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Ayatollah Khomeini and the Jews

(Tablet) Roya Hakakian - In the early days of Iran's 1979 revolution, after the murder of leading Jewish industrialist Habib Elghanian, the Jewish community's leaders visited Ayatollah Khomeini on May 10 in the hopes of receiving his personal guarantee about their safety. Two rabbis and four young intellectuals sympathetic to the revolutionary cause were selected for the task. The ayatollah said: "In the holy Quran, Moses...has been mentioned more than any other prophet....Moses would have nothing to do with these pharaoh-like Zionists who run Israel. And our Jews, the descendants of Moses, have nothing to do with them either. We recognize our Jews as separate from those godless, bloodsucking Zionists." By nightfall, the words: "We recognize our Jews as separate from those godless Zionists! - Imam Khomeini" was painted on the walls of every synagogue, Hebrew school, and kosher butcher. Yet the sea change of laws that swept through the country since 1979 has made it impossible for Jews, or any non-Shiite people, to thrive. There were more than 100,000 Jews living in Iran in the 1970s. Today, no more than 10,000 continue to live there. The writer is a scholar in residence at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.
2015-01-02 00:00:00
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