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The Revolution's Forgotten Sons and Daughters: The Jewish Community in Tehran during the 1979 Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Lior Sternfeld
Lior Sternfeld*
Affiliation:
Department of History of the University of Texas at Austin
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Abstract

The 1979 revolution in Iran was one of the most popular revolutions of the twentieth century. It was supported by all the classes of Iranian society, and crossed social strata, positions, and religious affiliations. A lot is known about the participation of different parts, such as students, urban professionals, religious leaders, bazaaris, and leftists, yet little is known about the participation of Jews in the revolutionary movements. This article sheds light on a little-known event in the life of the Jewish Iranian community and seeks to tell the story of different segments of the Jewish community during the tremulous years of the “Islamic Revolution.” This article examines two main arenas in which the Jews facilitated the revolution—the Society of Jewish Iranian Intellectuals, and the Sapir Charity Hospital in Tehran—and seeks to draw attention to the minorities' contribution to the most important national revolution in Iran.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 6 , November 2014 , pp. 857 - 869
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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References

1 Sanasarian, Eliz, Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge, 2000)Google Scholar.

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6 There is scholarship about Jewish political activity during other periods in modern times. For example, their participation during the Constitutional Revolution (1905–11), or the formation of the Tudeh party in the 1940s and 1950s. For more see Abrahamian, Ervand, Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton, NJ, 1982)Google Scholar; Afary, Janet, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy and the Origins of Feminism, The History and Society of the Modern Middle East (New York, 1996)Google Scholar.

7 This paper is based on three types of sources: first, interviews I conducted between 2010 and 2012, with key figures of the events, who currently live mainly in the US. Bearing in mind the distance from Iran, the years that have passed since the events and the tendency of people to romanticize both the past and their central role, I endeavored to verify almost every fact by documents or other evidence. I also made extensive use of the Iranian Jewish Oral History Project at UCLA. My second type of sources was the Iranian press. I used general Iranian newspapers (such as Keyhan and Ettela‘at) and a communal newspaper, Tamuz. Lastly, I used some personal and archival documents provided to me both by interviewees, and available online from Iran and elsewhere. All the names and identifying details of the interviewees were changed to protect their privacy and safety.

8 Menashri, “The Pahlavi Monarchy and the Islamic Revolution,” 395.

9 Daghighian, Shirin, “Political Life: Jewish Iranian Intellectuals in the Twentieth-Century Iran,” in Esther's Children (see note 2), 265Google Scholar.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid., 272.

12 There were number of leftist and even communist organizations throughout Reza Shah's period, however, they could not be openly active, and were persecuted by the central government. For more about the early forms of leftist activity in Iran see: Behrooz, Maziar, Rebels with a Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran (London, 1999)Google Scholar; Zabih, Sepehr, The Left in Contemporary Iran: Ideology, Organisation, and the Soviet Connection (London, 1986)Google Scholar.

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15 I would like to thank Karmel Melamed for referring me to this interview and contributing from his own knowledge to this research; Melamed, Karmel, “Escape, Exile, Rebirth: Iranian Jewish Diaspora Alive and Well in Los Angeles | Jewish Journal,” http://www.jewishjournal.com/articles/item/escape_exile_rebirth_iranian_jewish_diaspora_alive_and_well_in_los_angeles/ (accessed June 22, 2011)Google Scholar.

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17 In any case, a few months later, in the summer of 1978 they failed to be reelected. Netzer, Amnon, Yehude Iran Be-yamenu (Jerusalem, 1981), 21Google Scholar.

18 Read more about Taleqani and his pivotal role in the revolution in: Dabashi, Hamid, Theology of Discontent (New York, 1993), 216–272Google Scholar.

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21 Ibid., 49.

22 Interview with Simin, March 10, 2011. After World War II the American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee started to support the hospital as well, and made more drugs, immunizations, and facilities available.

23 “Ma Yahudiyan Mizrakhi Hastim Va Fiqh Ghani Darim,” http://www.iranjewish.com/Essay/Essay_36_mizrakhi.htm (accessed July 7, 2011).

24 “Doktor Manuchehr Aliyasi,” http://www.7dorim.com/tasavir/Namayandeh_Eliasi.asp (accessed July 7, 2011).

25 Interview with Dr. Jalali, May 15, 2011.

26 Interview with Dr. Jalali, May 15, 2011.

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30 Interview with Hushang.

31 Ibid.

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33 Ibid., 4.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Netzer, Yehude Iran Be-yamenu, 22.

37 “Neshani az vahdat-i melli dar Bimarestan-e Doktor Sapir,” http://www.iranjewish.com/Essay/Essay_34_farsi_bimarestan_sepir.htm (accessed July 9, 2011).

38 Golesorkhi was identified with some of the guerilla movements. Read more about him in: Behrooz, Rebels with a Cause, 69–70.

39 Interview with Dr. Jalali, 24 May 2011.

40 Interview with Simin, 27 March 2011.

41 David Menashri, “The Pahlavi Monarchy and the Islamic Revolution,” in Esther's Children (see note 2), 396.

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45 Editorial, “Nasl-e javan-e kalimi-ye Iran bidar shodeh ast,” Tamuz (Tehran), May 6, 1982, 3Google Scholar.