For too long, the world has ignored a painful truth: the Islamic Republic of Iran and the fanatical clerics who control the country have built their identity and ideology on brutal anti-Semitism and intimidation, at the expense of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world.
Long before the ayatollahs seized power in 1979, Jews had lived in Persia for more than 2,500 years – dating back to Biblical times, when they found refuge there after the destruction of the First Temple. More recently, under the Shah Mohammed Reza Pavlavi, Jewish life in Iran, while far from perfect, entered one of the most stable and prosperous periods in modern history—marked by practical legal equality, growing economic opportunity, and a growing sense of security.
Jews were granted civil rights, allowed to participate in government and professional life, and benefited from the Shah’s broader secular reforms that weakened religious discrimination and opened up Iranian society. In the 1970s, the vast majority of Iranian Jews were middle class or affluent, and the community was deeply integrated into the country’s academic, medical, and economic elite. Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses flourished. Iranian Jews were integrated into society and contributed to the country’s economy, culture, and professional life. Tehran had become a thriving center of Jewish life.
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Iranian Jewish men unveil their much-decorated holy scroll from Aron Kodesh room, as part of their daily prayer at a synagogue, Tehran, Iran, on February 13, 2020. (HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
That all changed overnight with the Islamic Revolution.
Even before Ruhollah Khomeini seized power from the Shah, the first Ayatollah, he repeatedly used hateful and emotional rhetoric in his sermons that went far beyond political opposition to Israel and drew on broader anti-Jewish themes, portraying Jews as enemies of Islam and even as a global force opposing it. He claimed that Jews sought world domination and were “against the foundations of Islam,” labeling them as both religious and political enemies who must be fought and suppressed at all costs.
He claimed that international Jewry had supported and supported the Shah and should be punished for the crimes of the overthrown monarchy. This language and the doctrine of scapegoating Jews were fundamental to the Ayatollah’s beliefs and worldview, and it easily blurred the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, embedding hostility toward Jews into the Islamic Republic’s ideological foundation.
The rise of the Islamic Republic’s new mullah regime ushered in a wave of fear and persecution. One of the first and most chilling signs came with the arrest, mock trial and execution of Habib Elghanian, a prominent Jewish industrialist, philanthropist and community leader. He was imprisoned shortly after the Iranian Revolution and accused of “corruption” and ties to Israel – charges widely seen as politically motivated. After a quick and staged one-hour procedure before a ‘revolutionary court’, in which no defense was allowed, the businessman was publicly executed by firing squad in May 1979.
Iranian protesters burn an image of the Israeli flag during an annual rally in front of the former US embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, November 3, 2024, to mark the 45th anniversary of the embassy takeover by Iranian students, sparking a hostage crisis. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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His death sent shock waves through the Jewish community. Elghanian was deeply integrated into Iranian society and connected to the country’s elite. If someone his size could be killed so abruptly, it became clear that no one was safe. His execution was not about justice; it was a warning to Jews throughout Iran and in the Persian diaspora.
And it was heard. In the years that followed, tens of thousands of Iranian Jews fled, leaving behind homes, businesses and a legacy dating back more than 2,500 years, as one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities was quickly emptied. Those who dared to stay faced a new and dangerous reality. Property was seized, surveillance was conducted, and other Jews were similarly arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage and corruption. Community leaders were completely silenced. And an atmosphere of suspicion, intimidation and paranoia became the norm. The regime deliberately drew a dangerous line between Judaism and Zionism, and then blurred it whenever it suited – using accusations of loyalty to Israel as a weapon against its own Jewish citizens.
Even today, Iran’s 8,000 to 10,000 Jews live under a cloud of coercion. Yes, they are technically allowed to practice their religion. Synagogues still stand and Jews are allowed to observe the Sabbath and holidays. But this superficial tolerance masks a deeper truth: their safety is conditional and vulnerable. Iranian Jews must continually prove their ‘loyalty’ to the regime.
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An Iranian Jewish man prays as he stands next to a grave in a Jewish cemetery in southern Tehran, Iran, on February 6, 2025. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
They are often pressured to publicly denounce Israel and Zionism – political litmus tests that no other religious minority must face. In Iran’s Majlis, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the regime maintains the appearance of minority integration by reserving a seat for a Jewish representative, but this parliamentary representation operates under strict political restrictions. The Member of Parliament, Homayoun Sameh Najafabad, should align with the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially on core issues such as Israel and the legitimacy of the regime, limiting any real independence or advocacy. As a result, he is understood to act as a pathetic fig leaf and puppet of the Mullahs, portraying their tolerance while being forced to publicly condemn Israel and the United States.
The consequences if Jews step out of line can be serious. The infamous Shiraz case of 1999 is a stark example. More than a dozen Jews were arrested and accused of spying for Israel – accusations that were widely condemned as unfounded. After an international outcry, some were eventually released, but only after enduring imprisonment, coercion and public humiliation. The message was unmistakable: no one in the Islamic Republic or its Jewish community is out of reach.
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I have seen this cruelty firsthand in my own work. I legally represented the families of twelve Iranian Jews who were kidnapped in 1994 while trying to secure the border from Iran to Pakistan. They simply disappeared – no trial, no acknowledgment of their arrests, no answers.
Years had passed, but their fate remained unknown to the families. Their tortured wives and children lived in a state of painful uncertainty, fearing that some of these men might still be alive, languishing in Iranian prisons, forgotten by the world. Rewards for information on their whereabouts were offered and announced through radio broadcasts. Exhaustive efforts by people inside and outside Iran failed to reveal their circumstances until Israeli intelligence services met with the families now living in Israel in 2007 and informed them that their loved ones were no longer alive.
A billboard depicting Iran’s supreme leaders since 1979: (from left to right) Ayatollahs Ruhollah Khomeini (until 1989), Ali Khamenei (until 2026) and Mojtaba Khamenei (incumbent) is shown above a highway in Tehran on March 10, 2026. Iran marked the appointment of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in March to replace his father as supreme leader. 9, 2026. (AFP/via Getty Images)
This wasn’t just an isolated human rights case – it’s part of a broader pattern. The same regime that jealously oppresses its Jewish minority at home exports its hatred abroad, financing terror and targeting Jewish communities around the world, such as the horrific bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Argentina in July 1994, which killed 85 people and injured more than 300. As such, its anti-Semitism is not rhetorical; it is operational.
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And yet, despite all this, the world too often looks away. There is a tendency to separate Iran’s internal repression from its external aggression, as if they have nothing to do with each other. They’re not. A regime that persecutes and terrorizes its own citizens on the basis of religion cannot be trusted to respect the lives or rights of others outside its borders.
The story of Iranian Jews is one of resilience, but it is also a warning. It reminds us how quickly a thriving community can be reduced to a life of fear and terror. It shows what happens when extremist ideology replaces tolerance, and when the international community fails to hold perpetrators to account and treats their human rights violations as domestic affairs.
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We long for the day when the Jewish community in Iran will rise again – a community that has restored its dignity, security and true prosperity, free from the shadow of persecution.
