian Jewish immigrants to Los Angeles. “They completely dodge questions. Many people talk in code. On social media, they have fake names and never share anything political. It’s a very serious situation.”

Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest continuous Jewish communities, stretching back to the Babylonian exile and the rule of Cyrus the Great. Over the centuries, they have experienced alternating eras of tolerance and persecution. 

Under the Shah’s modernising regime in the mid-20th century, Iranian Jews gained a degree of social and economic mobility. But that progress was upended by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Following the execution of prominent Jewish leader Habib Elghanian, a community that once numbered around 100,000 dwindled to less than 25,000. Many left for the US, and some to Israel.

After the revolution, Zionism was outlawed. Any ties with the Jewish State that had been permitted under the Shah were now punishable by severe penalties, including execution.

In the early days of the revolution, Jewish representatives met with the new leader Khomeini to secure a clear distinction between Judaism and Zionism - an effort aimed at protecting the Jewish community under the new regime. 

While Judaism is now constitutionally protected, the criminalisation of Zionism places Iran’s Jews in a precarious position.

Public expressions of Jewish identity - such as operating synagogues, kosher butchers, yeshivahs and schools - are permitted, and religious life has flourished under regime, but any suspected connections to Israel lead to interrogations and arrests.

In 2000, 13 Jews from Shiraz were arrested on false spying charges and threatened with execution. A strong campaign by Iranian-Jewish activists in Los Angeles and the wider Jewish community helped secure their imprisonment instead of execution, and eventual release.

While Jews and other recognised minorities have reserved parliamentary seats, they face restrictions in certain civic and legal matters. Community campaigning has improved some discriminatory practices.

Jewish leaders must strike a careful balance between affirming loyalty to the state and preserving religious identity. Survival requires discretion in a state where politics and religion are inseparable.

Official statements from the Jewish community condemn Israel. One such message, attributed to the Jewish community of Isfahan and recently published in Iranian state media, read: “The Zionists' brutal acts, which are devoid of any human morality…have deeply pained all our hearts. We are confident that the Islamic Republic of Iran, with pride and honour, will deliver a crushing and regret-inducing response to the Zionist regime.”

Statements and actions denouncing Zionism are gestures of loyalty to the regime, understood as necessary for self-protection.

In April, members of Iran’s Jewish community took part in state-organised Al-Quds Day marches. Participants, including Jewish representatives, echoed official slogans supporting Palestinians and opposing Israel, in line with the regime’s messaging.

According to Sam Farhadi*, who left Iran in 1979 and has visited family there almost every year since, Jews in Iran “don't really care about Zionism in a political sense. They don’t care about politics… [but] they love and respect Israel because it’s the holy land.”

Farhadi says Iranian Jews do not face populist antisemitism, but they are frightened of the regime. “The people in Iran are very nice - just the regime is tough,” he said. “No one likes the regime.”

Since recent escalations, communication with relatives in Iran has become difficult, with intermittent phone reception and internet access frequently cut. “Praying to God that the war will be finished,” Farhadi said. “It’s not good for either side. It’s all politics, and I feel sorry for the parents who lose children.”

Despite political constraints and decades of emigration, Iran’s small Jewish community remains resilient. Some stay because of deep roots, family obligations and for economic reasons. They share a strong love for Iran; their home for many centuries. 

“I keep telling them to move,” Farhadi said, “but they have business and family and a lot of things over there and they don’t want to leave.”

Life for Iranian Jews right now is governed by vigilance. “The community is very cautious, and everyone is at home, not going out. Streets are empty for everybody,”  said Sima Bahar*, an Iranian Jewish émigré in Los Angeles with many Iranian connections. “They don’t make waves. They keep to themselves. There’s no problem from the Muslim population.”

Still, the impact is felt in subtle but significant ways. “They are all worried,” said Alina*, a friend of Sima’s, with family still there. “It’s very hard to get kosher food right now. It’s really hard.”

Some in the Persian Jewish diaspora are concerned for their relatives and keep a low political profile, while others see the war as a chance for regime change, and openly support Israel. 

“My mom actually said to me yesterday, ‘If all goes well, as Jews, we might be safer in Iran than in America or anywhere else - if the Shah dynasty were to return,’” said Shirazi, referencing a video circulating online of the Shah’s exiled son calling for revolution. 

Despite everything, Iran’s Jews continue to live, worship, and persevere. They maintain more than a dozen synagogues in Tehran alone, and their presence - diminished but enduring - is a testament to centuries of adaptation.

Today, they make up less than 0.02% of Iran’s population. Despite their difficulties, they remain tied to a land that has been both a home and a hardship for centuries. 

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of those interviewed and their families in Iran